Curated documentation updates, feature announcements, community blogs, release highlights, and more.
Welcome to the April 2026 edition of the AKS Newsletter.
This month brings 10 features reaching General Availability and 2 new Preview announcements. Here are some of the highlights:
Let's dive in.
Create and Manage Persistent Volumes with Azure Files in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn how to create and manage persistent volumes using Azure Files with the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to provide scalable and reliable storage for...
Troubleshoot Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Workloads with Natural Language in AKS Desktop (preview): Learn how to use the AI-powered troubleshooting assistant in AKS desktop to diagnose and resolve Kubernetes issues using natural language.
Use Planned Maintenance to Schedule and Control Upgrades for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Clusters: Learn how to use planned maintenance to schedule and control cluster and node image upgrades in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Cluster authentication concepts in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn how Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) authenticates Kubernetes API requests using Microsoft Entra ID, and how to disable local cluster admin accounts in production.
Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Cluster Using Azure CLI: Learn how to deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service cluster (AKS) with default settings using Azure CLI and deploy a multi-container application.
Support Policies for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn about Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) support policies, shared responsibility, and features that are in preview (or alpha or beta).
Use system node pools in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn how to create and manage system node pools in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Quickstart: Get Started Deploying and Managing Applications using AKS Automatic with AKS Desktop: Learn how to deploy and manage a containerized application on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using AKS desktop without writing Kubernetes manifests.
Deploy an Application using AKS Desktop for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn how to deploy a containerized application to AKS using AKS desktop without writing Kubernetes manifests.
Create a managed or user-assigned NAT gateway for your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster: Learn how to create an AKS cluster with managed NAT integration and user-assigned NAT gateway.
Kubernetes Gateway API Ingress for Istio Service Mesh Add-on for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (preview): Configure ingresses for the Istio service mesh add-on for AKS using the Kubernetes Gateway API.
Use Microsoft Entra ID authorization for the Kubernetes API in AKS: Learn how to authorize Kubernetes API access in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using Microsoft Entra ID role assignments and ABAC conditions.
Quickstart: Create an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Automatic cluster in a custom virtual network: Learn how to quickly deploy a Kubernetes cluster and deploy an application in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Automatic in a custom virtual network.
Cluster authorization concepts in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn how authorization for the Kubernetes API works in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and how to choose between Kubernetes RBAC and Microsoft Entra ID authorization with optional Azure ABAC...
Configure External Identity Providers with AKS Structured Authentication (Preview): Learn how to configure external identity providers for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using structured authentication and JWT authenticators.
Limit access to kubeconfig in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn how to control access to the Kubernetes configuration file (kubeconfig) for cluster administrators and cluster users
Control cluster and node access using Conditional Access with Microsoft Entra integration: Learn how to access clusters and nodes using Conditional Access when integrating Microsoft Entra ID in your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters.
Enable Microsoft Entra ID authentication for the AKS control plane: Learn how to enable Microsoft Entra ID authentication for the Kubernetes API server (control plane) on an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster.
AKS service permissions reference: Reference for the Azure permissions required by the identity creating an AKS cluster, the cluster identity at runtime, and AKS node access.
Concepts - Access and identity in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn the five identity scenarios in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) — Kubernetes control-plane authentication and authorization, AKS resource (ARM) authorization, cluster identity, and workload...
Best practices for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Collection of the cluster operator and developer best practices to build and manage applications in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
AKS Regulated Cluster for PCI DSS 4.0.1 - Malware Protection: Malware protection guidance for AKS clusters under PCI DSS 4.0.1.
Center for Internet Security (CIS) Kubernetes benchmark: Learn how AKS applies the CIS Kubernetes benchmark.
Performance and scaling best practices for large workloads in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Learn the best practices for performance and scaling for large workloads in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Troubleshoot an Application using Insights in AKS Desktop (preview): Learn how to troubleshoot Kubernetes applications in AKS desktop using the built-in Insights feature powered by Inspektor Gadget.
