Kubernetes releases & version history

Kubernetes releases drive cloud-native infrastructure evolution, with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) delivering orchestration platform updates that define container management, service mesh integration, and distributed systems patterns for organizations worldwide. This complete Kubernetes release history documents every major version from Kubernetes 1.0 through the latest updates, tracking API graduations, security enhancements, scheduling improvements, and breaking changes that affect DevOps engineers, site reliability engineers, and platform architects managing production container workloads.

Since its 2014 release by Google and subsequent open-sourcing, Kubernetes has evolved from an internal container orchestration tool (Borg) into the de facto standard for cloud-native infrastructure—powering production systems at Spotify, Airbnb, The New York Times, and countless enterprises. Each release (shipped quarterly) introduces critical capabilities: StatefulSets enabled persistent workloads in 1.5, CustomResourceDefinitions (CRDs) revolutionized extensibility in 1.7-1.16, Pod Security Standards replaced PSPs in 1.21-1.25, and Gateway API is reshaping ingress in 1.26+.

Why Track Kubernetes Releases?

Navigate API Deprecations and Removals Kubernetes regularly deprecates APIs with removal typically 3 releases later (9 months). Tracking releases helps platform teams identify when critical APIs sunset (Ingress extensions/v1beta1 → networking.k8s.io/v1, PodSecurityPolicy removal in 1.25), plan YAML manifest migrations, and update Helm charts before upgrades fail with “no matches for kind” errors.

Adopt Security Enhancements and CVE Fixes New Kubernetes releases frequently patch critical vulnerabilities affecting API server, kubelet, or container runtime integration. Understanding release security content helps SRE teams prioritize urgent upgrades (CVE fixes requiring immediate action) versus feature releases (safe to schedule during maintenance windows), maintaining cluster security posture without emergency downtime.

Leverage New Features for Platform Capabilities Kubernetes evolves with features that reduce operational complexity: Job immutability reduces debugging challenges, CronJob time zones simplify scheduling, ephemeral containers enable production debugging without image rebuilds, topology-aware routing reduces cross-AZ traffic costs. Tracking releases helps platform teams discover capabilities that replace custom tooling.

Plan Managed Kubernetes Upgrades Cloud providers (EKS, GKE, AKS) lag community releases by 1-3 months and control upgrade timing. Our release guides help you understand what’s coming to managed clusters, plan application compatibility testing windows, and coordinate control plane upgrades with node pool updates to minimize service impact.

Use Cases: Who Uses This Release History?

Platform Engineers and Kubernetes Administrators Monitor API changes, feature gate graduations, and operational improvements. Understand when to upgrade for stability (bug fixes, performance improvements) versus features. Track when beta APIs become stable, enabling production use without feature gate flags.

Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) Track security patches, reliability improvements, and observability enhancements. Know when new Kubernetes versions fix issues affecting your incidents, when health check improvements reduce false positives, or when scheduler changes affect pod placement reliability.

DevOps Engineers and CI/CD Architects Plan Kubernetes upgrades across development, staging, and production clusters. Understand when kubectl version skew matters, when admission webhook APIs change, or when new container runtime features (containerd, CRI-O) require testing.

Application Developers on Kubernetes Monitor changes to core resources (Deployments, Services, Ingress) and workload APIs (Jobs, CronJobs, StatefulSets). Know when new features simplify application patterns (sidecar containers, pod readiness gates, multi-container startup ordering) or when YAML manifests need updates for deprecated APIs.

Security and Compliance Teams Track Pod Security Standards evolution, secret management improvements, RBAC enhancements, and audit logging changes. Understand when new Kubernetes versions introduce security controls that replace third-party policy engines or require configuration updates for compliance.

FAQ Section

How often does Kubernetes release new versions? Kubernetes ships a new minor version (1.28, 1.29, 1.30) approximately every 3 months, targeting January, April, July, and October. Patch releases (1.29.1, 1.29.2) ship as needed for bug fixes and security patches—sometimes weekly during active support. Each minor version receives ~12 months of support (latest 3 releases).

