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2026 (12)

September (5)

azure: [In preview] Public Preview: Flex Nodes for AKS

Azure Updates

2026-09-22

Flex Nodes for AKS is now in public preview. It lets application and platform teams use hybrid and edge infrastructure as connected worker nodes to an AKS control plane in Azure, while keeping a consistent Kubernetes control plane.

aks: Release 2026-09-04

Release notes from AKS

2026-09-09

AKS release v20260904 rolls out Kubernetes 1.37 preview, adds GA autoscaling for VM node pools, and includes updates across gateway, service mesh, CSI, and cloud-provider components. It also introduces several behavioral changes, bug fixes, and retirement notices for VMAS clusters and Azure Linux with OS Guard.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Windows Server 2025 on AKS

Azure Updates

2026-09-01

AKS now supports Windows Server 2025 in general availability, giving customers a newer Windows node option for Windows-based Kubernetes workloads on Azure. This is intended to help with modernization as older Windows Server versions near retirement.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Artifact Streaming on AKS

Azure Updates

2026-09-01

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now supports Artifact streaming with Azure Container Registry (ACR) in generally available form. It is intended to reduce wait time when starting containerized workloads by allowing images to be used before they are fully pulled.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Confidential VMs for Azure Linux

Azure Updates

2026-09-01

Confidential Virtual Machines for Azure Linux in AKS are now generally available. This adds CVM node pool support for migrating highly sensitive container workloads to AKS.

August (6)

aks: AppNet 2026-08-19

Release notes from AKS

2026-08-31

AppNet 2026-08-19 adds public preview availability in more Azure regions, retires AppNet 1.0–1.2, and updates supported versions to Istio 1.28.10, 1.29.6, and new AppNet 1.5 on Istio 1.30.3. The release also includes fixes for cluster validation, gateway CRD conflicts, certificate rotation, multicluster traffic, identity-based updates, cleanup on delete/leave, diagnostics, and clearer error reporting.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Workload identity support for Azure Files CSI driver (SMB) in Azure

Azure Updates

2026-08-28

Azure Files CSI driver for AKS now supports workload identity for pod-level authentication to SMB file shares. This adds an alternative to managed identity for accessing Azure Files from pods.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Connect to AKS clusters using Azure Bastion

Azure Updates

2026-08-26

Azure Bastion integration with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now generally available. It lets customers create a secure tunnel from a local machine through Azure Bastion to an AKS cluster API server.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: eBPF host routing in Advanced Container Networking Services for AKS

Azure Updates

2026-08-24

eBPF Host Routing for Advanced Container Networking Services in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now generally available. It moves packet forwarding and routing decisions into the Linux kernel to improve Kubernetes networking performance.

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Control plane metrics collection for AKS with Managed Prometheus

Azure Updates

2026-08-13

Control plane metrics collection for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Azure Monitor Managed Service for Prometheus is now generally available. It provides native observability into key managed control plane components.

aks: Release 2026-08-07

Release notes from AKS

2026-08-11

AKS release v20260807 adds Node Auto Provisioning support for restricted publicNetworkAccess clusters, global automatic availability zone placement, control-plane-only upgrades to AKS LTS, and GA node pool rollback. It also includes several behavioral changes that can trigger immediate node reimages on Kubernetes 1.37+, plus component and image updates.

July (1)

azure: [Launched] Generally Available: Application Routing with Gateway API

Azure Updates

2026-07-28

Application Routing with Gateway API is now generally available on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). It lets teams use the Kubernetes Gateway API for ingress routing while supporting existing deployments.