Hello Rocky Linux Community,
I wanted to share some important updates and guidance regarding Rocky Linux images on Azure. Our work aims to improve access and usability for our users and to ensure a seamless transition between our old and new offerings. These changes affect both the Community Galleries and the Marketplace images.
Community Galleries
The Cloud Special Interest Group (SIG) has been collaborating closely with the Azure Community Galleries team to enhance the availability and convenience of Rocky Linux images on Azure. For those unfamiliar, the Community Gallery serves as a hassle-free avenue for deploying Rocky Linux images on Azure, bypassing any license-related obstacles. For comprehensive details on accessing and utilizing these images, please visit our announcement post.
Marketplace Images
In line with our continuous efforts to streamline and optimize our offerings, we have transitioned our Marketplace images to a new publisher account. This change, announced alongside the release of Rocky 8.9 and 9.3 in November, was made to address the unwieldy name of our previous account. The images are now listed under a simpler resf publisher name and are organized more logically, prioritizing architecture over versioning.
You can explore the newly organized images here. While these Marketplace galleries mirror the exact images available in the Shared Community Gallery, they serve as static snapshots, updated only at major releases or in response to critical security vulnerabilities. For users requiring the most current images with the latest packages, we recommend utilizing the Community Gallery.
Deprecation of Old Images
As a consequence of moving to the new publisher account, our old images hosted under the publisher account erockyenterprisesoftwarefoundationinc1653071250513 for Rocky 8 and Rocky 9 have been deprecated. These images can be used for deploying new Virtual Machines until the deprecation date (October 20th, 2024). Virtual Machines that were deployed using these old images will continue to operate as normal. However, We strongly encourage all users to transition to the new publisher account or to the Community Galleries to avoid any disruptions.
Summary of Important Information
- Old Publisher Account:
erockyenterprisesoftwarefoundationinc1653071250513 - New Publisher Account:
resf
Additional Important Information on Deprecation
In addition to the updates shared, it’s important to note the end-of-life (EOL) policy applied to the deprecated images. We have selected a 180-day EOL period for these images, post which they will no longer be available for deployment. Here’s how the deprecation process impacts customers, in line with our commitment to transparency and providing adequate notice:
Before the EOL date:
-
Notification: Customers with active deployments of the deprecated images will receive a notification about the upcoming deprecation to plan their migration accordingly.
-
Deployment: Deployment of new instances using the deprecated images is possible until the EOL date, allowing customers time to transition to the new images.
-
Discoverability: To minimize new adoptions of these soon-to-be deprecated images, they will no longer be searchable in the Azure Marketplace immediately upon announcing their deprecation.
After the EOL date:
-
Deployment Restrictions: New deployments using the deprecated images will not be possible. This includes creating new VM instances or scaling out existing virtual machine scale sets.
-
Active Instances Unaffected: VMs deployed with the deprecated images before the EOL date will continue to function. However, scaling out existing virtual machine scale sets will not be permitted.
-
Scale Sets: For any deprecated plans or offers, all images within those plans or offers will no longer be available, affecting the ability to scale out existing virtual machine scale sets that utilize these images.
Transition Guidance
To avoid any service disruption and to ensure you are running the most secure and updated version of Rocky Linux, we urge all users to migrate their deployments to the new publisher account (resf) or to utilize the Community Galleries. For guidance on migrating to the new images, please refer to this detailed migration guide.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we make these changes to serve you better. If you have any questions or need assistance with migration, please do not hesitate to reach out to us through our support channels.
Best,
Neil Hanlon, on behalf of the Rocky Linux Cloud SIG