Public Preview: StandardV2 NAT Gateway as an outbound type for AKS: AKS now supports managed and user-assigned StandardV2 NAT Gateway as an outbound type for your AKS managed or BYO VNets.
NAT Gateway V2 (preview): Outbound in supported public Azure regions, with automatic exclusion in sovereign clouds and regions where StandardV2 NAT Gateway isn't yet available.
Generally Available: Disable HTTP proxy in AKS: Organizations that use HTTP proxies to control outbound traffic often need to change or remove those settings as network requirements evolve, which can be disruptive in running clusters.
Generally Available: Azure Monitor for Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes with OpenShift and Azure Red Hat OpenShift: Azure Monitor provides a complete set of services for monitoring the health and performance of different layers of your Kubernetes infrastructure and the applications that depend on it.Azure...
Generally Available: Configure AKS backup using a single Azure CLI command: Azure Backup now provides a simplified experience to configure backup for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters using a single Azure CLI command.Enabling backup for AKS clusters through CLI...
MIG (multi-instance GPU) profiles – now generally available: On their agent pools, enabling partitioning of H100 GPUs into smaller instances (MIG1g, MIG2g, MIG3g, MIG4g, MIG7g) for better GPU utilization and multi-tenancy scenarios.
StorageClass – now generally available: Is now available on AKS 1.35 clusters in supported regions, providing sensible defaults for Premium SSD v2 adoption without requiring custom StorageClasses.
API Server VNET Integration – now generally available: Is now available in malaysiasouth.
Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA) – now generally available: Now supports the Recreate update mode.
Istio-based service mesh – now generally available: Gateway proxy pods.
Azure CNI Powered by Cilium: Include a new AKS-managed cilium-fluent-bit component to improve Cilium supportability.
HTTP proxy configuration: Has been relaxed.
HTTP Proxy: You can't add more than 20 Trusted CA Certificates.
Kubelet Serving Certificate Rotation (KSCR): Enabled, despite the node pool tag.
Teleport (preview): On AKS has now been removed by Azure Container Registry and by AKS.
What's new with Microsoft in open source and Kubernetes at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026: For the recent announcements at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026.
Securing Argo CD with Microsoft Entra ID: A Step-by-Step Guide: AKS has offered GitOps support for a while now with the Flux v2 cluster extension, and many users have been asking for Argo CD support as well. A few weeks ago at KubeCon Europe 2026, the public...
Control AI spend with per-application token rate limiting using Application Network and agentgateway: As organizations scale AI adoption, platform teams must balance two competing goals:
AI Inference on AKS enabled by Azure Arc: Generative AI using Triton and TensorRT‑LLM: In this post, you’ll deploy NVIDIA Triton Inference Server on your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) enabled by Azure Arc cluster to serve a Qwen‑based generative model using the TensorRT‑LLM...
Azure Container Storage v2.1.0: Now GA with Elastic SAN: Stateful workloads on Kubernetes continue to demand not only faster performance but also larger scale and more streamlined operational simplicity. Azure Container Storage v2.1.0 is now generally...
Turn your agents into AKS experts: Agent Skills for AKS: Agent skills for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) bring production-grade AKS guidance, troubleshooting checklists, and guardrails directly into any compatible AI agent. The first set of skills are...
AI Inference on AKS enabled by Azure Arc: Predictive AI using Triton and ResNet-50: In this post, you'll deploy NVIDIA Triton Inference Server on your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) enabled by Azure Arc cluster to serve a ResNet-50 image classification model in ONNX format. By...
AI Inference on AKS enabled by Azure Arc: Generative AI with Open‑Source LLM Server: In this post, you'll explore how to deploy and run generative AI inference workloads using open-source large language model servers on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) enabled by Azure Arc. You'll...
