...
How do I know maintenance is happening?
- In the Azure portal you can add the "Maintenance" column
- Scheduled maintenance is reported to Azure Activity Logs so you can create a Health Alert based on that
What can I do to minimize downtime?
- If the host does not require a reboot, Azure will pause your VM, patch the host, and then resume the VM
- If the host does require a reboot, you will, typically, get notice 35 days in advance
Links
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/maintenance-notifications
...