Support for select marketplace images for Batch pools will be retired
Published date: September 29, 2023
Batch typically follows publisher end of life timelines for supported images from Azure Marketplace. The following images will no longer be supported in Batch after the indicated dates:
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 support will be retired on 9 January 2024.
All CentOS 7 image support will be retired on 30 June 2024. Note that the corresponding Batch node agent SKU will also be retired on this date, therefore all custom images based on CentOS 7 will no longer be supported. The marketplace images with retiring Batch support are:
OpenLogic CentOS/CentOS-HPC 7 (all 7.* and 7_* versions)
Oracle Oracle-Linux 7*
RedHat RHEL 7*
Microsoft-Azure-Batch CentOS 7 container images:
centos-container 7-*
centos-container-rdma 7-*
Batch Rendering images (rendering-windows2016, rendering-centos73) will be retired on 29 February 2024 aligning with the Batch rendering offering retirement date.
From now until the target retirement date of each image, you can continue to use them without disruption. After that, no new Batch pools will be able to be created using these images and scale out operations may also fail.
As a reminder, we recommend reviewing the Batch best practices guide which outlines support expectations, recommendations on Batch pool image freshness, and how to query for Batch image support end of life dates.
Required action
Stop using the select Batch images before their respective target retirement dates.
For the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 image, transition to newer versions of supported Windows server.
For CentOS 7 images, please migrate to an alternate Linux OS image that is amenable for your workload.
For Batch CentOS container images, please migrate to a Linux image with container support (and optionally with Infiniband/GPU support), such as microsoft-dsvm ubuntu-hpc 2204 or your own custom image solution.
Help and support
If you have questions, get answers from community experts in Microsoft Q&A. If you have a support plan and you need technical help, create a support request.