Support matrix for Azure Update Manager
This article details the Windows and Linux operating systems supported and system requirements for machines or servers managed by Azure Update Manager. The article includes the supported regions and specific versions of the Windows Server and Linux operating systems running on Azure virtual machines (VMs) or machines managed by Azure Arc-enabled servers.
Update sources supported
Windows: Windows Update Agent (WUA) reports to Microsoft Update by default, but you can configure it to report to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). If you configure WUA to report to WSUS, based on the last synchronization from WSUS with Microsoft Update, the results in Update Manager might differ from what Microsoft Update shows.
To specify sources for scanning and downloading updates, see Specify intranet Microsoft Update service location. To restrict machines to the internal update service, see Do not connect to any Windows Update internet locations.
Linux: You can configure Linux machines to report to a local or public YUM or APT package repository. The results shown in Update Manager depend on where the machines are configured to report.
Types of updates supported
The following types of updates are supported.
Operating system updates
Update Manager supports operating system updates for both Windows and Linux.
Update Manager doesn't support driver updates.
Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows Server
Using Azure Update Manager, you can deploy Extended Security Updates for your Azure Arc-enabled Windows Server 2012 / R2 machines. To enroll in Windows Server 2012 Extended Security Updates, follow the guidance on How to get Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2
First-party updates on Windows
By default, the Windows Update client is configured to provide updates only for the Windows operating system. If you enable the Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows setting, you also receive updates for other Microsoft products. Updates include security patches for Microsoft SQL Server and other Microsoft software.
Use one of the following options to perform the settings change at scale:
For servers configured to patch on a schedule from Update Manager (with VM
PatchSettingsset toAutomaticByPlatform = Azure-Orchestrated), and for all Windows Servers running on an earlier operating system than Windows Server 2016, run the following PowerShell script on the server you want to change:$ServiceManager = (New-Object -com "Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager") $ServiceManager.Services $ServiceID = "7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d" $ServiceManager.AddService2($ServiceId,7,"")For servers running Windows Server 2016 or later that aren't using Update Manager scheduled patching (with VM
PatchSettingsset toAutomaticByOS = Azure-Orchestrated), you can use Group Policy to control this process by downloading and using the latest Group Policy Administrative template files.
Note
Run the following PowerShell script on the server to disable first-party updates:
$ServiceManager = (New-Object -com "Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager")
$ServiceManager.Services
$ServiceID = "7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d"
$ServiceManager.RemoveService($ServiceId)
Third-party updates
Windows: Update Manager relies on the locally configured update repository to update supported Windows systems, either WSUS or Windows Update. Tools such as System Center Updates Publisher allow you to import and publish custom updates with WSUS. This scenario allows Update Manager to update machines that use Configuration Manager as their update repository with third-party software. To learn how to configure Updates Publisher, see Install Updates Publisher.
Linux: If you include a specific third-party software repository in the Linux package manager repository location, it's scanned when it performs software update operations. The package isn't available for assessment and installation if you remove it.
Update Manager doesn't support managing the Configuration Manager client.
Supported regions
Update Manager scales to all regions for both Azure VMs and Azure Arc-enabled servers. The following table lists the Azure public cloud where you can use Update Manager.
Azure Update Manager is available in all Azure public regions where compute virtual machines are available.
Supported operating systems
All operating systems are assumed to be x64. For this reason, x86 isn't supported for any operating system. Update Manager doesn't support CIS-hardened images.
Azure Marketplace/PIR images
The Azure Marketplace image has the following attributes:
- Publisher: The organization that creates the image. Examples are
CanonicalandMicrosoftWindowsServer. - Offer: The name of the group of related images created by the publisher. Examples are
UbuntuServerandWindowsServer. - SKU: An instance of an offer, such as a major release of a distribution. Examples are
18.04LTSand2019-Datacenter. - Version: The version number of an image SKU.
Update Manager supports the following operating system versions on VMs. You might experience failures if there are any configuration changes on the VMs, such as package or repository.
Windows operating systems
| Publisher | Versions |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows Server | 1709, 1803, 1809, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022 |
| Microsoft Windows Server HPC Pack | 2012, 2016, 2019 |
| Microsoft SQL Server | 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 |
| Microsoft Visual Studio | ws2012r2, ws2016, ws2019, ws2022 |
| Microsoft Azure Site Recovery | Windows 2012 |
| Microsoft BizTalk Server | 2016, 2020 |
| Microsoft DynamicsAx | ax7 |
| Microsoft Power BI | 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 |
| Microsoft SharePoint | sp* |
Linux operating systems
| Publisher | Versions |
|---|---|
| Canonical | Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, 22.04 |
| Red Hat | RHEL 7,8,9 |
| OpenLogic | CentOS 7 |
| SUSE 12 | sles, sles-byos, sap, sap-byos, sapcal, sles-standard |
| SUSE 15 | basic, hpc, opensuse, sles, sap, sapcal |
| Oracle Linux | 7*, ol7*, ol8*, ol9* |
| Oracle Database | 21, 19-0904, 18.* |
Unsupported operating systems
The following table lists the operating systems for Azure Marketplace images that aren't supported.
| Publisher | OS offer | SKU |
|---|---|---|
| OpenLogic | CentOS | 8* |
| OpenLogic | centos-hpc | * |
| Oracle | Oracle-Linux | 8, 8-ci, 81, 81-ci , 81-gen2, ol82, ol8_2-gen2,ol82-gen2, ol83-lvm, ol83-lvm-gen2, ol84-lvm,ol84-lvm-gen2 |
| Red Hat | RHEL | 74-gen2 |
| Red Hat | RHEL-HANA | 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 8.1, 81_gen2 |
| Red Hat | RHEL-SAP | 7.4, 7.5, 7.7 |
| Red Hat | RHEL-SAP-HANA | 7.5 |
| Microsoft SQL Server | SQL 2019-SLES* | * |
| Microsoft SQL Server | SQL 2019-RHEL7 | * |
| Microsoft SQL Server | SQL 2017-RHEL7 | * |
| Microsoft | microsoft-ads | . |
| SUSE | sles-sap-15-*-byos | gen * |
Custom images
We support VMs created from customized images and the following table lists the operating systems that we support for the same. For instructions on how to use Update Manager to manage updates on custom images, see Manage updates for custom images.
Note
Automatic VM guest patching doesn't work on customized images even if the Patch orchestration mode is set to Azure orchestrated/AutomaticByPlatform. You can use scheduled patching to patch the machines by defining your own schedules or install updates on-demand.
| Windows operating system |
|---|
| Windows Server 2022 |
| Windows Server 2019 |
| Windows Server 2016 |
| Windows Server 2012 R2 |
| Windows Server 2012 |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 (RTM and SP1 Standard) |
| Linux operating system |
|---|
| CentOS 7, 8 |
| Oracle Linux 7.x, 8x |
| Red Hat Enterprise 7, 8, 9 |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.x, 15.0-15.4 |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS |
Unsupported workloads
The following table lists the workloads that aren't supported.
| Workloads | Notes |
|---|---|
| Windows client | For client operating systems such as Windows 10 and Windows 11, we recommend Microsoft Intune to manage updates. |
| Virtual Machine Scale Sets | We recommend that you use Automatic upgrades to patch the Virtual Machine Scale Sets. |
| Azure Kubernetes Service nodes | We recommend the patching described in Apply security and kernel updates to Linux nodes in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). |
As Update Manager depends on your machine's OS package manager or update service, ensure that the Linux package manager or Windows Update client is enabled and can connect with an update source or repository. If you're running a Windows Server OS on your machine, see Configure Windows Update settings.
Next steps
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