iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 23/09/2026

Just put AKS Flex Nodes (preview) through their paces for an upcoming deep-dive blog. 🧪 Spun up a cluster, added a flexpool, scheduled a pod, watched it land. Scale-to-zero + on-demand VM capacity without the usual node pool rigidity. Full write-up soon. #AKS #Azure #Kubernetes

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 19/08/2026

🆕 AKS now lets you pick your control plane tier. H2 = 1,750 API concurrency + 200 pods/sec 🚀 H4 doubles that ⬆️ H8 doubles again ⬆️⬆️ ⚠️ Terraform not supported yet, one cluster per sub per region during preview, and you can't add it to an existing cluster. New post 👇 buff.ly/z9IRp71

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 18/08/2026

Spotted this via the AKS Docs Tracker. AKS Shared Maintenance Windows are now in preview. Create one schedule and link it to as many clusters as you need. If maintenance drift is causing you pain across environments, it's worth testing now. buff.ly/qn4sRdm #AKS #Azure #Kubernetes

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 05/08/2026

AKS folks: this Azure Policy update is worth a look. Validation now runs natively in the API server with CEL + VAP, so admission is faster and fail-close is stronger. You still get Azure Policy governance at scale. Big win for platform teams. buff.ly/1ztFYGf #Azure #AKS #Kubernetes #AzurePolicy

techcommunity.microsoft.com

Introducing Kubernetes-Native Policy Validation with CEL and VAP in Azure Policy | Microsoft Community Hub

Azure Policy for Kubernetes now supports Gatekeeper’s integration with native Kubernetes Validating Admission Policy (VAP) using Common Expression...

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 04/08/2026

AKS upgrades blocking on PDB evictions is one of those problems that seems simple until you are staring at a stuck node drain at exactly the wrong moment. 😅 Microsoft has shipped Automatic PDB Management for AKS in preview. New post covering how it works and what to test. 🔗 buff.ly/M1Ed4rX #AKS

020

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 22/07/2026

KubeBuddy v0.0.35 + Headlamp plugin v0.3.0 are out. 20 new Kubernetes checks, taking KubeBuddy to 126 Kubernetes checks, plus 43 AKS and 28 GKE checks. New Risk Paths correlate findings into direct and chained risk areas so you know what to fix first. kubebuddy.io

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 16/07/2026

Ever had AKS reimage your nodes mid-business-hours because of a config change and had no say in the matter? 🙃 AKS Node Disruption Policy is now in preview and fixes that. New post 👇 buff.ly/ubqyyzf #AKS #Azure #Kubernetes

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 13/07/2026

Bicep 0.45.6 added ociEnabled. I used it to distribute modules via ACR tokens. Access revokes the moment the contract ends. The routing rule makes it harder than it should be. New post on the workaround. buff.ly/JBWDXn1

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 06/07/2026

New AKS extension in preview: Inspektor Gadget for AKS. eBPF-powered troubleshooting for DNS, processes, network connections, dropped packets, and more, with Kubernetes context built in. Worth a look 👇 buff.ly/bC4oPhK #Azure #AKS #Kubernetes #eBPF

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 03/07/2026

Tried the AI work-life sketch trend. Apparently my career can be summarised as: Azure + Kubernetes + automation + open source + writing + speaking + building things + helping customers. Fair enough. AI created the picture in minutes. The experience behind it took a few more years.

010

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 29/06/2026

I shipped two Headlamp plugins and wrote up exactly what they do, why I built them, and how to get them running. One scans your cluster for issues without touching any cluster config. One builds branded themes in the browser. Blog post 👇 buff.ly/aOOBA1a #Kubernetes #Headlamp #KubeBuddy

001

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 23/06/2026

KubeBuddy v0.0.31 is live, now with the first KubeBuddy Headlamp plugin. Run Kubernetes health checks directly in Headlamp with cluster score, priority findings, section breakdowns, namespace exclusions, and CSV/JSON export. buff.ly/xr1nwsz #Kubernetes #Headlamp #CloudNative

110

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 04/06/2026

🚀 Microsoft shipped cert-manager as an Arc Kubernetes extension. The docs say Arc-enabled clusters only. 🤔 I pointed it at a normal AKS cluster instead. Turns out the docs are... conservative. 👀 Full walkthrough including Gateway API + Let's Encrypt end-to-end 🔐: buff.ly/6p1xWAv

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 14/05/2026

The AKS docs explain features well. What I wanted to write was a guide to the trade-offs, production mistakes, and decisions that actually shape your cluster over time. That’s The AKS Book. Kindle UK: buff.ly/znFbjzN #AKS #CloudNative