What’s the Kubernetes version support policy? The latest three minor versions receive patch updates. For example, when 1.30 releases, 1.29, 1.28, and 1.27 remain supported; 1.26 reaches end-of-life. This means ~12 months of support per release. Plan upgrades at least twice yearly to stay within the support window.

Can I skip Kubernetes minor versions during upgrades? No for control plane upgrades—you can only upgrade one minor version at a time (1.27 → 1.28 → 1.29, not 1.27 → 1.29 directly). This is a Kubernetes API compatibility requirement. Managed Kubernetes services (EKS, GKE, AKS) typically handle this automatically, but self-managed clusters require sequential upgrades. Our guides document cumulative breaking changes when planning multi-version jumps.

How do I know if upgrading Kubernetes will break my workloads? Check our release guide for the target version—we document deprecated/removed APIs, breaking changes, and feature gate requirements. Test in a non-production cluster: deploy your applications, run integration tests, verify admission webhooks and operators still function. Use kubectl-convert to migrate deprecated API versions in manifests.

What are feature gates and when should I enable them? Feature gates control alpha/beta functionality. Alpha features (disabled by default) are experimental and may break. Beta features (often enabled by default) are stable enough for testing but may change. GA (generally available) features are stable with gates removed. Only enable feature gates for specific needs in production—our guides track feature gate graduations.

What’s the difference between control plane and node upgrades? Control plane upgrades update API server, controller manager, scheduler, and etcd—usually managed by cloud providers for managed services. Node upgrades update kubelet and container runtime—you control timing via node pool updates or manual upgrades. Control plane must upgrade first; nodes can lag by 2 minor versions.

Should I use managed Kubernetes (EKS, GKE, AKS) or self-managed? Managed Kubernetes (EKS, GKE, AKS) handles control plane upgrades, security patches, and high availability—recommended for most organizations. Self-managed Kubernetes (kubeadm, kops, Rancher) provides more control but requires dedicated platform engineering expertise. Our guides note managed vs. self-managed considerations for breaking changes.

Where does ReleaseRun get Kubernetes release data? We aggregate from official Kubernetes release notes (https://kubernetes.io/releases/), GitHub release tags (https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/releases), Kubernetes Enhancement Proposals (KEPs), and the kubernetes-announce mailing list. Each release guide links to original announcements, KEPs, and deprecation notices.

How detailed are ReleaseRun’s Kubernetes release guides? Our guides average [~1,000] words and include: comprehensive API change documentation with YAML migration examples, security fix summaries with CVE references, feature gate graduation tracking, breaking change analysis with remediation steps, performance improvements and benchmarks, upgrade complexity assessments, managed Kubernetes timeline estimates (EKS/GKE/AKS availability), and operator/tooling compatibility notes. They’re designed for platform engineers who need strategic upgrade context beyond raw changelogs.

Does Kubernetes maintain backward compatibility? Within minor versions (1.29.1 → 1.29.5): yes, fully backward compatible. Between minor versions: API objects maintain compatibility, but deprecated APIs eventually remove after announced timelines. Kubernetes follows strict deprecation policies (minimum 9 months warning for stable APIs). Our guides distinguish between expected deprecations and surprising breaking changes.

Resources Section

Official Kubernetes Resources

• Kubernetes Release Notes – Official version documentation and timelines
• GitHub Releases – Technical release tags and changelogs
• Kubernetes Enhancement Proposals (KEPs) – Feature design documents
• Kubernetes Deprecation Policy – API versioning and removal guidelines
• Kubernetes Blog – Release announcements and feature deep-dives

How ReleaseRun Complements Official Documentation
Kubernetes release notes are comprehensive but optimized for contributors and API consumers, mixing features across SIG (Special Interest Group) categories. ReleaseRun release guides focus on operational impact: we categorize changes by persona (platform engineer vs. app developer vs. security team), provide cumulative upgrade impact analysis for multi-version jumps, include before/after YAML examples for API migrations, benchmark performance improvements in realistic cluster workloads, and provide managed Kubernetes timeline predictions. Our guides serve as the strategic implementation layer between Kubernetes’ technical changelog and your cluster upgrade plan, with specific downtime mitigation strategies and rollback procedures.