MDP Roadmap update and Windows 2025 and Ubuntu 20.04 image updates (#8116)

* MDP Windows 2025 and Ubunto 20.04

* Roadmap updates

* Sort Azure Compute gallery images

* Update roadmap

* Update

* Roadmap updates

* Incorporate review feedback

* Update deprecation info

* Apply pencil edit for blocking issue from PR review

---------

Co-authored-by: Steve Danielson <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Courtney Wales <[email protected]>

Author: 3 people

docs/managed-devops-pools/configure-images.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: Configure images
 description: Learn how to configure agent images for Managed DevOps Pools.
-ms.date: 07/07/2025
+ms.date: 07/15/2025
 ---
 
 # Configure Managed DevOps Pools images
@@ -280,16 +280,16 @@ To specify selected marketplace image, provide the resource ID of the image usin
 
 Choose **Azure Compute Gallery images** to specify an image from any Azure Compute Galleries that are available in your subscriptions. [Generalized](/azure/virtual-machines/generalize) images with the following operating systems are supported.
 
-* Windows Server 2022
 * Windows Server 2025
+* Windows Server 2022
 * Windows 11
-* Ubuntu 22.04
 * Ubuntu 24.04
+* Ubuntu 22.04
 * Debian 9
-* RHEL 8
 * RHEL 9
-* SUSE 12
+* RHEL 8
 * SUSE 15
+* SUSE 12
 
 > [!IMPORTANT]
 > Managed DevOps Pools supports only [generalized](/azure/virtual-machines/generalize) Azure Compute Gallery images.
@@ -459,10 +459,10 @@ To keep your Managed DevOps Pools running if you use the **Azure Pipelines – W
 
 #### Ubuntu 20.04 image deprecation schedule
 
-[Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Standard Support is coming to an end May 31, 2025](https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-20-04-lts-end-of-life-standard-support-is-coming-to-an-end-heres-how-to-prepare), and Managed DevOps Pools is removing the Ubuntu 20.04 images from [Selected marketplace images](./configure-images.md#selected-marketplace-images) and [Azure Pipelines images](./configure-images.md#azure-pipelines-images).
+[Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Standard Support ended May 31, 2025](https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-20-04-lts-end-of-life-standard-support-is-coming-to-an-end-heres-how-to-prepare), and Managed DevOps Pools has removed the Ubuntu 20.04 images from [Selected marketplace images](./configure-images.md#selected-marketplace-images) and [Azure Pipelines images](./configure-images.md#azure-pipelines-images).
 
-  * Creation of new pools using Ubuntu 20.04 Selected marketplace images or Azure Pipelines images will be disabled starting June 1, 2025, but existing pools on these images will continue to run until July 1, 2025.
-  * On July 1, 2025, Pools using Ubuntu 20.04 Selected marketplace images or Azure Pipelines images will be disabled. Agents using these images won't provision and pipelines won't run.
+  * Creation of new pools using Ubuntu 20.04 Selected marketplace images or Azure Pipelines images were disabled starting July 15, 2025, but existing pools on these images will continue to run until August 30, 2025.
+  * On August 30, 2025, Pools using Ubuntu 20.04 Selected marketplace images or Azure Pipelines images were disabled. Agents using these images won't provision and pipelines won't run.
 
 To keep your Managed DevOps Pools that currently use Ubuntu 20.04 running, update your Ubuntu 20.04 images to Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 (recommended). For more information, see [Choose your pool's image](./configure-images.md#choose-your-pools-image). If you have [multiple images](./configure-images.md#use-multiple-images-per-pool-with-aliases) in your pool, [update your aliases](./configure-images.md#configure-image-aliases) for your Ubuntu images so that your pipelines that require Ubuntu will run using the desired image.
 

docs/managed-devops-pools/features-timeline.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: Features timeline and roadmap
 description: Learn about new features in Managed DevOps Pools.
-ms.date: 06/20/2025
+ms.date: 07/15/2025
 ms.topic: overview
 #Customer intent: As a platform engineer, I want to understand the new features in Managed DevOps Pools.
 ---
@@ -12,21 +12,35 @@ ms.topic: overview
 
 The following section describes new features in development for Managed DevOps Pools.
 
