[windows, ubuntu] Az, Azure and AzureRM module preinstallation policy will be changed on March, 29th

[AlenaSviridenko]

Breaking changes
We are updating the process of preinstalling Az, Azure and AzureRM modules to Ubuntu and Windows images.
All versions, except for the latest one and the most popular one, will be stored as archives and will be extracted by Azure Powershell task or action on demand. The detailed list of changes is below:

1. Windows images
   • All Az module versions except for latest one (currently, 5.5.0) will be archived
   • All Azure modules except for the latest one (currently, 5.3.0) and 2.1.0 will be archived
   • All AzureRM modules except for the latest one (currently, 6.13.1) and 2.1.0 will be archived
2. Ubuntu images
   • All Az modules except for the latest one (currently, 5.5.0) will be archived or removed completely from the image, and will be installed by the task on demand.

Target date
Deployment of the images with changes will start on March, 29th and will take 2-4 days.

The motivation for the changes
Usually we directly install all modules versions as-is, and it causes inefficient disk space usage and brings maintenance complexity. So we are moving to the new strategy of Az, Azure and AzureRM modules support.

Possible impact
If you are using any of these modules directly without task or action — your builds will be broken.

Virtual environments affected

• Ubuntu 16.04
• Ubuntu 18.04
• Ubuntu 20.04
• macOS 10.13
• macOS 10.14
• macOS 10.15
• macOS 11.0
• Windows Server 2016 R2
• Windows Server 2019

Mitigation ways
Migrate to Azure Powershell action for GitHub Actions or Azure Powershell task for Azure DevOps.

[AlenaSviridenko]

Changes were deployed fully. Closing this issue.