AI Inference on AKS enabled by Azure Arc: Series Introduction and Scope: This series gives you practical, step-by-step guidance for experimentation with generative and predictive AI inference workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) enabled by Azure Arc clusters,...
AI Inference on AKS enabled by Azure Arc: Bringing AI to the Edge and On‑Premises: For many edge and on-premises environments, sending data to the cloud for AI inferencing isn't an option, as latency, data residency, and compliance make it a non-starter. With Azure Kubernetes...
Optimizing RDMA performance for AI workloads on AKS with DRANET: RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) is critical for unlocking the full potential of GPU infrastructure, enabling the high-throughput, low-latency GPU-to-GPU communication that large-scale AI...
Simplifying gMSA for Windows Containers on AKS: Open-Source Tooling Now Available: Simplifying gMSA for Windows Containers on AKS: Open-Source Tooling Now Available We’re excited to announce that the Windows Containers <SPAN...
Autonomous AKS Incident Response with Azure SRE Agent: From Alert to Verified Recovery in Minutes: Autonomous AKS Incident Response with Azure SRE Agent: From Alert to Verified Recovery in Minutes When a Sev1 alert fires on an <SPAN...
AKS App Routing's Next Chapter: Gateway API with Istio: AKS App Routing's Next Chapter: Gateway API with Istio ...n, AKS deploys an Istio control plane...
Introducing the Container Network Insights Agent for AKS: Now in Public Preview: Introducing the Container Network Insights Agent for AKS: Now in Public Preview We are thrilled to announce public preview of Container...
Announcing One‑Command Backup Configuration for AKS with Azure Backup: Announcing One‑Command Backup Configuration for AKS with Azure Backup Running production workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (<SPAN...
Passwordless AKS Secrets: Sync Azure Key Vault with ESO + Workload Identity: Passwordless AKS Secrets: Sync Azure Key Vault with ESO + Workload Identity Architecture High-level flow The solution uses a User-Assigned Managed...
Service Mesh-Aware Request Tracing in AKS with Istio and Application Insights: Service Mesh-Aware Request Tracing in AKS with Istio and Application Insights Introduction As platforms evolve toward microservice‑based...
Secure HTTP‑Only AKS Ingress with Azure Front Door Premium, Firewall DNAT, and Private AGIC: Secure HTTP‑Only AKS Ingress with Azure Front Door Premium, Firewall DNAT, and Private AGIC ...onfiguration, and validation steps for end-to-end...
AKS cluster with AGIC hits the Azure Application Gateway backend pool limit (100): AKS cluster with AGIC hits the Azure Application Gateway backend pool limit (100) I’m writing this article to document a real-world scaling issue we...
DevSecOps on AKS: Governance Gates That Actually Prevent Incidents: DevSecOps on AKS: Governance Gates That Actually Prevent Incidents This article is for AKS...
Container Network Insights agent: Agentic AI network troubleshooting for Azure Kubernetes Service: Discover how the Container Network Insights Agent (CNIA) transforms Kubernetes networking troubleshooting in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This video demonstrates how CNIA uses AI to diagnose...
Building scalable, serverless search solution with Elastic: CN Partner Showcase: Azure Kubernetes: Welcome to the Cloud Native Partners Showcase where we highlight innovative Partner solutions built on top of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Diagnose & Solve with Andrew Scobie: AKS Troubleshooting Series: Azure Kubernetes Service: In today's episode, we talk to Andrew Scobie to understand the Diagnose & Solve experience from Azure portal.
Scale Azure Storage: Ultra Disk, Blob Storage, Azure Container Storage: Learn how to scale Azure Storage efficiently using Ultra Disk, Blob Storage, and Azure Container Storage.
April 2026 showed continued investment across key areas of the AKS platform:
These updates reflect the platform's ongoing focus on production readiness, operational simplicity, and support for modern cloud-native workloads.
Stay tuned for next month's edition, and feel free to share feedback or suggestions for future coverage.