VM Agent and Extensions Part 1 Blog One of the new features announced recently for Windows Azure Infrastructure Services is the VM Agent. The VM Agent is a light weight process intended to bootstrap additional solutions, offered both by Microsoft and partners, for configuring, managing, and accelerating Virtual Machines. The goal of this blog is to describe about VM Agent and how it relates to VM Extensions, their benefits and usage. Should I remove Microsoft Monitoring Agent by Microsoft Learn how to remove Microsoft Monitoring Agent from your computer. Microsoft Agent Scripting Software is an easy to use software that helps you in creating MS Agent Script. I keep getting this error message after start up, any clues on what to do to get rid of itI have been unable to receive windows updates because everytime I try Im told that a new Windows Update software needs to be installed first. The windows update. Latest bug fixes for Microsoft Windows, including fixes for some possible DoS attacks. Get fast, free assistance preview our new Virtual Agent today. Ask the Virtual Agent. While part 1 of the blog focuses on enabling VM Agent and Extensions on new Azure VMs, part 2 focuses on extending this to existing VMs. What are VM Extensions Before discussing about VMExtensions, lets look at how additional software gets onto Iaa. S Virtual Machines today. Some of the common ways for installing managing software on the VMs are 1 Preinstalling it on the disk before creating a VM 2 Logging onto the VM and manually installing it from the there. Installing via remote Power. Shell etc 4 Update Management and  healthstatus reporting using a combination of tools. This is where VM Extensions simplifies VM Management. VM Extensions are software components that extend the VM functionality and  simplify various VM management operations. Multiple VM extensions can be installed on any given VM and they can be added, updated and removed from the VM independent of the lifecycle of the VM. The status of the VM and its extensions can be viewed and managed from a single location. Here is a view of the VM with extensions Who authors these ExtensionsThe extensions are authored, published and supported by Publishers who are registered with Microsoft. Every extension will carry the publisher information. This blog is focused on how to add Extensions to a VM but in future blogs well talk about the extension publishing process. What are the current available Extensions Currently there are two Iaa. S VM  Extensions published by Microsoft BGInfo and VMAccess. Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for VMware AirWatch. BGInfo    BGInfo is an extension that writes useful server information to the desktop as a wallpaper. If you create VMs from Portal you already get this extension. Once Bginfo is enabled, the VM desktop  has a wallpaper like this If you want to add it manually there is handy cmdlet Set Azure. VMBGInfo. Extension. KB/graphics/csharpSapiwithAgent/topimage2.jpg' alt='Microsoft Agent' title='Microsoft Agent' />Details of using this cmdlet can be found using the MSDN documentation here. Get Azure. VM Service. Name Name Set Azure. VMBGInfo. Extension Update Azure. Ballon De Rugby'>Ballon De Rugby. VM Read the extension Reference. Name and Version from the output of the following cmdlet Get Azure. VM Service. Name Name Get Azure. VMBGInfo. Extension Get Azure. VM Service. Name Name Set Azure. VMBGInfo. Extension Reference. Name Version Disable Update Azure. VM LogoffLogin is required sometimes to disable Bginfo. Note If you are already a Bginfo user, then you might want to note that the Extension Version of BGfino does not support modifying Bginfo settings on the VM yet. VMAccess   If you have previously lost your Iaa. S VM password, you know there is no way to recover it. Similarly if the RDP settings of the VM are broken there is no easy way to fix it. VMAccess addresses these two scenarios. For password VMAccess provides a mechanism for the user to get back on the VM by resetting the password and also user name. Once you are able to log in with this reset password, it is recommended to change the password. Details of using cmdlet can be found in the MSDN documentation here. Here are the scenarios for VMAccess. Get Azure. VM Service. Name Name Set Azure. VMAccess. Extension User. Name Password Update Azure. VM Specify a new value for User. Name if you want to change the username, if not use the existing one. Manual For Binatone Phone Instructions. Get Azure. VM Service. Name Name Set Azure. VMAccess. Extension Update Azure. Delphi 2005 Enterprise on this page. VM Calling Set Azure. VMAccess. Extension with no parameters fixes any broken RDP settings. After the extension is enabled, to fix RDP settings in future either call the cmdlet again or restart the VM. Read the extension Reference. Name and Version from the output of the following cmdlet Get Azure. VM Service. Name Name Get Azure. VMAccess. Extension Get Azure. VM Service. Name Name Set Azure. VMAccess. Extension Reference. Name Version Disable Update Azure. VM LogoffLogin to the VM to disable VMAccess. What are the pre requistes for enabling VM Extensions Enabling VM extensions has one simple pre requisite create an Iaa. S VM by enabling the VMAgent. When you create a VM from portal or the latest Azure Powershell, VMAgent is enabled by default unless its manually disabled. Note Part 2 of the blog will describe how to enable VMAgent on existing VMs and on VMs created from disks. Whats next for VM Extensions Hopefully the blog so far has given you a peek into how VM Extensions can be used to turn on and turn off additional functionality on the VMs. Bginfo and VMAccess are the first ones out there and we hope to have a few more in the coming months. Stay tuned and hope youll come back to this blog to learn more about any new VMExtensions. What about Extensions for Cloud Services Though this blog is focused on Virtual Machines, I want to add that the Extensions are applicable for Cloud Service VMs as well and a couple of them are already available, RDP and WAD extension for Cloud Services. In upcoming blogs well discuss more these and other new Cloud Services Extensions.