Windows Server Roles in Azure Virtual Machines

Most Windows Server roles are supported for use in Azure Virtual Machines (Azure VMs). In particular, the DHCP Server and Windows Deployment Services roles are redundant to, and would not interoperate well with, existing functionality offered within Azure VMs.

Azure VMs itself is based on a hypervisor hosted in Azure, so it does not support layering an additional hypervisor such as Hyper-V, although this could arrive later in 2016, as Windows Server 2016 does support this type of scenario. DirectAccess is intended to provide connectivity to on-premises servers without requiring a virtual private network, but it is not necessary since Azure VMs instances are Internet-facing.

Microsoft offers Rights Management Services (RMS) through the Azure Information Protection service and likely prefers that customers use that service instead of hosting RMS in Azure VMs.

Azure Active Directory (AAD) Domain Services can deliver most of the on-premises Windows Server Active Directory (AD) functionality to Azure VMs and services running in Azure. AAD Domain Services can remove the requirement for server applications to directly connect to an on-premises AD or deployment of AD domain controllers in Azure VMs. Although the service could simplify deployment of existing server-based applications in Azure, it requires ongoing usage fees.