-* **Log analytics**: Managed DevOps Pools is adding support so you can configure your pools to emit logs into Log analytics. The Log Analytics tool in the Azure portal lets you run and edit log queries against data in the Azure Monitor Logs store. Use Log Analytics to analyze and visualize log data using [Kusto Query Language (KQL)](/azure/azure-monitor/logs/get-started-queries) or the point-and-click experience provided in [Log Analytics simple mode](/azure/azure-monitor/logs/log-analytics-simple-mode). **Planned for June 2025.**
+* [Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Standard Support ended May 31, 2025](https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-20-04-lts-end-of-life-standard-support-is-coming-to-an-end-heres-how-to-prepare). We've removed the Ubuntu 20.04 images from [Selected marketplace images](./configure-images.md#selected-marketplace-images) and [Azure Pipelines images](./configure-images.md#azure-pipelines-images), and starting August 30, 2025, pipelines that are configured to use these deprecated images will fail to start. For more information, see [Managed DevOps Pools image lifecycle](./configure-images.md#image-lifecycle). **Planned for August 30, 2025.**
 
-* [Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Standard Support is coming to an end May 31, 2025](https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-20-04-lts-end-of-life-standard-support-is-coming-to-an-end-heres-how-to-prepare), and Managed DevOps Pools is removing the Ubuntu 20.04 images from [Selected marketplace images](./configure-images.md#selected-marketplace-images) and [Azure Pipelines images](./configure-images.md#azure-pipelines-images). For more information, see [Managed DevOps Pools image lifecycle](./configure-images.md#image-lifecycle). **Planned for June 2025.**
+* **Service Tag and new IPs**: Managed DevOps Pools control plane is going to add new IP addresses to its backend and is going to publish a service tag so teams can allowlist it to allow traffic from their Managed DevOps Pools. **Planned for September 2025.**
 
-* **Windows 2025 Azure Pipelines Image**: We're adding the [Windows Server 2025 image](https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/windows/Windows2025-Readme.md) to [Azure Pipelines images](./configure-images.md#azure-pipelines-images). **Planned for June 2025.**
+* **Log analytics**: Managed DevOps Pools is adding support so you can configure your pools to emit logs into Log analytics. The Log Analytics tool in the Azure portal lets you run and edit log queries against data in the Azure Monitor Logs store. Use Log Analytics to analyze and visualize log data using [Kusto Query Language (KQL)](/azure/azure-monitor/logs/get-started-queries) or the point-and-click experience provided in [Log Analytics simple mode](/azure/azure-monitor/logs/log-analytics-simple-mode). **Planned for September 2025.**
 
-* **Public Static IP**: We're adding support for public static IP addresses in Managed DevOps Pool to more easily enable access to external resources once [Default outbound access for VMs in Azure is retired](https://azure.microsoft.com/updates?id=default-outbound-access-for-vms-in-azure-will-be-retired-transition-to-a-new-method-of-internet-access). **Planned for July 2025.**
+* **Public Static IP**: We're adding support for public static IP addresses in Managed DevOps Pools to enable access to external resources once [Default outbound access for VMs in Azure is retired](https://azure.microsoft.com/updates?id=default-outbound-access-for-vms-in-azure-will-be-retired-transition-to-a-new-method-of-internet-access). This change with Azure will affect Managed DevOps Pools, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set agent pools, and self-hosted pools that will create a new virtual network and they will not be able to access anything outside the agent without infrastructure like a NAT gateway. New Managed DevOps Pools instances created after September 30, 2025 will be created with a NAT gateway by default and it will incur Azure costs associated. You can model how much it will cost by using the Azure cost calculator. **Planned for September 2025**. 
 
