Access to OS on Azure Stack

Q. If I purchase an Azure Stack appliance will I have access to the underlying VMs that make Azure Stack run?

A. No. Think of Azure Stack as an appliance, a black box that is locked down. The only access for customers is through the tenant portal and PowerShell to the Azure REST interface. There is no RDP or PowerShell access to the underlying VMs that make Azure Stack function. There is a privileged endpoint that would be used by Microsoft support if there where appliance problems that required low-level access but this is not available to end customers. The goal of the appliance is you do not worry about the operating systems/software/configuration of the appliance, that is all managed for you and you focus is utilizing its capabilities. This also means you cannot install your own agents on the appliance.