Azure confidential VMs with NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs
We are announcing the general availability of Azure confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and inviting customers to start deploying their production GPU workloads on these VMs. This NCC H100 v5 VM SKU is based on AMD 4th Gen EPYCTM processors with SEV-SNP technology paired with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs. These VMs allow Azure customers to migrate their most sensitive GPU intensive workloads to Azure with minimal performance impact and without code changes.
These NCC H100 v5 VM SKUs provide a hardware-based trusted execution environment (TEE) that enhances guest protection against potential access by the hypervisor and other host management code to VM memory and state, thereby safeguarding against unauthorized operator access. Customers can initiate attestation requests inside these VMs to verify that the VMs are running on a properly configured TEE before releasing keys and launching sensitive applications.
Announcement: Generally Available: Azure confidential VMs with NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs
Blog Post: General Availability: Azure confidential VMs with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs – Microsoft Community Hub
Azure FXv2-series Virtual Machines
Today, Microsoft is announcing the public preview of the new Azure FXv2-series Virtual Machines (VMs), based on the 5th Generation Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8573C (Emerald Rapids) processor. The preview includes the Compute-optimized VMs FXmsv2-series and FXmdsv2-series.
Blog Post: Announcing the public preview of the new Azure FXv2-series Virtual Machines – Microsoft Community Hub
Request Access: https://aka.ms/FXv2-series-Preview-Signup
Azure Functions .NET 9 support in Linux plans
Azure Functions now supports .NET 9 preview 7 for applications using the isolated worker model and running on Linux plans.
To use .NET 9, Functions projects can adjust their target framework and update their references of Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker and Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Sdk to version 2.0.0-preview1 or later. Project code may need other changes in order to use these new versions. See the core packages documentation for details on these changes.
.NET 9 projects can be deployed to apps on Linux plans. These apps need to be configured to support .NET 9.
Announcement: Public Preview: Azure Functions .NET 9 support in Linux plans
Documentation: Guide for running C# Azure Functions in an isolated worker process | Microsoft Learn
Retirement: Azure Load Balancer Inbound NAT rule V1
On September 30, 2027, Inbound NAT rule V1 for Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets in Azure Load Balancer will be retired. To avoid service disruptions, you’ll need to migrate to Inbound NAT rule V2 by that date.
As part of this retirement, you’ll no longer be able to create new instances of Inbound NAT rule V1 starting September 30, 2026. We recommend migrating to Inbound NAT rule V2 before that date to take advantage of additional benefits, including:
- Improved automatic scaling of NAT rules when backend instances are added or removed.
- Simplified deployments and management.
- Port mapping between NAT rules and backend instances.
To avoid service disruptions, migrate to Inbound NAT rule V2 in Azure Load Balancer by September 30, 2027.
News: Retirement: Azure Load Balancer Inbound NAT rule V1 for Azure VMs and Azure VMSS will be retired
Migration Guide: Migrate from Inbound NAT rules version 1 to version 2 | Microsoft Learn
