Cloud Services (extended support) is a new Microsoft solution that has been in public preview since January. After tweaking the solution over the interim months, Microsoft is now rolling out Cloud Services to everyone. The company says the offering is now generally available.
Based on the company's Azure Resources Manager (ARM), the service replaces the previous Cloud Services that was based on Azure Service Manager (ASM). Alongside the wide release, Microsoft is also deploying a tool that helps users migrate from the old version to the new model. For the time being, this tool is working in preview.
More than just switching the base of the solution, Microsoft has also brought some changes to Cloud Services (extended support). For example, Azure Key Vault is now baked in, allowing deeper certification management.
Microsoft says the underlying function of Cloud Services, such as upgrades and rollbacks, will remain the same. Equally, the Azure GuestOS will now be aligned with Cloud Services.
Highlights
Here are the key highlights of the new service:
- Cloud Services (extended support) also supports two types of roles, web and worker. There are no changes to the design, architecture, or components of web and worker roles.
- No changes are required to runtime code as the data plane is the same as cloud services.
- Azure GuestOS releases and associated updates are aligned with Cloud Services (classic).
- Underlying update process with respect to update domains, how upgrade proceeds, rollback, and allowed service changes during an update will not change.
- Customers must use Azure Key Vault to manage certificates in Cloud Services (extended support). Azure Key Vault lets you securely store and manage application credentials such as secrets, keys, and certificates in a central and secure cloud repository.
- All resources deployed through the Azure Resource Manager must be inside a virtual network.
- Each Cloud Service (extended support) is a single independent deployment. VIP Swap capability may be used to swap between two Cloud Services (extended support).
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