## [Azure Linux Container Host for AKS Clusters](https://docs.rafay.co/blog/2023/06/07/azure-linux-container-host-for-aks-clusters/)

In late May 2023, Microsoft announced General Availability of [Azure Linux Container Host](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-infrastructure-blog/introducing-the-azure-linux-container-host-for-aks/ba-p/3824101). This is based on the "[CBL Mariner](https://github.com/microsoft/CBL-Mariner)" OSS project maintained by Microsoft.

- It is an operating system image that is optimized for running container workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
- The OS image is maintained by Microsoft and based on Microsoft Azure Linux, an open-source Linux distribution created by Microsoft.
- It is lightweight, containing only the packages needed to run container workloads.
- It is hardened based on validation tests and is compatible with Azure agents.