Arc Hybrid Lab

Architecture

Two on-premises Ubuntu servers (simulated locally with Multipass) onboard to Azure Arc, then get governed by free Azure services. Everything below the control plane is reproduced from infrastructure as code.

LOCAL HOST · APPLE SILICON

Multipass — 2 × Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (arm64)

vm-01

Azure Connected Machine agent

tagged env=lab

vm-02

Azure Connected Machine agent

untagged (demo)

▼ HTTPS (443, outbound) · azcmagent

AZURE

Arc control plane

inventory · RBAC · tags

Free

Azure Policy ×3

tag · region · AMA

Free

Update Manager

patch assessment + schedule

Free

Log Analytics

minimal DCR (≤5 GB/mo)

Free

▼ Tailscale mesh VPN (100.x)

OPTIONAL · AZURE VM (B1ls)

Hybrid networking (M9) — ~$2/month, deallocated when idle.

Responsibility boundary

Each tool owns a single, non-overlapping concern.

Terraform

Azure-side resources — resource group, tags, policies, workspace, DCR.

onboard-linux.sh

Runs azcmagent connect inside each VM.

Lynis

Open-source OS security audit — replaces paid Machine Configuration.

Ansible (ansible-lockdown)

CIS hardening enforcement — hardening index 59 → 71.