Cloud Services (extended support) will be retired on 31 March 2027

Question

Cloud Services (extended support) will be retired on 31 March 2027

Nischay 125

Got this notification from Azure:-

Cloud Services (extended support) will be retired on 31 March 2027 – Transition to Service Fabric managed cluster

You're receiving this notification because you're associated with one or more Azure subscriptions that use Cloud Services (extended support). Cloud Services (extended support) will be retired on 31 March 2027, please transition to Service Fabric managed cluster by that date. Migrating from Cloud Services (Extended Support) to Service Fabric managed cluster enhances the scalability, flexibility, and reliability of your Azure deployments. From now to 31 March 2027, you can continue to use Cloud Services (extended support) without disruption. To avoid service disruption, migrate workloads running Cloud Services (extended support) to Service Fabric managed clusters by 31 March 2027.

Here is some additional information about our Cloud Service:-

Legacy enterprise backend built on the classic Microsoft stack.

Core type: Monolithic backend solution for content, licensing, and campaign/submission workflows.
Tech stack: C# / .NET Framework 4.8, ASP.NET MVC 5 + Web API 2, Entity Framework 6, 1 Web role, 0 Worker role
Data layer: SQL Server via old Entity Framework (EDMX/EF CaDb context and related entities).
Platform integrations: Azure Blob Storage, Notification Hubs/Service Bus-era libraries, Cloud Services (extended support) deployment model.

Please share any recommended steps/solutions to address this?

Nischay 125 Reputation points

2026-03-30T10:22:11.9+00:00
Hi Ankit,

Thanks for your response. In migrating to Fabric, it seems a lot of refactoring will be required and majority of our backend will have to be redone. Could you please provide documentation or step-by-step guidance on how to migrate our Cloud Service (extended support) to App Service? Here is the description provided earlier for our Cloud Service (extended support):-

Core type: Monolithic backend solution for content, licensing, and campaign/submission workflows.

Tech stack: C# / .NET Framework 4.8, ASP.NET MVC 5 + Web API 2, Entity Framework 6, 1 Web role, 0 Worker role

Data layer: SQL Server via old Entity Framework (EDMX/EF CaDb context and related entities).

Platform integrations: Azure Blob Storage, Notification Hubs/Service Bus-era libraries, Cloud Services (extended support) deployment model.

If you think I should put this as a new question, please let me know :)
Ankit Yadav 12,825 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-30T16:10:32.27+00:00

Hello @Nischay, Absolutely, please go ahead and post a new question for this, since it's a specific request about migrating from Azure Cloud Services to Azure App Services!

And yes, don’t forget to click "Accept Answer" for this query—it really helps the community!

Answer accepted by question author

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Nischay 125 Reputation points

2026-03-30T10:22:11.9+00:00

Hi Ankit,

Thanks for your response. In migrating to Fabric, it seems a lot of refactoring will be required and majority of our backend will have to be redone. Could you please provide documentation or step-by-step guidance on how to migrate our Cloud Service (extended support) to App Service? Here is the description provided earlier for our Cloud Service (extended support):-

Core type: Monolithic backend solution for content, licensing, and campaign/submission workflows.

Tech stack: C# / .NET Framework 4.8, ASP.NET MVC 5 + Web API 2, Entity Framework 6, 1 Web role, 0 Worker role

Data layer: SQL Server via old Entity Framework (EDMX/EF CaDb context and related entities).

Platform integrations: Azure Blob Storage, Notification Hubs/Service Bus-era libraries, Cloud Services (extended support) deployment model.

If you think I should put this as a new question, please let me know :)
Ankit Yadav 12,825 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-30T16:10:32.27+00:00

Hello @Nischay, Absolutely, please go ahead and post a new question for this, since it's a specific request about migrating from Azure Cloud Services to Azure App Services!

And yes, don’t forget to click "Accept Answer" for this query—it really helps the community!

Answer 1

Ankit Yadav 12,825 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello Nischay,

Yes the notification is correct and expected.

What it means:

You can keep using Cloud Services (extended support) until 31 March 2027. However, to avoid any service disruption, you must complete your migration before this date. Extensions will not be granted, and there is no one-click migration tool because your application will need some changes in how it is built and deployed.

What this means for your setup

For your shared environment, you can keep a similar overall architecture. The main change is replacing your current Cloud Services (CSES) deployment with a Service Fabric application. Your existing Web Role can be converted into a Service Fabric stateless service.

Important things to note:

Service Fabric does not support IIS.
Your web application will need to move to a self-hosted framework, such as ASP.NET Core.
If you’re using:
- ASP.NET MVC -> this can be upgraded to ASP.NET Core MVC
- ASP.NET Web Forms -> this is not supported and will require a redesign

Recommended steps:

Review your application dependencies, scaling needs, and overall readiness.
Plan the conversion of your Web Role into a stateless service, including moving away from IIS/System.Web.
Set up a Service Fabric managed cluster as your new platform.
Move your configuration and packaging from .csdef / .cscfg files to Service Fabric formats.
Deploy your application to the cluster and perform thorough testing.

References:

Nischay 125 Reputation points

2026-03-27T23:06:26.3933333+00:00
Hi Ankit,

Thanks for your detailed response. We had a few follow-up questions after reviewing your answer:

You mentioned that we would need to upgrade from ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core MVC. Could you please share more details on why this upgrade is required and how complex would that be? Our current stack is ASP.NET MVC (Razor Views) + jQuery + Bootstrap 3 + Knockout.js, so we're trying to understand what components would need to change?

Could you also provide more information and guidance on how to move configuration and packaging from .csdef / .cscfg files to Service Fabric formats? Any documentation or step-by-step guidance would be very helpful.

Finally, are there any other options or alternatives we should consider? Is moving to Service Fabric the only recommended approach, or are there other migration paths available? We're just trying to understand the scope and complexity of the migration so we can plan this properly.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,

Nischay
Ankit Yadav 12,825 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-30T09:28:49.6666667+00:00

Hello Nischay,

According to Microsoft Q&A guidelines, please refrain from posting multiple queries within a single thread. Kindly create a new thread for each individual query to ensure prompt and efficient responses. See here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/support/quality-question#avoid-posting-multiple-questions-in-a-single-thread

Please find answers to your queries below:

Regarding #1,

Upgrade from .NET MVC to .NET Core MVC is required because

unlike Web Roles, Service Fabric does not support IIS. To migrate a web application from a Web Role to a stateless service requires first moving to a web framework that can be self-hosted and doesn't depend on IIS or System.Web, such as ASP.NET Core 1.

Refer: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-cloud-services-migration-worker-role-stateless-service#web-role-to-stateless-service

Regarding #2,

please refer here for the guidance (look for Startup section of the page where it mentions the difference between configurations from VM, Cloud Services and Service Fabric): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-cloud-services-migration-worker-role-stateless-service#cloud-services-extended-support-project-to-service-fabric-application-project

Regarding #3,

there are other alternatives listed out here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/overview#additional-migration-options

like VMSS, App Service but general recommendation is to go for Azure Service Fabric.

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Cloud Services (extended support) will be retired on 31 March 2027

Cloud Services (extended support) will be retired on 31 March 2027 – Transition to Service Fabric managed cluster

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