Check installation and policy paths before declaring Dependency Agent removed

Source facts

Microsoft distinguishes retirement of the VM insights map feature and Dependency Agent from retirement of VM insights itself. Manually installed agents do not appear in the extension inventory, and extension removal does not remove those standalone installations. Manual-upgrade scale sets need an additional instance-update step. Policy assignments or automation can reinstall the agent. Removal stops map-dependent collection, while previously collected workspace data remains subject to its retention policy. Microsoft Learn.

Applicability

Use this check for an approved retirement plan after identifying affected monitoring consumers. The objective is to remove the intended component without confusing loss of map data with loss of all VM monitoring.

DSE recommendation

Reconcile standalone installations, scale-set instances and redeployment policy before accepting Dependency Agent removal. Ask the monitoring owner to identify alerts and workbooks that still expect its data and resolve their replacement or retirement first. Have the deployment owner review configuration that could recreate the component. Keep historical evidence preservation separate from continued collection requirements.

Verification

Pilot the documented removal on a representative nonproduction machine. Check the actual installation and running processes, not just the extension list. For scale sets, verify the intended state across instances. Review the resulting monitoring behavior and return after several days to look for unintended reinstallation. Preserve the responsible policy or deployment evidence if the agent returns; repeating removal without addressing that source is not a completed retirement.

Official references

Microsoft Learn: Remove Dependency Agent. Source reviewed September 9, 2026.