What is Azure Automanage?
Azure Automanage automates the configuration and ongoing management of Azure Virtual Machines according to Microsoft best practices. The service automatically configures backup, monitoring, security updates, antimalware and other management services for Windows and Linux VMs.
Instead of manually setting up and configuring each Azure management service, administrators select a configuration profile (Dev/Test or Production) and Automanage automatically activates and configures all relevant services. The service continuously monitors the configuration and automatically corrects deviations (Configuration Drift Remediation).
Automanage also supports custom profiles, allowing organizations to define their own best practices as reusable configuration templates.
Core Features
- Automatic activation of Azure Backup, Update Management and Microsoft Defender
- Predefined profiles for Dev/Test and Production environments
- Configuration Drift Detection and automatic remediation
- Custom profiles for organization-specific best practices
- Support for Windows Server and common Linux distributions
Typical Use Cases
Enterprise VM Fleet: Consistent configuration of hundreds of VMs with uniform backup, update and security policies without manual effort.
Compliance Requirements: Automatic adherence to corporate policies through continuous monitoring and drift correction of VM configurations.
Development Environments: Rapid provisioning of correctly configured development VMs with reduced configuration overhead and consistent baselines.
Benefits
- No additional cost for Automanage itself
- Reduced operational overhead through automated best practices
- Consistent configuration across the entire VM fleet
- Automatic drift detection prevents gradual misconfigurations
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Azure Automanage free?
Yes, the Automanage service itself is free. Only costs for the configured Azure services apply, such as Azure Backup, Log Analytics or Microsoft Defender. These services would incur costs with manual configuration as well.
Which services are automatically configured?
In the Production profile, Azure Backup, Azure Monitor, Update Management, Microsoft Antimalware, Azure Security Center and Boot Diagnostics are configured among others. The Dev/Test profile activates a subset of these.
Can I create custom profiles?
Yes. Custom profiles allow defining your own best practices. You can specify which services should be activated and how they should be configured. These profiles can then be applied to any number of VMs.
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory supports you with Azure Automanage: from defining organization-specific configuration profiles to migrating existing VMs and integrating with your governance strategy.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Azure (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Azure.
