Upcoming Updates for Azure Pipelines Agents Images

The Ubuntu-24.04 Pipelines image is available since October last year. We plan to update the ubuntu-latest image to map to Ubuntu-24.04 soon. After this change all the jobs using ubuntu-latest image will run on ubuntu-24.04 instead of ubuntu-22.04. Please note that some tools are no longer available on the Ubuntu-24.04 image.

We are deprecating support for the Ubuntu 20.04 image in Azure Pipelines because it will reach its end of support soon. Please find the deprecation plan for the same below.

Key Dates:

• Deprecation Start Date: March 19, 2025
• Brownout period: 19th March 2025 to 28th March 2025
• Full Removal Date: April 30th, 2025

What This Means for You:

Starting from March 18, 2025, organization using the Ubuntu 20.04 image will begin to see a banner indicating the upcoming deprecation. To raise awareness about the upcoming deprecation we will temporarily fail the jobs (brownout) that are using Ubuntu 20.04 from March 19th 2025 to April 8th 2025. From April 30, 2025, the Ubuntu 20.04 image will be fully removed from our hosted agents, and any pipelines still using this image will fail to run.

Brownout schedule

19th March 2025: 21:00 – 5:00 UTC
21st March 2025: 5:00 – 13:00 UTC
25th March 2025: 13:00 – 21:00 UTC
26th March 2025: 21:00 – 5:00 UTC
28th March 2025: 5:00 – 13:00 UTC
1st April 2025: 13:00 – 21:00 UTC
8th April 2025: 13:00 – 21:00 UTC

Recommended Actions:

To avoid disruptions, we recommend updating your pipelines to use the Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 image as soon as possible. The updated Ubuntu images offer improved performance, security, and support for the latest tools and libraries.

How to find out the impacted pipelines

To find out the impacted pipelines that are using the deprecated images please run the script present here.

You can also identify pipelines that are using a deprecated (e.g. ubuntu-20.04) image, by checking the following location: https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_settings/agentqueues

Select the ‘Azure Pipelines’ pool, then, filter on the image name, refer the following snapshot.

How to Update Your Pipelines:

1. Open your pipeline YAML file.
2. Locate the vmImage property.
3. Change the value from ubuntu-20.04 to ubuntu-22.04 (ubuntu-24.04, ubuntu-latest).
4. Save and run your pipeline to ensure it works with the new image.

Example:

pool:  
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-22.04'

pool:  
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-24.04'

pool:  
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

Alternate methods to use Ubuntu 20.04 in Pipeline Jobs

Customers that are still dependent on Ubuntu 20.04 even when it reaches its end of support state, have the following options to Use Ubuntu 20.04 in a pipeline:

Using a Container job allow you to specify a container image independently of the hosted pipeline image. For example:

jobs:
- job: ubuntu20
  container: ubuntu:20.04
  displayName: Use Ubuntu 20.04 container image
  pool:
    vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
  steps:
  - script: printenv

With Managed DevOps Pools, you can create an agent pool using the ubuntu-20.04 Azure Pipelines image until June 30. You can also use images from the Azure Marketplace.

Lastly, you can create a Self-hosted agent using any Operating System supported by the Pipelines Agent.

In accordance with our policy to support the n-1 version of OS images, we will initiate the deprecation of macOS 13 Ventura starting 1st September 2025, with plans to retire it by 4th December 2025. Customers currently utilizing macOS-13 in their pipelines are encouraged to transition to macOS-14 or macOS-15 images.

Who is impacted

This deprecation affects Azure DevOps Pipeline customers only if they are using macOS 13 image in a Microsoft Hosted Agent. Please note that it does not impact customers using macOS13 images in any other Agent (Self-hosted, MDP, VMSS). Refer the guidelines given below to find out the impacted pipelines in your organization. The detailed deprecation plan is outlined below.

Key Dates:

• Deprecation Start Date: 1st September 2025
• Weekly Brownout Period: 4th Nov-25th Nov 2025
• Full Retiral Date: 4th December 2025

Brownout schedule

• November 4, 14:00 UTC to November 5, 00:00 UTC
• November 11, 14:00 UTC to November 12, 00:00 UTC
• November 18, 14:00 UTC to November 19, 00:00 UTC
• November 25, 14:00 UTC to November 26, 00:00 UTC

How to find out the impacted pipelines

To find out the impacted pipelines that are using the deprecated images please run the script present here. You can also identify pipelines that are using a deprecated (e.g. macOS-13) image, by checking the following location: https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_settings/agentqueues
Select the ‘Azure Pipelines’ pool, then, filter on the image name i.e. macOS-13.

How to Update Your Pipelines:

1. Open your pipeline YAML file.
2. Locate the vmImage property.
3. Change the value from macOS-13 to macOS-14 or macOS-15 or macOS-latest.
4. Save and run your pipeline to ensure it works with the new image.

Example:

pool:  
  vmImage: 'macOS-14'

pool:  
  vmImage: 'macOS-15'

pool:  
  vmImage: 'macOS-latest'