Microsoft Azure Updates

Every so often, Microsoft quietly updates an existing docs page and sneaks in a feature that solves a problem you didn’t even realize was fixable. The MaxUnavailable fallback is one of those. I picked it up through the AKS Docs Read more.

cert-manager Public Preview

Microsoft recently released a public preview of cert-manager as an Azure Arc Kubernetes extension. The docs focus entirely on Arc-enabled clusters, which makes sense given it shipped under the Arc umbrella. But I wanted to know whether it would work Read more.

Managed NAT Gateway V2

I spotted this in the AKS release notes recently and it is worth paying attention to if you are running multi-zone clusters. Microsoft has added managedNATGatewayV2 as a new outbound type for AKS, and the key difference from the existing Read more.

Container Network Insight Agent

I spotted this one via the AKS Docs Tracker I built and run here on pixelrobots.co.uk. It picked up new docs appearing under the AKS section and this one caught my eye immediately. Microsoft has shipped a public preview of Read more.

Cluster Health Monitor

I picked this up from my AKS Docs Tracker when the docs page for Cluster Health Monitor appeared. It is currently in preview, but it is one of the more operationally interesting things Microsoft has quietly added to AKS in Read more.

Multi-Cluster Networking

I have been waiting for something like this for a while. If you run AKS at any meaningful scale, one of the hardest problems you eventually hit is the multi-cluster networking story. How do services across clusters discover each other? Read more.

App Routing Istio CLI Support

I spotted something land in the Azure CLI extensions repo this week. PR #9669 adds CLI support for App Routing Istio, including new –enable-app-routing-istio flags on az aks create and az aks update, plus dedicated az aks approuting gateway istio Read more.

AKS Decision Patterns

I’ve been running AKS clusters in production for a long time. I’ve seen the same patterns play out over and over: someone stands up a cluster, it works great in dev, and then six months later they’re rebuilding the whole Read more.

Ingress NGINX Migration

After writing about Ingress NGINX retiring in March 2026, I recommended a two-phase migration approach. Start with Application Routing add-on for quick stability, then migrate to Envoy Gateway as the long-term strategic choice. Several readers asked for more detail on the Read more.

Node Pool Rollback

We’ve all been there. You upgrade a node pool, something breaks in production, and you’re left deciding whether to push forward with a fix or try to undo what you just did. Until recently, “undoing” a Kubernetes version upgrade in Read more.