Launching the Arc Jumpstart Newsletter: October 2024 Edition
We are excited to kick off this monthly newsletter, where you can get the latest updates on everything happening in the Arc Jumpstart realm. Whether you are new to the community or a regular Jumpstart contributor, this newsletter will keep you informed about new releases, key events, and opportunities to get involved in within the Azure Adaptive Cloud ecosystem. Check back each month for new ways to connect, share your experiences, and learn from others in the Adaptive Cloud community.Generally Available: Transition to WS2012 / R2 ESUs enabled by Azure Arc from Volume Licensing
Customers that have enrolled in WS2012/ R2 ESUs through Volume Licensing for Year 1 can transition to Azure Arc for Year 2 of the program by specifying their Volume Licensing entitlements (Invoice Ids) in provisioning new Azure Arc WS2012/R2 ESU licenses. Extended Security Updates afford customers with critical security patches for end of support Windows Server 2012/R2 machines.Public Preview of Azure Container Storage enabled by Azure Arc Edge Volumes
We are thrilled to announce the Public Preview of Azure Container Storage enabled by Azure Arc Edge Volumes, a groundbreaking addition to our Azure storage solutions, designed to revolutionize data handling at the edge. We invite you to explore the capabilities of Edge Volumes in this Public Preview and experience the benefits of advanced edge storage solutions firsthand.New options for Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc
Today, we’re announcing Extended Security Updates enabled by Azure Arc for Windows Server 2012/R2 and SQL Server 2012 (year 2 onwards), a new and enhanced cloud experience alternative to traditional Extended Security Updates (classic). With this new option, security updates will be natively available in the Azure Portal through Azure Arc for resources for up to 3 .The first Windows Server 2012/R2 ESU Patches are out! Are you protected?
Receive critical security patches for your WS2012/R2 machines enrolled in ESUs enabled by Azure Arc. Follow these detailed instructions outlining all of the enrollment and prerequisites, so you are protecting your EOL infrastructure.Comparing feature sets for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options
This article shows a comparison of features available for the different deployment options under AKS enabled by Azure Arc. AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 AKS Edge Essentials AKS on Windows Server and AKS on Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Supported infrastructure where the Kubernetes clusters are hosted Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 Windows 10/11 IoT Enterprise Windows 10/11 Enterprise Windows 10/11 Pro Windows Server 2019/2022 Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022 CNCF conformant? Yes Yes Yes K8s cluster lifecycle management tools (create, scale, upgrade and delete clusters) Az CLI Az PowerShell Azure Portal ARM templates PowerShell PowerShell Windows Admin Center Kubernetes cluster management plane Kubernetes clusters are managed by Arc Resource Bridge that runs as part of infrastructure components on the Azure Stack HCI cluster. Kubernetes clusters are self-managed, to preserve resources. Kubernetes clusters are managed using a “management cluster”, that is installed using PowerShell before Kubernetes workload clusters can be created. Can you use kubectl and other open-source Kubernetes tools? Yes Yes Yes Supported Kubernetes versions. Supports K8s only. Continuous updates to supported Kubernetes versions. For latest version support, runaz aksarc get-versions. Supports K3s and K8s. Continuous updates to supported Kubernetes versions. For the latest version, visit steps to prepare your machine for AKS Edge Essentials. Supports K8s only. Continuous updates to supported Kubernetes versions. For latest version support, visitAKS hybrid releases on GitHub. Azure Fleet Manager integration No No No Terraform integration Not yet No No Azure Monitor integration Yes, via Arc extensions Yes, via Arc extensions Yes, via Arc extensions The following is a comparison between node pool capabilities for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options: AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 AKS Edge Essentials AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Windows nodepool support Yes Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Yes Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Core) Yes Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Linux OS options CBL-Mariner CBL-Mariner CBL-Mariner Container Runtime Containerd for Linux and Windows nodes. Containerd for Linux and Windows nodes. Containerd for Linux and Windows nodes. Node pool auto-scalar Yes No (manually add nodes) Yes Horizontal pod scalar Yes No Yes GPU support Yes No Yes Azure container registry Yes Yes Yes The following is a comparison between networking features for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options: AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 AKS Edge Essentials AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Network creation and management You need to create the network in Azure Stack HCI 23H2 before creating an AKS cluster. You also need to ensure the network has the right connectivity and IP address availability for a successful cluster creation and operation. You need to provide the IP address range for node IPs and Service IPs, that is available and has the right connectivity. The network configuration needed for the cluster is handled by AKS. Read AKS Edge Essentials networking. You need to create the network in Windows Server before creating an AKS cluster. You also need to ensure the Read network has the right connectivity and IP address availability for a successful cluster creation and operation. Supported networking options Static IP networks with/without VLAN ID Static IP address or use reserved IPs when using DHCP DHCP networks with/without VLAN ID Static IP networks with/without VLAN ID SDN support No No Yes Supported CNIs Calico Calico (K8s) Flannel (K3s) Calico Load balancer MetalLB Arc extension Bring your own load balancer (BYOLB) KubeVIP MetalLB Arc extension Bring your own load balancer (BYOLB) HAProxy MetalLB Arc extension SDN load balancer Bring your own load balancer (BYOLB) The following is a comparison between storage features for AKS enabled by Azure Arc deployment options: AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 AKS Edge Essentials AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Types of supported persistent volumes Read Write Once Read Write Many PVC using local storage Read Write Once Read Write Many Container Storage Interface (CSI) support Yes Yes Yes CSI drivers Disk and Files (SMB and NFS) drivers installed by default. Support for SMB and NFS storage drivers. Support for SMB and NFS storage drivers. Dynamic provisioning support Yes Yes Yes Volume resizing support Yes Yes Yes The following is a comparison between security and authentication options in AKS and AKS enabled by Azure Arc: AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 AKS Edge Essentials AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Access to Kubernetes clusters Kubectl Kubectl Kubectl Kubernetes cluster authentication Certificate based Kubeconfig Microsoft Entra ID Certificate based Kubeconfig Microsoft Entra ID Certificate based Kubeconfig Microsoft Entra ID Active Directory SSO Kubernetes cluster authorization (RBAC) Kubernetes RBAC Azure RBAC Kubernetes RBAC Kubernetes RBAC Support for network policies No No Yes – only for Linux containers Limit source networks that can access API server Yes Yes Yes Certificate rotation and encryption Yes Yes Yes Secrets store CSI driver Yes Yes Yes gMSA support No Yes Yes Azure policy Yes, via Arc extensions Yes, via Arc extensions Yes, via Arc extensions Azure Defender No Yes, via Arc extensions (preview) Yes, via Arc extensions (preview) The following is a comparison between pricing and SLA for AKS and AKS enabled by Azure Arc: AKS on Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 AKS Edge Essentials AKS on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Pricing Pricing is based on the number of workload cluster vCPUs.Control plane node nodes are free. Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 is priced a $10/physical core and AKS workload VMs is $24/vcpu/month. $2.50 per device per month. Pricing is based on the number of workload cluster vCPUs. Control plane nodes & load balancer VMs are free. Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 is priced a $10/physical core and AKS workload VMs is $24/vcpu/month. Azure hybrid benefit support Yes No Yes SLA No SLA offered since the Kubernetes cluster is running on-premises. No SLA offered since the Kubernetes cluster is running on-premises. No SLA offered since the Kubernetes cluster is running on-premises.
