WAAGENT(1)

📦 version 2.14.0.1, in centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9

💻 WAAGENT(1) — Azure Linux VM Agent 💻

okay so bestie, this is the man page for waagent(1) from the System Administration section, and honestly? she's iconic. she's the Azure Linux VM Agent and she's about to become your new hyperfixation 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

waagent [-verbose] [-force] [-help] [SUBCOMMAND]...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The Azure Linux Agent (waagent) manages virtual machine interaction with the Azure fabric controller. like, she's literally the main character of your VM's relationship with Azure, no cap 💅

Okay so real talk: most subcommands are not meant to be run directly by the user. But some of them are genuinely useful for debugging — think collect-logs, version, and show-configuration — plus deprovisioning. those are the ones you actually get to touch, bestie 🫶

🦋 SUBCOMMANDS 🦋

  • -collect-logs — Runs the log collector utility that collects relevant agent logs for debugging and stores them in the agent folder on disk. The exact location will be shown when run. Want more? Use flag -full for a more exhaustive log collection 👑
  • -configuration-path FILE — Used together with -start or -daemon to specify the configuration file. Defaults to /etc/waagent.conf ✨
  • -daemon -start — Run waagent as a daemon in the background. set it and forget it energy 💀
  • -deprovision — Attempt to clean the system and make it suitable for re-provisioning. ⚠️ WARNING: deprovision does not guarantee that the image is cleared of all sensitive information and suitable for redistribution. like please read that twice, bestie, this one is serious 😭
  • -deprovision+user — Same as -deprovision, but also removes the last provisioned user account. bye-bye user, slay 🫡
  • -register-service — Register waagent as a service and enable it.
  • -run-exthandlers — Run check for updates to waagent and extension handler. Heads up: outputs to /dev/console will be temporarily suspended 🙈
  • -setup-firewall=IP — Set up firewall rules for endpoint IP.
  • -show-configuration — Print the current configuration, including values read from waagent.conf.
  • -help — Display usage information.
  • -version — Show the current version of the agent. iykyk, always good to know ✨

🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

The agent is configured via this file by default:

/etc/waagent.conf

This file contains key=value settings that control agent behavior, including provisioning, disk formatting, resource limits, and certificate handling 💖

Example entries:

Provisioning.Enabled=y ResourceDisk.Format=y
ResourceDisk.MountPoint=/mnt/resource RSA.KeyLength=2048
Logs.Verbose=y

💜 FILES AND DIRECTORIES 💜

  • /etc/waagent.conf — Main configuration file. the blueprint, the vibe blueprint 📝
  • /var/lib/waagent — State files and provisioning artifacts.
  • /var/log/waagent.log — Agent log file. when things go sideways, this is where the receipts live 🔥

🌈 SERVICES 🌈

On systemd systems, the agent runs as:

systemctl start <waagent.service|walinuxagent.service> systemctl
enable <waagent.service|walinuxagent.service>

like literally just start it and enable it, periodt 💅

🍓 EXIT STATUS 🍓

Zero on success, non-zero on error. simple as that, bestie ✨

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

Deprovision before capturing an image:

waagent -deprovision+user && rm -rf /var/lib/waagent && shutdown
-h now

she ate that. clean slate energy 👑

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

systemctl(1), cloud-init(1)

👑 HOMEPAGE 👑

https://github.com/Azure/WALinuxAgent
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-
machines/extensions/agent-linux

Copyright 2018 Microsoft Corporation

🌸 AUTHORS 🌸

Microsoft Azure Linux Team

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this one's from Azure Linux Agent, dated June 2025, straight out of the WAAGENT(1) era — go be amazing with her 💅✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from