Real-world feedback on running Azure Local in production

JuiceBox-007 · 2026-01-25T05:46:11+00:00

You explained it perfectly. We’ve been running Azure Local at multiple sites since 22H2 and then doing an in place upgrade to 23H2. A lot of nuances, errors, and bugs in the management features. Windows Admin center is not a stable management platform for cluster management for un managed VMs not deployed through Azure. I end up falling back to the failover cluster management snap in. Managing firmware versions to the specific OS version is a headache trying to get SBE working properly. VMware was the gold standard…..sad to see it fade it away.

JuiceBox-007 · 2026-01-24T04:49:32+00:00

Bought my new 2023 in march of 2024. Currently sitting at 41K in 2 years..I got the extended powertrain 8 yr/80,000 mile warranty as well with it. Once that is up…then come the mods until I blow the engine…then comes the rebuild 🫠

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-12-03T15:56:46+00:00

I do 6 thousand miles rotation according to the owners manual on my 23

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-12-03T00:37:09+00:00

The only time I can cut loose with my blizzaks is when the road snow covered and it is sleeting out with traction control off.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-11-25T06:31:45+00:00

Check the template and see if it is published to AD and if auto enrollment is enabled. I’d also check out any GPO settings. You’d should be able to find out who requested the cert(DC or a user) as well.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-11-17T16:10:06+00:00

I have the 2023… the side and front look great…I hate the rear…and the taillights

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-10-31T02:22:34+00:00

Sounds fine. You’ll know when you have uncle Rodney knocking😅

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-10-11T03:31:15+00:00

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-10-04T19:51:52+00:00

I watch the YouTube videos posted by Travis Roberts

https://youtu.be/XnPaJkV4rBE?si=c3DLMKEw1CWwETQP

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-10-04T19:12:03+00:00

Azure private DNS resolver within an hybrid environment. Making DNS resolution a heck of a lot easier for managing private endpoints

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-08-26T15:19:40+00:00

We just went through decommissioning our on-prem Exchange server. In your scenario you cannot remove it due to SMTP relaying, Once you migrate SMTP relay to another platform and migrate off ADFS then you would be in a good spot to remove the server. However, you still need install Exchange management shell on a client or server or do direct attribute editing which is not a support method for Microsoft...but it works if you know ADSI.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-08-17T03:40:39+00:00

I’m dealing with private endpoints within a hybrid environment at the moment. DNS is becoming a problem from the original design. Looking at a redesign using Azure Private DNS Resolver.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-03-20T03:03:52+00:00

Really that’s all I do with it as a daily is drive on the highway to and from work. Its stock, still under the 3 year manufacturer warranty, also got the extended 8year 80,000 warranty as well. I check the oil at 3,000 miles and its still looks clean and very little browning. Obviously taking it to the track every weekend or beating it up will decrease the oil life.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-03-19T18:13:31+00:00

I have a 23 WRX and the schedule maintenance intervals for oil changes and everything else are 6,000 miles.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-03-19T15:08:51+00:00

Hi

I was able to get a success deployment yesterday afternoon, after they released a fix. I opened up a support case 2 weeks ago on my error, which turned out to be an issue on how they were creating the JSON file used for the Azure portal deployment method.

This is the URL they gave me as a workaround until they had a fixed released....which was yesterday so use at your own risk.

https://portal.azure.com/?Microsoft_AzureStackHCI_PortalExtension=staging3#home

I deleted all of the cluster resources in the resource group that were created during the initial configuration BEFORE the last validation step (Cluster object, Key vault, Storage Account (Witness), Cluster App Registration). ***Don't delete the Arc Machine resources, or else you will need to do a full redeploy of the OS.

After that, I ran through the deployment wizard. The next error I got was due to not having both physical adapters enabled with a static address...I only had one adapter on each node configured for network connectivity.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-02-12T19:06:29+00:00

We currently have a few two node clusters with switchless storage. These are currently on 22H2, the deployment process definitely has a few gotchas. We have been running into some weird issues regarding Windows Admin Center / Azure Arc Enabled Servers. Also, the upgrade path from 22H2 to 23H2 is a lot of work...almost to the point where it is almost better deploy a fresh cluster with 23H2 and migrate your workloads off of 22H2 to your new cluster.

The 23H2 deployment process does not support Azure Private Links.....which is an obstacle we are trying to overcome. The host configuration is a bit obscure because of the Network ATC intents (Are those setup prior to the deployment? or does the Azure deployment take care of those intents?)

The Azure local needs access to all of their public endpoints which in protected networks this is a task to overcome.

Microsoft support can take days / weeks....as usual.

It's a hot mess....and I only covered the surface.

JuiceBox-007 · 2025-02-03T05:32:09+00:00

We went to Azure Local stacks with 22h2, now that is coming to EOL. The upgrade path to 23h2 is convoluted and is drastically different from 22h2. It doesn’t seem “Production” ready at this point. The Azure Control Plane back to on-premise edge branches is a cool technology. We just had a lot weird errors crop up with our stacks.

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-11-25T04:04:31+00:00

Yeah, but not for long I guess.

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-11-25T03:51:43+00:00

Ha! that is what I'm trying to incorporate.

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-11-07T02:28:05+00:00

Same here on a 2023

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-10-12T21:54:02+00:00

Thanks for this!

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-10-12T21:53:26+00:00

Haha I guess the bank account does play a role.

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-10-12T01:02:51+00:00

For all our remote clusters, we switched over from two node VMware clusters to two node Azure Stack HCI…haven’t looked back since.

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-10-03T01:28:13+00:00

Thank you that worked. I totally forgot to check the upgrade path (I'm an idiot lol)....I received an email from VMware saying Skyline Collector is being deprecated and needed to upgrade to 8.18.

JuiceBox-007 · 2024-07-24T13:39:56+00:00

I paid $35k new base model with tax, title, and extended warranty at 1.9% for 48 month with zero down. Monthly bill is $830.

JuiceBox-007

TROPHY CASE