Microsoft has just announced the availability of Azure Linux 3.0 for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), which is now available as a preview on AKS version 1.31. Azure Linux 3.0 was made generally available a few months ago on GitHub; you can see the full release notes here.
Azure Linux 3.0 comes three years after Azure Linux 2.0 (known as Mariner) and includes several upgrades to major components. For example, the Linux Kernel has jumped from version 5.15 to 6.6, Containerd has jumped from 1.6.26 to 1.7.13 (2.0 will be available when ready), SystemD has been upgraded from version 250 to 255, and OpenSSL has gone from version 1.1.1k to 3.3.0.
If you want to use the Azure Linux 3.0 preview in AKS 1.31, you need to register the feature flag in your Azure subscription; you can do that with the following command:
az feature register --namespace Microsoft.ContainerService --name AzureLinuxV3Preview
You can then verify the registration status with the following command. It will take a few minutes for the status to show as Registered:
az feature show --namespace Microsoft.ContainerService --name AzureLinuxV3Preview
When you create new clusters or node pools with the ‘--os-sku=AzureLinux’ option, it will default to using the new Azure Linux 3.0. Microsoft says you can deploy clusters or node pools using a variety of methods, including:
Microsoft said there are three things that people need to keep in mind about this preview:
- Please note that Azure Linux 3.0 Preview is only supported on AKS version 1.31, and hence not supported on AKS versions 1.30 and below. If you register the Azure Linux 3.0 preview feature flag on AKS versions 1.30 and below new AKS clusters and node pools will default to using Azure Linux 2.0.
- Further, during preview existing clusters or node pools running Azure Linux 2.0 cannot be upgraded to 3.0. New node pools or clusters need to be created for Azure Linux 3.0 Preview.
- Finally, Azure Linux 3.0 support is in preview as part of the v20241025 release. Visit the AKS Release Tracker for the latest on which regions are on this release.
Going forward, Microsoft says it will incorporate feedback from the preview period to prepare the general availability of Azure Linux 3.0 on AKS version 1.32.
Source: Microsoft