Guest Configuration Extension for Linux

The Guest Configuration Extension for Linux configures the Guest Configuration Agent on VMs. Together, they allow a customer to run In-Guest Policy on their VMs, which gives the customer the ability to monitor their system and security policies on their machines. In-Guest Policy for Linux currently uses policies found on Chef InSpec.

1. Deployment to a Virtual Machine

To deploy the Guest Configuration Extension for Linux onto your machine, run:

$ az vm extension set --resource-group <resource-group> --vm-name <vm-name> \
    --name ConfigurationForLinux --publisher Microsoft.GuestConfiguration --version 0.8.0 

2. Commands Guide

The Guest Configuration Extension for Linux supports five commands -- install, enable, update, disable, and uninstall. To run any of these commands, go to the path: /var/lib/waagent/Microsoft.GuestConfiguration.ConfigurationForLinux-<version>/bin, and run:

$ guest-configuration-shim <command name>

Install

Install does not do anything in itself, but when the Guest Configuration Extension is installed, Enable will be called immediately aftwards.

Enable

Enable handles the configuration of the Guest Configuration Agent. It handles the unzipping of the Agent package and then installs and enables the Agent.

Update

Update will update the Agent Service to the new Extension. It parses the path of the old Agent, and gives it to the new Agent, so that the agent can update the service endpoint.

Disable

Disable disables the agent and returns the status to the user.

Uninstall

Uninstall uninstalls the agent, and then the Guest Agent removes everything from the box.

3. Troubleshooting

The agent is downloaded to a path like: /var/lib/waagent/Microsoft.GuestConfiguration.ConfigurationForLinux-<version>/GCAgent/GC and the Agent output is saved to stdout and stderr files in this directory. Please read these files to find out output from the agent.

You can find the logs for the extension at a path like: /var/log/azure/Microsoft.GuestConfiguration.ConfigurationForLinux.

Please open an issue on this GitHub repository if you encounter problems that you could not debug with these log files.

4. Future Plans

The Guest Configuration Extension for Linux will be made cross-platform to support both Linux and Windows VMs. It will support all Azure endorsed distributions.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.