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Microsoft to offer (very) limited support for Linux on Azure

Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again? Microsoft won't do much more

Microsoft has announced it will offer “limited support for major Linux distributions, third party and Open source technologies on Azure.”

“Limited” might be a bit too kind a term for Microsoft's willingness to support Penguinistas. At present, the company welcomes Linux virtual machines to Azure but if something goes awry will only tell you if Azure is to blame.

Microsoft will now offer “Help with installation and configuration of Supported Linux Distributions on the Azure platform and services” and make “Recommendations applicable to the Azure platform and services” pertaining to “performance and networking.”

Redmond will offer that slim suite of support for Ubuntu, CentOS, SUSE Linux, OpenSUSE and CoreOS. Even Oracle Linux makes the supported code list. Microsoft will also help you out with popular FOSS projects like PHP, Java, Python, MySQL, Apache, Tomcat and WordPress, with the following assistance:

  • Issues encountered during installation or configuration
  • Deployment errors encountered when trying to deploy applications to the Azure platform and services
  • Runtime errors when using the Azure platform and services
  • Performance issues with applications built using the Supported Third-Party Technologies when using Azure platform and services

There'll be some phone support, but in US business hours and English only, plus support in online communities.

There are plenty of open source support options out there, so it's not as if those running the projects listed above are going to find themselves orphaned if they decide to run in Azure. Indeed, Microsoft says it's open to chats with providers of open sourcery if your attempts to work things out don't bear fruit. ®

Bootnote

SUSE has been in touch to point out that SLES Premium on Azure is already offered priority support by Microsoft, as indicated here. The Microsoft missive that sparked this story did not mention that support offering.

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