Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 17th March 2025, grouped by Azure service. Notably, the AKS updates this time include a pretty significant networking retirement.

For all the updates on Azure platform resources and products - Azure updates from Microsoft

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Azure Backup
• Azure Kubernetes Services
• Azure Load Balancer
• Azure Storage
• Virtual Network Manager

Azure Backup

• Vaulted Backup for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server (GA) : Generally available in 5 regions (including UK South and UK West), public preview in others. Definite enhancement to DB for PostgreSQL backups which were previously only available with the server. Good to see more services coming in to Azure Backup to take advantage of the enhanced resilience and security a Vault can provide.

Rather belated happy new year, and welcome to the first post of 2025!

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 10th February 2025, grouped by Azure service.

For all the updates on Azure platform resources and products - Azure updates from Microsoft

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Azure Data Studio
• Azure Kubernetes Services
• Azure SQL
• Azure Storage
• Azure Virtual Network Manager
• Compute
• Infrastructure as Code

Azure Data Studio

• Azure Data Studio retiring on 28th February 2026 (RET) : ADS is deprecated from February 2025 - Visual Studio Code with the MSSQL extension is the database development tool of choice going forward. SQL Server Management Studio will remain available to handle any incompatibility issues.

Azure Kubernetes Services

• AKS Communication Manager (Public Preview) : AKS Communication Manager simplifies notifications for all your AKS maintenance tasks by leveraging Azure Resource Notification and Azure Resource Graph frameworks. It provides timely alerts on event triggers and outcomes, allowing you to closely monitor your upgrades. In case of maintenance failures, it notifies you with the reasons for the failure, reducing operational hassles related to observability and follow-ups. It is a bit more ‘DIY’ than the annoucement suggests - you have to build a Logic App and then hook it in to the ARN maintenance alerts.
• Parallel image pulls by default in AKS (GA) : By default, AKS versions earlier than 1.31 use serialized image pulls. Starting with AKS version 1.31 preview, AKS defaults to parallel image pulls, which are generally more performant.
• IMDS restriction support (Public Preview) : Currently, all pods on AKS nodes can access the AKS worker node’s Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) endpoint. AKS now offers a managed solution that restricts IMDS endpoint access for customer pods. Only AKS system pods and user pods with host network can access IMDS for retrieving information or authentication. Good enhancement to the security of your AKS clusters.
• New AKS Monitoring Experience (Public Preview) : The new Monitoring experience, updating Insights, provides both basic (free) and detailed insights (with enabled Prometheus metrics and logging), offering a unified, single-pane-of-glass experience. The basic experience is available for all AKS users with no configuration required at all.

Azure SQL

• Azure SQL DB Free offer (GA) : Try 10 Azure SQL Databases free of charge for the life of your subscription. With just a couple of clicks, you can power the application you want to build. This new offer provides 10 databases, each with 32 GB General Purpose, serverless Azure SQL database, and 100,000 vCore seconds of compute free every month. Available for any subscription type, free amount renews monthly.
• Service Endpoint Policies for Managed Instances (GA) : Azure SQL Managed Instance now allows service endpoint policies for Azure Storage accounts, allowing you to deny your managed instances from accessing any storage account outside of a set of pre-approved ones. This security mechanism helps guard your data from unauthorized copying (data exfiltration) or configuration errors, like exporting production data to development accounts.

Azure Storage

• Azure Files provisioned v2 billing model for HDD (standard) (GA) : Brings the provisioned v2 billing model for Azure Files (allowing separate specification of storage, IOPS and throughput) to standard HDD-based storage. Available in UK South and UK West.

Azure Virtual Network Manager

• New Pricing for AVNM (GA) : Pricing has moved from a subscription-based model to VNet-based (charged by number of VNets where AVNM is deployed).

Compute

• 6th Generation Intel-based VMs - Dv6/Ev6 (GA) : Higher performance than previous generations, Azure Boost built-in including a new Microsoft Azure Network Adapter, NVMe interface for disks to boost storage performance. Naturally, these are great for AI workloads :-) Available in UK South but not UK West as yet. Blog post.
• Upgrade Gen 1 VMs to Gen 2-Trusted Launch (Public Preview) : Trusted Launch VMs provide foundational compute security to Azure Generation 2 VMs by enabling Secure Boot and vTPM capabilities. Trusted Launch capabilities protect OS against rootkits, boot kits and enables attestation by measuring the boot chain of VM. Make sure you check out the documentation if you’re thinking of doing this - it’s not recommended for Production workloads at the moment, and there are a lot of prerequisites and potential gotchas. Note also that you can create a new Gen 2 VM without Trusted Launch, but the upgrade only supports moving to Trusted Launch.

Infrastructure as Code

• Terraform Azure Verified Modules for Platform Landing Zone (ALZ) (GA) : Terraform modules for deploying platform landing zones, along with their own Terraform provider. Seems to tie in with a big overhaul of Azure Verified Modules and Landing Zone documentation - check it all out!

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 11th November 2024, grouped by Azure service.

