AzUpdate S04E05: Azure Kubernetes Service, CIS Certification, Windows Server, and burstable disks.

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: ITOps Talk Blog articles.

This week Pierre is off which means I return as your host with new team member Joylynn Kirui! We got to learn a bit more about Joylynn and her lovely home nation, Kenya.

Let’s jump right into it. This week we’ll cover updates for AKS, Azure Virtual Machines, and Windows Server.

Join us for the Live show on our YouTube channel or watch the live feed or the replay below.

Generally available: Virtual Machine level disk bursting supports additional VM types Virtual Machine level disk bursting supports M-series, Msv2-series Medium Memory, and Mdsv2-series Medium Memory VM families allowing your virtual machine to burst its disk IO and throughput performance for a short time, daily. This enables VMs to handle unforeseen spiky disk traffic smoothly and process batched jobs with speed. There is no additional cost associated with this new capability or adjustments on the VM pricing and it comes enabled by default.

Bursting Bucket

Now available: CIS benchmarks for Kubernetes Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) complies with SOC, ISO, PCI DSS, and HIPAA standards. We have now applied security hardening to AKS based on the Kubernetes CIS benchmark standards and documented the compliance. You can now use the Azure documentation to confirm that AKS meets specific CIS benchmark standards.

CIS benchmarks provide two levels of security settings:

• L1, or Level 1, recommends essential basic security requirements that can be configured on any system and should cause little or no interruption of service or reduced functionality.

• L2, or Level 2, recommends security settings for environments requiring greater security that could result in some reduced functionality.

Public preview: Kubernetes v1.23 support in AKS

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) support for Kubernetes release 1.23 is now in public preview. Kubernetes 1.23 delivers a total of 47enhancements in various stages of maturity. This release includes capabilities such as IPv4/IPv6 Dual-stack Networking going GA.

Generally available: Hotpatch for Windows Server virtual machines You can patch and install updates to your Windows Server virtual machines on Azure without requiring a reboot using hotpatch. This capability is available exclusively as part of Azure Automanage for Windows Server for Windows Server Azure Edition core virtual machines, and comes with the following benefits:

• Lower workload impact with less reboots

• Faster deployment of updates as the packages are smaller, install faster, and have easier patch orchestration with Azure Update Manager

• Better protection, as the hotpatch update packages are scoped to Windows security updates that install faster without rebooting

MS Learn Module of the Week

We chatted about Kubernetes this week so we'd love for you to dive into the Microsoft Learn Module "Introduction to Azure Kubernetes Service."

Determine the types of business problems that can be solved using Azure Kubernetes Service. Describe the benefits of container orchestration with features like deployment management, automatic updates, and self-healing.