In the Ubuntu Cloud Images for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on Azure

Sep 21, 2017 21:03 GMT  ·  By

In a joint collaboration with Microsoft's Azure team, Canonical managed to enable a new Azure tailored Ubuntu kernel in the Ubuntu Cloud Images for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on Azure starting today, September 21, 2017.

The Azure tailored Ubuntu kernel is now enabled by default for the Ubuntu Cloud images running the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system on Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform, and Canonical vows to offer the same level of support as the rest of its Ubuntu kernels until the operating system reaches end of life.

Ubuntu 16.04 is a long-term supported release, which means it will receive security maintenance updates for 5 years, until April 2021, because the distro was launched last year in April. If you've recently got an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS image from the Azure portal, chances are it's using the new Azure tailored Ubuntu kernel.

"The ongoing collaboration between Canonical and Microsoft will also continue to produce upgrades to newer kernel versions providing access to the latest kernel features, bug fixes, and security updates," said Leann Ogasawara, Director of Kernel Engineering at Canonical. "Instances using the Azure tailored Ubuntu kernel will, of course, be supportable through Canonical’s Ubuntu Advantage service."

The benefits of the Azure tailored Ubuntu kernel

In the press announcement, Canonical says that the new Azure tailored Ubuntu kernel comes with numerous benefits. Among these, we can mention up to 18% reduction in the size of the kernel, Hyper-V socket capability, support for the latest Hyper-V device drivers and features, RDMA and InfiniBand capability for Azure HPC, as well as better support for Accelerated Networking in Azure.

Additionally, the kernel will enable up to 10% greater throughput on guests that don't use SR-IOV thanks to its NAPI and Receive Segment Coalescing capabilities. To check if you're running the new Azure tailored Ubuntu kernel on your Ubuntu 16.04 LTS cloud images, simply open a terminal emulator and execute the "uname -r" command. If kernel's version ends with "-azure" then you're all set.