Azure Sphere version 24.03 is now available

[AzureSphereTeam]

The Azure Sphere 24.03 release is now available and includes the following components:

• General availability of Azure Sphere (Integrated)  
• Updated Azure Sphere OS  
• Updated Azure Sphere SDK for Windows and for Linux  
• Updated Azure Sphere extensions for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code
• Updated Samples  

If your devices are connected to the internet, they will receive the updated OS from the cloud. To install the latest SDK and extensions, see the installation Quickstart for Windows or Linux:  

• Quickstart: Install the Azure Sphere SDK for Windows  
• Quickstart: Install the Azure Sphere SDK for Linux 

Highlights in this release include general availability of Azure Sphere (Integrated), support for custom certificates to connect to Azure IoT, an updated version of cURL for the Azure Sphere OS, security fixes, SDK support for Ubuntu 24.04 pre-release, and simplifications to the CMake toolchain. 

General availability of Azure Sphere (Integrated)  

We are excited to announce that Azure Sphere (Integrated), a new management interface for Azure Sphere devices, is generally available for production use starting today. Azure Sphere (Integrated) is now the recommended interface for Azure Sphere services, and is no longer labeled ‘Preview’ in Azure portal. 

With Azure Sphere (Integrated), you can manage your Azure Sphere devices directly in the Azure portal and the Azure Sphere extension for Azure CLI. Azure Sphere (Integrated) is based on the new Azure Sphere (Integrated) REST API, built on the Azure Resource Manager platform, and it includes built in support for other powerful Azure services, including Azure RBAC and Azure Monitor.  

Updates to Azure Sphere (Integrated) since Public Preview 

• A new Azure RBAC pre-built role is available: Azure Sphere Owner. The Azure Sphere Owner role provides full privileges for Azure Sphere resources, but unlike the Azure Sphere Contributor role which also provides full privileges, the Azure Sphere Owner role also includes the ability to configure Azure RBAC access for Azure Sphere resources. 
• For easier navigation when viewing an individual product, device group, or device, you now access resource-specific overview information, access control, tasks, and property settings in the updated left menu. 
• You can use Azure Monitor to get alerted when you need to take action due to the two-yearly certificate roll of your catalog CA certificate. For details, see Monitoring Azure Sphere fleet and device health (microsoft.com).  

If you have not already started using Azure Sphere (Integrated), we recommend you do so now.  

A one-time integration step enables you to manage your existing Azure Sphere (Legacy) tenants in Azure Sphere (Integrated). After a tenant is integrated, you can perform management tasks using either Azure Sphere (Integrated) or Azure Sphere (Legacy). You can stage adoption of Azure Sphere (Integrated) by starting with test and development activities in Azure Sphere (Integrated) while continuing to use Azure Sphere (Legacy) for production management workflows until you are ready to fully migrate. While Azure Sphere (Legacy) interface continues to be fully supported, we recommend migration to take full advantage of Azure Sphere (Integrated) features and future enhancements. 

For more information, see Azure Sphere (Integrated) is generally available.

New and changed features in the 24.03 OS  

The 24.03 release of the Azure Sphere OS includes the following changes:  

Fixed bugs and common vulnerabilities in the 24.03 OS release 

The cURL version included in the Azure Sphere OS was updated from version 7.69.1 to 7.87.0. 

The 24.03 OS release includes updates to mitigate against these Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs): 

CVE-2022-27774	CVE-2022-27776
CVE-2022-32205	CVE-2022-32207
CVE-2022-32208	CVE-2022-32221
CVE-2022-35252	CVE-2022-35260
CVE-2022-43551	CVE-2022-43552
CVE-2023-23914	CVE-2023-23916
CVE-2023-27533	CVE-2023-27534
CVE-2023-27535	CVE-2023-27536
CVE-2023-27538	CVE-2023-27538
CVE-2023-28319	CVE-2023-28320
CVE-2023-28321	CVE-2023-28322

Support for using custom certificates to connect to Azure IoT Services  

Azure Sphere devices can now utilize custom certificate chains to connect to Azure IoT Services. Utilizing non-Azure Sphere certificate chains is helpful with applications that have additional organizational requirements around certificate usage. Guidance on connecting with Azure IoT has been updated to describe this use case further. Any customers using the Beta API version of this capability released with the 23.05 OS should migrate to the new APIs by downloading the latest SDK and recompiling their application, noting that function signatures have changed to promote production application of this capability. 

New and changed features in the 24.03 SDK and Visual Studio/Visual Studio Code extensions 

The 24.03 release of the Azure Sphere SDK and Visual Studio/Visual Studio Code extensions includes the following changes:  

End-of-support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 

Ubuntu 18.04 is now outside Canonical's long-term standard support arrangement. As such the 23.05 SDK was the last Azure Sphere SDK to support this OS version. 24.03 and future SDKs will not support Ubuntu 18.04. 

Added SDK support for Ubuntu 24.04 pre-release 

The 24.03 SDK adds support for pre-release version of Ubuntu 24.04, adding to the existing Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04 support. This is for development and test purposes of Ubuntu 24.04 before it is released to the public. 

CMake Toolchain changes 

In SDK version 23.05 and earlier, the target API set (sysroot) used by Azure Sphere applications had to be specified in both the CMakePresets.json and CMakeLists.txt files, which was duplicative and sometimes required manual update after each SDK release. 

To simplify this process, and to streamline future updates, the `azsphere_configure_tools` and `azsphere_configure_api` CMakeLists.txt entries have been made unnecessary and deprecated.  The build process now only uses the AZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_API_SET value in CMakePresets.json as the source of truth for the targeted API version. 

By default, the value of the `AZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_API_SET` parameter is set to "latest-lts" in CMakePresets.json which means that when the SDK is updated, the project automatically targets the latest API version.  If you want to pin the API version to a specific version (e.g., when building apps for manufacturing products with a specific OS version), you should set the `AZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_API_SET` parameter to that version. 

Existing projects will continue to compile with the new SDK, although a warning message will inform the user that they can remove the deprecated CMakeLists.json entries. New projects created based on the GitHub samples will require the 24.03 or later SDK and VS/VS Code extensions. 

Updated samples for 24.03 

The 24.03 release includes the following changes to the samples: 

Updates to Azure Sphere HTTPS cURL Multi sample 

The previous Azure Sphere HTTPS cURL Multi sample no longer followed currently recommended cURL best practices, which can be seen in more detail here. While we have preserved compatibility with the old approach, we have updated our sample and would recommend incorporating the latest approach in any software updates or new development work that you may be undertaking. 

Updates to samples to use the azure-sphere extension for Azure CLI 

We recommend using the now generally available Azure Sphere (Integrated) for future development work. The instructions in the sample README files have been updated to use commands in the azure-sphere extension for the Azure CLI.

For self-help technical inquiries, please visit Microsoft Q&A or Stack Overflow. If you require technical support and have a support plan, please submit a support ticket in Microsoft Azure Support or work with your Microsoft Technical Account Manager. If you would like to purchase a support plan, please explore the Azure support plans.