100

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 06/05/2026

Most AKS problems don’t start during an outage. They start on day one with networking, identity, scaling, and cost decisions. The AKS Book is the practical guide I wish I’d had years ago. Paperback UK: buff.ly/gcEbVyy #AKS #Azure

011

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 28/04/2026

AKS is easy to create. Living with the wrong decisions is the hard part. I wrote The AKS Book for the choices that are hard to reverse, expensive to get wrong, or painful in production. Kindle US: buff.ly/gvXREtr #AKS #Azure #Kubernetes

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 27/04/2026

AKS managedNATGatewayV2 is now in public preview. Zone-redundant egress by default, IPv6 outbound, and flow logs. The catch: your outbound IP model is locked at cluster creation and migration to V2 is a one-way door. Full post with Bicep and CLI examples: buff.ly/gtiCFlB

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 22/04/2026

🚀 KubeBuddy v0.0.29 is out! GKE is now fully supported — 22 new best practice checks, live scanning with --gke, and Google Managed Prometheus support built in. 🎉 kubebuddy.io #Kubernetes #GKE #CloudNative

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 15/04/2026

KubeBuddy v0.0.28 is out 🚀 Now fully Go-native with native binaries, AKS + Prometheus support, AI/Radar integration, reports, AKS Automatic Migration Readiness, and a new TUI. No PowerShell runtime, az, kubectl, or kubelogin in the active path. kubebuddy.io

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 15/04/2026

Microsoft just shipped Container Network Insight Agent for AKS in public preview. AI-powered network diagnostics inside your cluster. Describe the problem in plain English, get root cause analysis and exact fix commands back. Full walkthrough: buff.ly/lHSUEHw #AKS #Azure #Kubernetes

131

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 11/03/2026

🚀 The AKS Book is live on Kindle! 17 chapters. Every production AKS decision that matters. Not a tutorial, a decision guide. Foreword by Brendan Burns, co-creator of Kubernetes. Paperback live on Monday. 📖 buff.ly/EURIa27 #AKS #Azure #Kubernetes

011

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 26/02/2026

KubeBuddy v0.0.24 is live 🚀 Big updates in this release: 📈 Prometheus rightsizing insights (PROM006/PROM007) for nodes and pods, helping you tune CPU/memory requests and limits using real usage trends. If you’re running Kubernetes/AKS, give it a try and tell us what you want next 🙌 kubebuddy.io

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 25/02/2026

With NGINX Ingress retirement hitting next month, a lot of people are asking: "What's next?" 🤔 I have been recommending Envoy Gateway, so thought I'd better spend some time documenting what actually works on AKS. Check it out at: buff.ly/WRXfSNa #Kubernetes #AKS #Azure #EnvoyGateway #GatewayAPI

010

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 20/02/2026

AKS Automatic just got more flexible 🚀 Deployment Safeguards will no longer deny workloads missing startup, liveness, or readiness probes. They now warn instead. This makes it much easier to deploy third-party Helm charts without extensive modification

010

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 18/02/2026

🚨 Starting in ~30 mins: AKS Community Call! Join to hear the latest updates, roadmap insights, and connect directly with the Azure Kubernetes Service team. Great chance to learn what’s coming next and ask questions live. 👉 blog.aks.azure.com/webinars/ #AKS #Azure #Kubernetes #CloudNative

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 22/12/2025

Finally found time to write up my findings on the NGINX Ingress retirement ⚠️ (March 2026). Full write-up: buff.ly/7oFfsYC

000

Reposted by Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper)

Howard van Rooijen @hvr.endj.in · 22/11/2025

I've been tracking Flatcar for a few years and it's fantastic that it's*finally* supported on AKS. Great article by @pixelrobots.co.uk

011

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 17/11/2025

📚 Working on something new: "The AKS Book: The Real-World Guide to Azure Kubernetes Service" A practical guide covering everything from cluster setup decisions to production war stories. No fluff, just the lessons learned from running AKS in the real world. What do you think of the cover? 👇

150

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 10/11/2025

Looks like the new Kubernetes Center is available in the preview portal. preview.portal.azire.com

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 10/11/2025

Some multi-tenant security updates. Managed namespaces going GA super quick!

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 10/11/2025

Security updates for networking too. AGC WAF going GA is awesome!

000

Pixel Robots. ☁️☸️ (Richard Hooper) @pixelrobots.co.uk · 10/11/2025

Even workload security has been updated. Identity bindings is super cool. And now ABAC support for ACR is a game changer! And deployment safeguard has gone GA.