Microsoft improves Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows

  • December 14, 2022
  • Steve Rogerson

Microsoft has announced the general availability of Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows (Eflow) 1.4 LTS, a long-term servicing branch that includes the 1.4 version of Azure IoT Edge.

Eflow lets users run containerised Linux workloads alongside Windows applications in Windows deployments. Businesses that rely on Windows to power their edge devices can take advantage of the cloud-native analytics being built in Linux.

It works by running a Linux virtual machine on a Windows device. The Linux virtual machine comes pre-installed with the Azure IoT Edge runtime. Any Azure IoT Edge modules deployed to the device run inside the virtual machine. Meanwhile, Windows applications running on the Windows host device can communicate with the modules running in the Linux virtual machine.

With this release, users will be able to take advantage of the latest features of Azure IoT Edge on Windows devices.

Eflow 1.4 LTS is recommended for all new production deployments and will be supported with fixes for regressions and critical security issues until November 12, 2024, according to the Azure IoT Edge product lifecycle.

Users on Eflow 1.1 LTS will be able to upgrade to Eflow 1.4 LTS without needing to reinstall. It is backwards compatible with 1.1+ and includes features that were added since the last Eflow 1.1 LTS

The Eflow CR branch will still be available in preview for those who require the latest non-LTS stable release of Azure IoT Edge. However, users can only have one version of Eflow installed at a time.

“We are continuously listening to customer feedback and bringing the latest Azure IoT Edge features to Eflow,” said Microsoft’s Martin Tuip in a blog post.

Eflow 1.4 LTS includes the following features: 

  • Latest features in Azure IoT Edge 1.4 release.
  • CBL Mariner 2.0
  • Support for additional networking configurations and control including static IP and DHCP, multiple NICs, static mac address, and DNS configurations
  • Support for exposing host hardware capabilities to the Linux workloads including TPM for DPS provisioning, camera over RTSP, serial passthrough, and USB over IP
  • Shared storage for sharing files and folders across Windows and Linux
  • GPU passthrough, including support for a broader set of GPUs
  • Support for deploying Eflow on virtualised infrastructure including VMW are Windows virtual machines