Microsoft has announced the ability to enroll Windows Server 2012 / R2 machines for Extended Security Updates (ESU) and pay for them as part of your Azure monthly billing.
New Extended Security Updates (ESUs) enabled by Azure Arc | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
There are many customers now using this option to take advantage of the ARC discounts for ESU’s vs. paying for them with Volume Licensing.
If your servers are still running Windows Server 2012 they may be located in a very secure part of the company and networking could be in question if they can access the Azure endpoints properly.
Here is the link for the full network requirements: Azure Arc network requirements – Azure Arc | Microsoft Learn
Below is a test that can be completed to determine if your server has access to Azure.
The PowerShell command Install-Module is not available on PowerShell 4 which is the default version on Windows Server 2012. You can either download the module from another machine and copy it over to Windows Server 2012, or upgrade PowerShell on the Windows Server 2012.
Windows Server 2012
Save-module -Name AzureArcConnectedAgentManagement<– do this command from a machine that has PowerShell 5, then copy the files to the Windows Server 2012 machine.- Copy the files to: “C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\”
Import-Module "C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\AzureArcConnectedAgentManagement.psm1" -Verbose
Windows Server on Powershell 5 +
Install-Module -Name AzureArcConnectedAgentManagementImport-Module -Name AzureArcConnectedAgentManagement
Run the Test-AzureArcNodeNetworkConnectivity command to see if the network endpoints are open for the ARC agent to be successful.
Test-AzureArcNodeNetworkConnectivity -Verbose -Location C:\temp\connectivity.json -OutPutType RAW
If you would like the results in JSON use -OutPutType JSON.
