50 updates from Microsoft Azure.
AKS will now provision and manage a StandardV2 NAT Gateway for clusters using an AKS-managed virtual network.StandardV2 is now the default managed NAT Gateway SKU for new clusters in supported…
Anyscale on Azure is now Generally Available. Anyscale on Azure is a managed platform for running distributed Python workloads on Ray. It deploys directly onto your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)…
Beginning September 30, 2027, support for the pod name dimension on the following Azure Monitor platform metrics is retiring, and these metrics are transitioning to aggregate pod counters:Number of…
Teams running Ubuntu node pools on AKS need to stay current with Ubuntu LTS releases, but each OS transition can introduce package footprint, security, and compatibility concerns. Ubuntu 26.04…
Flex Nodes for AKS is a deployment option for application and platform teams to use hybrid and edge infrastructure as connected worker nodes to an AKS control plane in Azure. Flex Nodes provide a…
Confidential Virtual Machines (CVM) offer strong security and confidentiality for tenants. CVM for Azure Linux in AKS is now generally available and enables node pools with CVM to target the…
Organizations running Windows-based workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) face increasing pressure to modernize as support timelines for older Windows Server versions approach retirement. To…
You can now accelerate your containerized workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using Azure Container Registry (ACR) with Artifact streaming. Artifact streaming will allow you to scale your…
The Azure Files Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now supports workload identity for pod-level authentication to SMB file shares. Previously, managed identity…
Azure Bastion integration with Azure Kubernetes Service is now generally available. Customers can establish a secure tunnel from their local machine through Azure Bastion to an AKS cluster API…
eBPF Host Routing in Advanced Container Networking Services for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now generally available. eBPF Host Routing improves Kubernetes networking performance by moving…
Control plane metrics collection for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), powered by Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus, is now generally available.This capability gives AKS customers native…
Managing ingress routing while adopting newer Kubernetes standards can require balancing modernization efforts with existing deployments. Application Routing with Gateway API is now generally…
Organizations running large-scale, AI, GPU, Windows, and other performance-sensitive workloads on AKS often experience longer node startup times because new nodes must repeatedly download container…
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now generally supports Encryption in Transit (EiT) for Azure Files NFS v4.1 volumes through the Azure File CSI driver. With EiT enabled, data transferred between AKS…
Application Gateway for Containers is extending its ingress gateway feature set with new AI gateway capabilities. The new inference gateway capability brings the Kubernetes Gateway API Inference…
We previously announced the availability of Application Gateway for Containers and the Application Gateway for Containers AKS Add-on for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). At that time, one limitation…
Troubleshooting Kubernetes networking issues is often slowed by logs and metrics scattered across multiple tools, requiring engineers to manually correlate signals during incidents. The Container…
WireGuard in‑transit encryption is now generally available for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters using Azure CNI powered by Cilium and Advanced Container Networking Services (ACNS). This…
Azure Monitor provides a complete set of services for monitoring the health and performance of different layers of your Kubernetes infrastructure and the applications that depend on it.Azure Monitor…
Azure Backup now provides a simplified experience to configure backup for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters using a single Azure CLI command.Enabling backup for AKS clusters through CLI…
On June 30, 2027, we'll retire Ubuntu 22.04 on Azure Kubernetes Service. To avoid disruptions, transition to Ubuntu 24.04 or later by that date. Newer supported versions include kernel updates and…
AKS now supports managed and user-assigned StandardV2 NAT Gateway as an outbound type for your AKS managed or BYO VNets. This unlocks zone-redundant outbound connectivity, up to 100 Gbps outbound…
When clusters exhaust available pod IP addresses, teams have historically been forced to rebuild environments to restore capacity, creating operational disruption. Pod CIDR expansion allows…
Organizations that use HTTP proxies to control outbound traffic often need to change or remove those settings as network requirements evolve, which can be disruptive in running clusters. Azure…
