{
  "slug": "azure-aks-kubernetes-1-36-end-of-support",
  "title": "Azure Kubernetes Service: Kubernetes 1.36 end of life",
  "summary": "End of life date for Kubernetes 1.36 on Azure Kubernetes Service: Jun 2027. After that date, community support for the version ends and clusters not enrolled in long-term support enter platform support, which covers AKS and Azure platform issues only.",
  "cloud": "azure",
  "service": "Azure Kubernetes Service",
  "service_slug": "aks",
  "category": "kubernetes",
  "type": "end_of_support",
  "announced_date": null,
  "effective_date": "2027-06-01",
  "effective_precision": "month",
  "impact": "After the end of life date, community support for Kubernetes 1.36 ends. Clusters not enrolled in long-term support enter platform support.\n\n- Platform support covers AKS and Azure platform issues only, not Kubernetes functionality and components. New clusters cannot be created during the platform support period.\n- There is a 60-day platform support grace period after the published end of life date to upgrade to a supported minor version. For the initial rollout, the grace period is the window through May 31, 2027.\n- After the grace period, the cluster is eligible for a platform-initiated upgrade to the lowest supported community minor version. No such upgrade starts before June 1, 2027. Platform-initiated upgrades apply to AKS in the Azure public cloud; availability in Azure Government and Azure operated by 21Vianet is announced separately.\n- A platform-initiated upgrade does not follow the maintenance window, does not stop for deprecated API usage and can override a Pod Disruption Budget. Its month in the release calendar is a planning estimate, not an exact date.\n- Regional version removal can happen at a different time from the published date.",
  "migration_path": "1. List the versions AKS offers for the cluster with `az aks get-upgrades --resource-group <resource-group-name> --name <cluster-name> --output table`.\n2. While the cluster is a supported non-LTS cluster, upgrade one minor version at a time. Minor versions cannot be skipped.\n3. Upgrade the control plane and all node pools with `az aks upgrade`, as described in [Upgrade an AKS cluster control plane](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/upgrade-aks-control-plane).\n4. If the cluster is already on an unsupported version, use the oldest supported GA target that AKS offers and perform a full-cluster upgrade. Control-plane-only upgrades are not supported for this path. The version-skipping table in [Supported Kubernetes versions in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/supported-kubernetes-versions) labels this an unsupported recovery path: AKS allows the upgrade to proceed, but it is not supported and might carry risks. The platform support table on the same page lists upgrades from an N-3 version to a supported version as supported.\n5. If no target is available for an unsupported cluster, create a new cluster with a supported version and migrate the workloads.\n6. To get extended support for the version instead, enable [long-term support](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/long-term-support). This requires moving the cluster to the Premium tier and explicitly selecting the LTS support plan. Microsoft-managed Calico is not supported in LTS. Once community support for the version has ended, LTS cannot be disabled for that version.",
  "replacement": null,
  "affected_versions": [
    "1.36"
  ],
  "source_url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/aks/supported-kubernetes-versions",
  "extra_source_urls": [
    "https://endoflife.date/azure-kubernetes-service"
  ],
  "vendor_ref": "azure-kubernetes-service@1.36",
  "last_checked_at": "2026-11-12T09:55:33.220Z",
  "created_at": "2026-11-13T13:36:44.208Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-13T13:36:44.208Z",
  "url": "https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-aks-kubernetes-1-36-end-of-support",
  "short_url": "https://eolwatch.dev/i/6i",
  "markdown_url": "https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-aks-kubernetes-1-36-end-of-support.md",
  "json_url": "https://eolwatch.dev/items/azure-aks-kubernetes-1-36-end-of-support.json",
  "estate_check": {
    "resource_types": [
      "microsoft.containerservice/managedclusters",
      "azurerm_kubernetes_cluster"
    ],
    "fields": [
      "k8sversion",
      "kubernetes_version",
      "support_plan"
    ],
    "inputs": [
      "Azure Resource Graph export (CSV or JSON)",
      "Terraform state or plan (JSON)",
      "ARM template"
    ]
  },
  "source_note": null
}