Enable Update Management for an Azure VM

Important

Automation Update Management has retired on 31 August 2024 and we recommend that you use Azure Update Manager. Follow the guidelines for migration from Automation Update Management to Azure Update Manager.

This article describes how you can enable the Update Management feature on one or more Azure virtual machines (VM). To enable Azure VMs at scale, you must enable an existing Azure VM using Update Management.

Note

• Azure Update Management onboarding via the portal is no longer available, as the service was retired on August 31, 2024. Existing virtual machines (VMs) utilizing Azure Update Management with the legacy agent will remain operational until February 1, 2025. We recommend that you configure periodic assessment or patch schedules using Azure Update Manager.
• When enabling Update Management, only certain regions are supported for linking a Log Analytics workspace and an Automation account. For a list of the supported mapping pairs, see Region mapping for Automation account and Log Analytics workspace.

Prerequisites

• Azure subscription. If you don't have one yet, you can activate your MSDN subscriber benefits or sign up for a free account.
• Automation account to manage machines.
• A virtual machine.

Sign in to Azure

Sign in to the Azure portal.

Enable the feature for deployment

1. In the Azure portal, select Virtual machines or search for and select Virtual machines from the Home page.

2. Select the VM for which you want to enable Update Management. VMs can exist in any region, no matter the location of your Automation account.

3. On the VM page, under Operations, select Guest + host updates.

   

4. You must have the Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/read permission to determine if the VM is enabled for a workspace. To learn about additional permissions that are required, see Permissions needed to enable machines. To learn how to enable multiple machines at once, see Enable Update Management from an Automation account.

5. On the enable Update Management page, choose the Log Analytics workspace and Automation account and click Enable to enable Update Management. After you've enabled Update Management, it might take about 15 minutes before you can view the update assessment from the VM.

   

Next steps

• To use Update Management for VMs, see Manage updates and patches for your Azure VMs.

• To troubleshoot general Update Management errors, see Troubleshoot Update Management issues.