The new Azure updates page is now live (complete with RSS feed - why they could provide that for the updates but not for the new Tech Community platform blogs is a bit beyond me!). Some of the links this week use the old URL format, but they should still work.

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 30th September 2024, grouped by Azure service. Almost back to normal posting cadence :-)

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated
RET = Service retirement

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Application Gateway
• Azure Backup
• Azure Cache for Redis
• Azure DB for PostgreSQL
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Infrastructure as Code
• Network Security Groups
• Virtual Network Manager

Application Gateway

• Azure Application Gateway support for TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will end by 31 August 2025 (RET) : All connections (frontend and backend) to Application Gateway must use Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or later, as support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 on Azure Application Gateway will be discontinued starting 31st August 2025.

Azure Backup

• Azure Business Continuity Center (Public Preview) : Centralised management platform for backup and disaster recovery of Azure resources. Will be replacing the Backup Center, which I think we can probably safely regard as deprecated from this point forward. Supports resources in all regions and a variety of sources and scenarios. (No idea why the title of the page on Azure Updates says Generally Available when it’s clearly still in preview :-)

Azure Cache for Redis

• Smaller Enterprise tier cache instance for Azure Cache for Redis (GA) : Following the very pricy Large Enterprise instances, there’s now a more cost-effective smaller one. Runs on burstables and recommended for dev/test only, but very much cheaper than the other Enterprise tiers.

Azure DB for PostgreSQL

• Online migration from Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Single Server to Flexible Server (GA) : Now out of preview, minimal downtime migration for PostgreSQL Single Server instances.

Azure Kubernetes Service

• gRPC and frontend mTLS now available for Application Gateway for Containers (GA) : Application Gateway for Containers now supports gRPC and frontend mutual authentication (mTLS). With both frontend and backend mutual authentication, end-to-end mutual authentication is now possible. This fills what I considered a fairly significant gap in the functionality of App Gateway for Containers, and brings it more in line with other ingress/gateway solutions.
• Long-term support for Kubernetes version 1.27 and 1.30 in AKS (GA) : K8s v1.30 has now joined 1.27 on the AKS LTS list.
• Open Service Mesh add-on for AKS will be retired on September 30, 2027 (RET) : Istio is (currently) the only option for a ’native’ AKS service mesh add-on going forward.
• Virtual machines node pools support in AKS (Public Preview) : With virtual machines node pools, Azure Kubernetes Service directly manages the provisioning and bootstrapping of every single node. (For Virtual Machine Scale Sets node pools, AKS manages the model of the Virtual Machine Scale Sets and uses it to achieve consistency across all nodes in the node pool.) Virtual Machines node pools allow the capability to add multiple VM SKUs of a similar family (e.g. different D-series SKUs) to a single node pool.
• Latest AKS release (GA) : Some ongoing updates from the last release, plus 1.30 in LTS (see above), and AKS patch versions 1.28.13, 1.29.8, 1.30.4 are now available

Infrastructure as Code

• Transition from Helm Repositories to OCI Artifacts for Storing Helm Charts (RET) : Starting March 30th, 2025, Azure Container Registry will no longer support Helm v2. Therefore, the legacy “Helm repositories” functionality will also be retired. After this date, Azure Container Registry will only support storing Helm charts as Open Container Initiative (OCI) Artifacts. Get your migration sorted out where needed - any Helm charts not stored as OCI Artifacts in ACR will be deleted after 30th March 2025!

Network Security Groups

• Network security group flow logs in Azure Network Watcher will be retired (RET) : Flow logs to be retired on 30/9/27, but you won’t be able to create new ones from 30/6/25. Migration path is to virtual network flow logs, and a migration process is available.

Virtual Network Manager

• Azure Virtual Network Monitoring IP address management (Public Preview) : This feature (part of Virtual Network Manager) is designed to streamline and optimise your IP address management, providing you with greater control and efficiency. Tracking IP address use in VNets and subnets to avoid clashes can be tricky in Azure, and if you’re using services such as Private Endpoints which can dynamically assign IP addresses, it gets even harder - something like this could be helpful and maybe remove the need for manual tracking of IPs. Preview available in UK South but not UK West.

And finally, goodbye to Azure Orbital Ground Station, which is being retired on 18th December 2024. Not my usual focus, but I couldn’t let it pass without a note!

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 17th June 2024, grouped by Azure service. I managed to miss a week as the Azure Updates site is currently undergoing maintenance (so the RSS feed isn’t updating) and I’ve only just found its temporary replacement.

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated :-)

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• Azure DB for PostgreSQL
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Azure Landing Zones
• Azure Resource Manager
• Azure SQL
• Compute
• Virtual Network Manager

Azure DB for PostgreSQL

• IOPS scaling for Flexible Server (GA) : This feature empowers you to dynamically scale your IOPS based on your workload needs. Ensure optimal performance during high-demand operations like migrations or data loads and scale down to save costs when demand decreases.

