announcement: end of support for Node.js 18.x in the Azure SDK for JavaScript

[maorleger]

After July 10, 2025, the Azure SDK for JavaScript will no longer support Node.js 18.x, which reaches end-of-life on April 30, 2025.

As a reminder of the Azure SDK for JavaScript support policy, dropping support for such Node.js versions may be done without increasing the major version of the Azure SDK libraries.

We encourage you to upgrade to an Active Node.js Long Term Support (LTS) version.

For more details, see our blog post.

[timtucker]

It feels like there's a major issue in alignment between Microsoft releases and Node LTS releases.

Ideal ordering for releases:

• New Node LTS version (N) is released and becomes the "Current" version
• MS SDKs and platforms add "Preview" support
• LTS version becomes "Active"
• MS SDKs and platforms have GA support
• MS / Node remind everyone that (N-2) will be no longer supported in X months
• Customers have months to jump from (N-2) to (N) and not need to update Node versions for 2+ years (the "long term" part of LTS)
• Node & MS support for support for (N-2) is discontinued

The order we see happening instead:

• New Node LTS version (N) is released and becomes the "Current" version
• LTS release becomes the "Active" version
• MS starts offering preview support for the new version
• MS / Node remind everyone that (N-2) will be no longer supported in X months
• The only supported option for customers is migrating to (N-1)
• Node & MS support for support for (N-2) is discontinued
• MS support for (N) is generally available

Examples:

Azure Functions still doesn't support Node 22:
Azure/azure-functions-nodejs-library#252

In the case of Static Web Apps, documentation still refers to support for Node 20 as only being in "Preview":
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/static-web-apps/languages-runtimes

There's been an open GitHub issue noting this for months with no comment from anyone at MS:
Azure/static-web-apps#1534

[xirzec]

@timtucker Definitely hear the feedback on Azure Functions and Web Apps not being well aligned with the Node LTS schedule. I can pass that along, but I think it means more coming directly from customers, especially if you file a support request: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-portal/supportability/how-to-create-azure-support-request

For SDK packages maintained in this repo, we try our best to test against the latest stable Node releases and are happy to resolve any issues with Node 22. You can see our current pipeline matrix here:

azure-sdk-for-js/eng/pipelines/templates/stages/platform-matrix.json

Line 20 in 996e392

"NodeTestVersion": ["18.x", "20.x", "22.x"],