Rocky Linux Images on Azure(Old Publisher Account)

[KenichiTanaka]

Hi Team,

Could you please let me check some points about the following URL:

Rocky Linux Images on Azure: Important Update

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 conve…

Question
1.Specific impact after October 2024 for VMs created with old images → Please provide specific impacts if any.
2.Until when can VMs created with old images be continued to be used? → Please provide information if there is no expiration.
3.Until when will support be provided for VMs created with old images?
4.What is the specific reason for Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation to switch the Azure publisher account?
・Old publisher account: erockyenterprisesoftwarefoundationinc1653071250513
・New publisher account: resf

Application deadline
May 31, 2024

Best Regards,
Kenichi

[iwalker]

From what I read in the link:

1. Impact that you cannot create new VM’s with the old image after October 2024, nor can you scale out your existing VM’s.

Virtual Machines that were deployed using these old images will continue to operate as normal

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.

2. Existing VM’s on the old images can still be used, you just cannot scale them anymore therefore limiting them to their current capabilities/resources.

3. Since the images are deprecated, no support will be provided after that date. You are encouraged to move to the new images under the new account.

4. I expect for clearness and clarity of who the publisher is.

@neil will be able to correct any of the above or add more info where necessary.

[KenichiTanaka]

Hi, Thank you for reply!!

Impacted by this are about 100 VMs, so the impact is significant. We are in trouble. We would like to verify if the existing VMs can continue to be safely used. Please confirm if the following understanding is correct:

• Support for the old image has ended, and image updates will not be performed.
• Security updates through commands are possible for RockyLinux running on the old image VMs.

Best Regards,
Kenichi

[nazunalika]

@KenichiTanaka

Security updates through commands are possible for RockyLinux running on the old image VMs.

A simple dnf update on any system will bring it up to date.

[ramblingkenji]

Hi @KenichiTanaka,

I’ve also done something similar where I could still use the older rocky image and it can update as expected (including security patches). This is because the updates are pulled from the repos located in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ path.

Personally, I used ansible for maintaining my VMs at scale. Just a simple playbook like the following (assuming they are reachable with your architecture/setup).

- name: Updating my rocky VMs
  hosts: rocky_hosts
  remote_user: <your_ssh_username>
  become: yes

  tasks:
    - name: Upgrade all packages using DNF
      dnf:
        name: "*"
        state: latest

The main reason is that it helps give me a single area to manage it. But plenty of options exist. Otherwise, if you spin it up and destroy them often then a cloud-init file could also be useful

[KenichiTanaka]

Hi @nazunalika @ramblingkenji ,
Unknown points were resolved. Thank you very much!
Best Regards,
Kenichi