Azure Kubernetes Service

• kube-egress-gateway (GA) : kube-egress-gateway is an open-source project that offers a scalable and cost-efficient solution for configuring fixed source IPs for Kubernetes pod egress traffic on Azure.
• OS Security Patch channel for Linux in AKS (GA) : SecurityPatch now added to the channels for node OS image upgrades in AKS.
• az command invoke in AKS (GA) : Invoke a command (e.g. running kubectl) remotely in a private cluster through the AKS API, without connecting directly to the cluster. This can be done from a client that isn’t on the cluster’s private network. Access to the command invoke command is controlled through RBAC permissions.
• Kubernetes patch version 1.27.13 now available in AKS (GA)

Azure Landing Zones

• Zone Redundancy and Multi-Region Capabilities in Azure Landing Zones : Being integrated into Bicep and Terraform accelerators by EoY 2024.

Azure Resource Manager

• Change Actor (GA) : Identifying who made a change to your Azure resources and how the change was made just became easier! With Change Analysis, you can now see who initiated the change and with which client that change was made, for changes across all your tenants and subscriptions. Accessed via the Azure Resource Graph.

Azure SQL

• Advance Notifications for Managed Instance (GA) : Get alerts for planned maintenance events 24 hours ahead of time. Works with SQL Maintenance Windows. Configured via Service Health in the Azure Portal.

Compute

• Windows Server 2025 (Public Preview) : Previewing Windows Server 2025 images for VMs

Virtual Network Manager

• Azure Virtual Network Manager mesh and direct connectivity (GA) : Deploy mesh or hub and spoke network topologies for VNets through VMM without having to set up all the peerings manually.

Summary of Azure snippets for the week commencing 6th May 2024, grouped by Azure service.

GA = Generally Available
Public/Private Preview = as stated :-)

Azure services with highlighted updates this week:

• API Center
• Azure DB for PostgreSQL
• Azure Kubernetes Service
• Azure Resource Graph
• Azure Storage
• Cloud Services (classic)
• Defender for Cloud
• Virtual Network Manager
• Virtual Networks

API Center

• API Center (GA) : A centralised solution for delivery, consumption and governance of APIs. Provides (among other features): cataloguing and inventory of APIs (including from APIM), governance and design rule enforcement, API Analysis for consistency and compliance, and a Visual Studio Code extension for an enhanced developer experience. More full featured than I thought - is this the future of the APIM developer portal?
  • Azure API Center GA blog post

Azure DB for PostgreSQL

• Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server enhanced disaster recovery features (GA) : Enhancements to the read replicas feature - Virtual Endpoints and promote a read replica to primary server
  • Virtual endpoints for read replicas
  • Promote to primary server
• Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server networking with Azure Private Link (GA) : Private Link joins VNet integration as a supported private VNet access method for PostgreSQL Flexible Server
  • Networking with Private Endpoint docs

Azure Kubernetes Service

• Initialization taints (Public Preview) : Temporary taints on AKS nodes, for example if more time is needed to set up nodes
  • Node initialisation taints docs

Azure Resource Graph

• Azure Change Analysis - New Portal experience (Public Preview) : See all resoure changes across all tenants and subscriptions in the Azure Portal. New portal experience includes filtering, grouping and Change Actor (who made the change and how)
  • View resource changes in the Azure portal (Learn)
  • Change Actor (public preview)

Azure Storage

• Azure Storage Actions (public preview) : Serverless and no-code framework for managing storage operations. Currently supports operations on Blobs in Storage Accounts, and isn’t available in UK regions yet.
• SLA on Blob Storage Cold Tier (GA) : Cold tier Blob storage now backed with a Microsoft uptime and connectivity SLA.

Cloud Services (classic)

• Cloud Services (classic) deployment model is retiring on 31 August 2024 : Migrate to Cloud Services (extended support) if you need to keep using them
  • Five classic networking services which depend on classic Cloud Services are also being retired

Defender for Cloud

• Azure Defender for Microsoft Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server (GA) : Part of the Defender for open-source relational databases plan which includes MySQL and MariaDB as well. I have no idea why they refer to it as Azure Defender (the old name for Microsoft Defender for Cloud) here!
  • Azure DB for PostgreSQL docs - Defender for Cloud support

Virtual Network Manager

• Virtual Network Manager UDR (Public Preview) : Enabling users to describe their desired routing behavior via configuration, simplifying the management of routing behaviors at scale.
• Azure Virtual Network Manager security admin rule (GA) : Empowering users to enforce security rules across their virtual networks globally.
  • Security admin rule concepts

Virtual Networks

• Virtual network flow logs (GA) : New capability of Network Watcher, enhancing the flow log support already available for NSGs to the VNet scope
  • Azure Networking blog announcement
  • VNet flow logs
• Virtual Network encryption in all regions (GA) : Customers can enable encryption of traffic between Virtual Machines and Virtual Machines Scale Sets within the same virtual network and between regionally and globally peered virtual networks. This new feature enhances the existing encryption in transit capabilities in Azure.
  • Virtual Network encryption docs