Azure Automation ends support for the Python 2.7, Python 3.8, PowerShell 7.1, and PowerShell 7.2 runbook runtime versions

Microsoft is retiring four ageing runbook runtimes in Azure Automation. In an Azure Updates retirement notice, Microsoft says that from 1 October 2026 — i.e. after a 30 September 2026 retirement — Python 2.7, Python 3.8, PowerShell 7.1, and PowerShell 7.2 will no longer be supported by Azure Automation.

This is a support cut-off, not an immediate shutoff. Microsoft is explicit that “runbooks using these versions may continue to run,” but they “will not receive security updates, bug fixes, or official support” after the date. In practice that turns any runbook left on these runtimes into unmaintained code executing inside your Azure tenant.

Who this affects

Anyone whose Azure Automation runbooks are pinned to Python 2.7, Python 3.8, PowerShell 7.1, or PowerShell 7.2. These are exactly the runtimes teams tend to forget about: an operational runbook written a few years ago, still firing on a schedule, doing real work — patching, provisioning, cleanup, alerting — on a runtime nobody has looked at since. Those are the ones that quietly fall out of support on 30 September 2026.

What to do

Microsoft’s recommended action is to upgrade affected runbooks to supported runtime versions of Python and PowerShell before the retirement date. Its notice links two references for picking a supported target — the PowerShell support lifecycle and Python version support status — and frames the upgrade as required “to maintain support eligibility and ensure continued access to security updates and platform features.”

A practical path:

1. Inventory your Automation accounts for runbooks whose runtime is Python 2.7 / 3.8 or PowerShell 7.1 / 7.2.
2. Re-target each to a supported runtime version and fix any version-specific breakage (PowerShell 7.2 → a newer 7.x, and the long-dead Python 2.7 in particular may need real code changes).
3. Test the runbook on the new runtime, then cut it over — the old runtimes keep executing until the date, so you can migrate and validate one runbook at a time rather than all at once.