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2026 (12)

March (7)

azure: [In preview] Public Preview: Blue-green agent pool upgrade in AKS

Azure Updates

2026-03-25

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now offers a public preview of blue-green agent pool upgrades. The feature creates a parallel node pool with the new configuration so you can validate it before moving workloads, reducing risk from in-place upgrades.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Container network metrics filtering for AKS

Azure Updates

2026-03-24

Azure Container Networking Services (ACNS) for AKS now supports container network metrics filtering in general availability. This lets operators reduce metric volume and focus on operationally relevant data.

azure: [In preview] Public Preview: AKS managed GPU metrics in Azure Monitor

Azure Updates

2026-03-24

AKS public preview adds managed GPU metrics for NVIDIA GPU-enabled node pools. The metrics are exposed automatically into managed Prometheus, giving teams GPU performance and utilization visibility alongside Kubernetes metrics.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Container network logs in AKS

Azure Updates

2026-03-24

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) container network logs are now generally available. The feature adds visibility into pod/network traffic to help diagnose Kubernetes networking issues and failures.

azure: [In preview] Public Preview: Application routing with meshless Istio in AKS

Azure Updates

2026-03-24

Azure AKS preview introduces Application Routing with meshless Istio as a supported ingress migration path after ingress-nginx deprecation, without requiring a full service mesh. It is positioned around Kubernetes Gateway API support and Istio-based routing.

aks: Release Notes - 2026-03-05

Release notes from AKS

2026-03-18

AKS released new Kubernetes patch versions, updated several components and node images, and introduced/expanded features including OTLP gRPC support for Azure Monitor Profile, GA auto-instrumentation, and broader Azure Linux GPU and KAITO support. It also announced deprecations and behavior changes, including retirement dates for Flatcar preview support and deprecation of Kubernetes LTS 1.28.

azure: Retirement: Flatcar Container Linux for AKS (preview)

Azure Updates

2026-03-16

Azure Kubernetes Service support for Flatcar Container Linux for AKS in preview is being retired on June 8, 2026. Users should move to a supported alternative by that date; the preview remains usable until June 7, 2026.

February (5)

azure: Retirement: Managed NGINX Ingress with Application Routing Add-on Retiring November 2026

Azure Updates

2026-02-27

Microsoft will retire the Managed NGINX Ingress used by the AKS Application Routing add-on in November 2026 due to the upstream Ingress-NGINX project deprecating and ending updates after March 2026. Microsoft will provide only critical security patches until 30 Nov 2026, after which the controller is unsupported.

azure: Retirement: Windows Server Annual Channel (preview)

Azure Updates

2026-02-23

Windows Server Annual Channel (Preview) on AKS will retire on May 15, 2026. Users should migrate to Windows Server Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) before that date.

azure: [In preview] Public Preview: Unified tooling in the AKS MCP server

Azure Updates

2026-02-18

AKS MCP Server adds unified tooling in public preview to reduce tool/context overhead when managing AKS MCP servers. Two new tools are introduced: call_az and call_kubectl.

azure: [In preview] Public Preview: Cluster mode for the agentic CLI for AKS

Azure Updates

2026-02-18

AKS agentic CLI adds a public preview “cluster mode” to run diagnostic agents with reduced inherited user permissions and avoid per-user deployments.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Node auto-provisioning support in Azure government and private cloud

Azure Updates

2026-02-18

AKS node auto-provisioning is now generally available in Azure Government and Azure private cloud environments.