On March 31, 2027 Azure Monitor will be deprecating the sidecar for remote-write of Prometheus metrics to Azure Monitor Workspace. This is as part of our ongoing efforts to improve reliability and…
In‑place node pool upgrades can introduce risk by applying changes directly to running environments. Blue‑green agent pool upgrades create a parallel node pool with the new configuration, allowing…
Teams running GPU‑backed workloads often lack integrated visibility into GPU utilization alongside Kubernetes metrics. AKS managed GPU metrics automatically expose performance and utilization data…
Containerized workloads often require higher and more consistent storage performance without managing large numbers of individual disks. Azure Container Storage integration with Elastic SAN allows…
As Kubernetes environments scale across regions and clusters, IP‑based networking becomes difficult to manage and provides limited application‑level visibility and security controls. Azure Kubernetes…
Troubleshooting Kubernetes networking issues is often slowed by logs and metrics scattered across multiple tools, forcing engineers to manually correlate signals during incidents. The container…
Organizations running applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters often face challenges with performance, global service discovery, and observability due to the complexity of distributed…
Network observability can generate large volumes of metrics, making it difficult for teams to focus on data that is operationally relevant. Container network metrics filtering in Azure Container…
Following the deprecation of ingress‑nginx, Kubernetes operators need a supported, standards‑aligned migration path for ingress without the complexity of a full service mesh. Application Routing with…
Networking issues in Kubernetes environments can be difficult to diagnose due to limited visibility into traffic flows and insufficient context around failures. Container network logs in Azure…
Azure Kubernetes Service support for Flatcar Container Linux for AKS (preview) will be retired on June 8, 2026, transition to a supported alternative by that date. From now to June 7, 2026, you can…
The upstream Ingress-NGINX project is being deprecated and will stop receiving updates after March 2026. Microsoft will continue providing critical security patches through 30 November 2026, after…
Windows Server Annual Channel (Preview) on AKS will be retired on May 15, 2026, please transition to Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) by that date. We encourage you to transition to Long Term…
Node auto-provisioning enabled clusters previously did not have support for Encryption at Host and disk encryption sets. This limited users with certain security requirements for their cluster to not…
Customers previously could not enable LocalDNS on clusters that used Node auto‑provisioning in AKS, limiting their ability to use this feature in those environments. LocalDNS is now generally…
Node auto‑provisioning removes the need for teams to manually size and manage compute resources for Kubernetes workloads. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now provides general availability support for…
Managing AKS MCP servers can be affected by the number of tools and the amount of context required, which can increase latency and cost. The unified tooling for the AKS MCP Server introduces two new…
Users often face security and manageability challenges when diagnostic agents inherit broad user permissions, such as cluster-admin rights, and when each user must deploy their own instance. Cluster…
Kubernetes version 1.34 is now generally available for AKS. This release introduces 58 upstream enhancements, including 23 Stable features, 22 Beta features, and 13 Alpha features.These enhancements…
Azure Container Storage v2.1.0 is now generally available. This release adds native Elastic SAN support and introduces a lightweight, on-demand installation model to simplify deployment and…
At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we announced the Public Preview of the Azure Command Launcher for Java, a new JVM launcher optimized specifically for Azure. This tool provides better default ergonomics for…
Organizations deploying workloads on Kubernetes often need a consistent way to enforce pod security configurations across clusters. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now supports Pod Security Standards…
Customers upgrading AKS clusters often need a clear and flexible path to adopt new OS versions without disrupting workloads. Ubuntu 24.04 is now generally available on AKS starting with Kubernetes…
Ubuntu 24.04 is now generally available on AKS in Kubernetes version 1.32 and above. Containerd 2.0 is enabled by default. Ubuntu 24.04 is default with `Ubuntu` OS Sku in kubernetes version 1.35 and…
The new cloud-native apps on Kubernetes pricing calculator scenario allows teams to estimate the total cost of ownership for a production-ready AKS cluster with other key Azure services, including…