Add AKS EE what's new

Author: sethmanheim

AKS-Arc/TOC.yml

@@ -188,6 +188,8 @@
     href: aks-edge-overview.md
   - name: System requirements and support matrix
     href: aks-edge-system-requirements.md
+  - name: What's new in AKS Edge Essentials
+    href: aks-edge-whats-new.md
   - name: Quickstart
     href: aks-edge-quickstart.md
   - name: Concepts

AKS-Arc/aks-edge-whats-new.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+---
+title: What's new in AKS Edge Essentials
+description: Learn about what's new in AKS Edge Essentials.
+ms.topic: overview
+ms.date: 03/12/2025
+author: sethmanheim
+ms.author: sethm 
+ms.reviewer: sumsmith
+ms.lastreviewed: 03/12/2025
+
+---
+
+# What's new in AKS Edge Essentials
+
+AKS Edge Essentials is a lightweight on-premises Kubernetes implementation of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) that automates running containerized applications at scale. This article describes the latest features, enhancements, and updates in AKS Edge Essentials.
+
+## Features and improvements
+
+This section lists the new features and improvements in AKS Arc in each release of Azure Local, version 23H2.
+
+### Release 1.10.868.0 (March 2025)
+
+The following features and improvements were added in this release:
+
+- **Enable secret encryption on AKS Edge Essentials clusters with the Key Management Service (KMS) plugin (preview)**. Following Kubernetes best practices, it's recommended that you encrypt the Kubernetes secret store on clusters. You can enable the KMS plugin in the **aks-edge** config file during deployment. The KMS plugin is set to **disabled** by default during the preview period. For more information about this feature, see the [Key Management Service (KMS) plugin (preview)](aks-edge-howto-secret-encryption.md) documentation.
+- **Key Manager for Kubernetes on AKS Edge Essentials (preview)**. [Key manager for Kubernetes](aks-edge-howto-key-manager.md) is an Azure Arc extension that automates the rotation of the signing key used to issue service account tokens. For more information about Key Manager, see [Key manager for Kubernetes](aks-edge-howto-key-manager.md).
+- **AKS Edge Essentials now connects to Azure Arc during deployment to decrease the number of required deployment steps.** Arc parameters are now required in the **aks-edge** configuration file during deployment. Starting with the next release, AKS Edge Essentials deployment will be blocked if Arc parameters are missing or invalid.
+- **The Calico CNI + K3s preview has been discontinued**. You must now use Flannel with K3s and Calico with K8s. For more information, see [Single machine deployment](aks-edge-howto-single-node-deployment.md#step-1-single-machine-configuration-parameters).
+
+### Supported versions for 1.10.868.0
+
+The component versions supported in the 1.10.868.0 release are as follows:
+
+- AKS Edge Essentials version: 1.10.868.0
+- Mariner version: 2.0.20250207
+- K8s (upstream Kubernetes) distribution: 1.29.9 (upgrade only), 1.30.5
+- K3s distribution: 1.29.9 (upgrade only), 1.30.6
+- JSON version schema: 1.15
+
+## Next steps
+
+- [AKS Edge Essentials](aks-edge-overview.md)
+- [AKS Edge Essentials requirements and support matrix](aks-edge-system-requirements.md)