-* **Pool creation at the Azure DevOps project level using project level permissions**: To create a Managed DevOps Pool, you must currently be an [Organization-level Agent pools administrator or a Project Collection Administrator in Azure DevOps](./prerequisites.md#verify-azure-devops-permissions). We're enabling a new mode of Managed DevOps Pools creation, requiring only Project-level Agent pools administrator. Managed DevOps Pools created using Project-level Agent pools administrator will be created and enabled only for use in the designated Azure DevOps project. **Planned for August 2025.**
+* **Pool creation at the Azure DevOps project level using project level permissions**: To create a Managed DevOps Pool, you must currently be an [Organization-level Agent pools administrator and a Project-level Agent pools Administrator or Creator in Azure DevOps](./prerequisites.md#verify-azure-devops-permissions). We're enabling a new mode of Managed DevOps Pools creation, requiring only Project-level Agent pools administrator. Managed DevOps Pools created using Project-level Agent pools administrator will be created and enabled only for use in the designated Azure DevOps project. **Planned for September 2025.**
 
-* **Spot Virtual Machines instances**: Reduce your Azure cost [by up to 90%](/azure/architecture/guide/spot/spot-eviction#understand-spot-vm-pricing) by switching your non-time-critical pipelines to Spot Virtual Machines. CI/CD workloads make ideal candidates to use Spot Virtual Machines due to the ephemeral nature of CI/CD agents. For more information on Spot Virtual Machines, see [Spot Virtual Machines overview](https://azure.microsoft.com/products/virtual-machines/spot). **Planned for end of 2025.**
+* **Purge agents**: We're adding the ability for you to manually recycle your agents if desired. **Planned for September 2025.**
 
-* **Container agents**: We're adding support for provisioning a container and starting the agent inside the container. **Planned for end 2025.**
+* **Pool Alias**: We're adding the ability to add an Azure DevOps Pool name in addition to the Azure resource name to address [this ask from our community](https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Managed-Devops-Pools-Custom-agent-pool/10834336). **Planned for September 2025**.
 
-* **Purge agents**: We're adding the ability for you to manually recycle your agents if desired. **Planned for end of 2025.**
+* **Azure Pipelines image versions**: When a new image version breaks your pipeline, you can configure an [image version override demand](./demands.md#imageversionoverride) in every pipeline to [revert to the version used by the last successful pipeline run](./troubleshooting.md#check-to-see-if-there-has-been-an-image-update). With the proposed feature, you can select the image version of an Azure Pipelines image in the Managed DevOps Pools user interface, and pin your pool's image to a specific image version. **Planned for October 2025**.
+
+* **Spot Virtual Machines instances**: Reduce your Azure cost [by up to 90%](/azure/architecture/guide/spot/spot-eviction#understand-spot-vm-pricing) by switching your non-time-critical pipelines to Spot Virtual Machines. CI/CD workloads make ideal candidates to use Spot Virtual Machines due to the ephemeral nature of CI/CD agents. For more information on Spot Virtual Machines, see [Spot Virtual Machines overview](https://azure.microsoft.com/products/virtual-machines/spot). **Planned for September 2025.**
+
+* **Container agents**: We're adding support for provisioning a container and starting the agent inside the container. **Planned for early 2026.**
+
+* **Custom Startup Script**: We are adding the option to run a PowerShell script (Windows) or a shell script (Linux) for every image in a pool before they are assigned to an agent, to enable scenarios such as installing Trusted root CAs, setting environment, etc. **Planned for early 2026**.
+
+## July 2025
+
+* **Windows 2025 Azure Pipelines Image**: Managed DevOps Pools added the [Windows Server 2025 image](https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/windows/Windows2025-Readme.md) to [Azure Pipelines images](./configure-images.md#azure-pipelines-images).
+
+* [Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Standard Support ended May 31, 2025](https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-20-04-lts-end-of-life-standard-support-is-coming-to-an-end-heres-how-to-prepare), and Managed DevOps Pools removed Ubuntu 20.04 images from [Selected marketplace images](./configure-images.md#selected-marketplace-images) and [Azure Pipelines images](./configure-images.md#azure-pipelines-images). For more information, see [Managed DevOps Pools image lifecycle](./configure-images.md#image-lifecycle).
+
+* **Added support for the UK West region.**
 
 ## May 2025