Release notes for CloudNativePG 1.18

History of user-visible changes in the 1.18 minor release of CloudNativePG.

For a complete list of changes, please refer to the commits on the release branch in GitHub.

Version 1.18.5

Release date: June 12, 2023

Enhancements:

• Add the snapshot command to the cnpg plugin to create a consistent cold backup of the cluster from a standby using the Kubernetes VolumeSnapshot standard resource (#1960)
• First implementation of recovery from a set of CSI VolumeSnapshot resources via the .spec.bootstrap.recovery.volumeSnapshot stanza (#1960)
• Add pg_failover_slots to managed extensions (#2057)
• Improved Grafana dashboard with updated instructions in the documentation and the quickstart guide (#1916)
• Introduce the schemaOnly option in the import stanza, to avoid exporting and importing data when you bootstrap a new Postgres Cluster from one or more existing databases (#2234)
• Add support for TopologySpreadConstraints to manage scheduling of instance pods (#2202)
• Add PodMonitor support to the Poolerfor PgBouncer (#2034)
• Add option to override the default Kubernetes scheduler (#2013)
• Allow configuration of deployment strategy of a Pooler resource (#1983)
• Update default PostgreSQL version to 15.3 (#2022)
• Use PgBouncer 1.19 by default (#2018)

Technical enhancements:

• Updated k8s kind tested versions (#2054)
• Use separate transactions to reconcile role credentials. Before this patch, the operator would revert the synchronization of all roles if one failed (#2004)
• Ensure fencing is removed during cluster restore (#1987)
• Improve logging when deleting Pods (#2136)

Fixes:

• Fix unbound variable with k3s engine which could prevent setup on K3’s (#2157)
• Report the correct PG version in the metrics (#2126)
• Use the correct walStorage key in the documentation (#2140)
• Halt reconciliation when the operator cannot connect with the instances, and provide a clear diagnostic on such occasions. This will help clarify cases where network issues obstruct normal operation of CloudNativePG (#2145), (#2233), and (#2242)

Version 1.18.4

Release date: April 27, 2023

Enhancements:

• Improve the --logs option of the report command of the cnpg plugin for kubectl to also include the previous logs where available (#1811)
• The -any service is now disabled by default (#1755)

Security:

• Enable customization of SeccompProfile through override via a local file (#1827)

Fixes:

• Apply the PostgreSQL configuration provided by the user during the initdb bootstrap phase, before the server is started the first time (#1858)

Version 1.18.3

Release date: March 20, 2023

Enhancements:

• Extend the debug cluster's log level to the initdb job (#1503)
• Support IPv6 and custom pg_hba for the PgBouncer pooler (#1395)
• Enhance observability of backups with two new metrics and additional information in the status (#1428)
• Document API calls from the instance manager (#1641)
• Clarify deployment name via Helm (#1505)
• Add the psql command to the cnpg plugin for kubectl (#1668) allowing the user to start a psql session with a pod (the primary by default)

Technical enhancements:

• Adopt Renovate for dependency tracking/updating (#1367, #1473)
• Inject binaries for all supported architectures in the operator image (#1513)
• Use the backup name to match resources in the backup object store (#1650) Leverages the --name option introduced with Barman 3.3 to make the association between backups and the object store more robust.

Fixes:

• Prevent panic with error handling in the probes (#1716)
• Ensure that the HTTP package and controller runtime logs are in JSON format (#1442)
• Adds WAL storage to a cluster in a single instance Cluster (#1570)
• Various improvements to make backup code more robust (#1536, #1564, #1588, #1466, #1647)
• Properly show WAL archiving information with status command of the cnpg plugin (#1666)
• Ensure nodeAffinity is applied even if AdditionalPodAffinity and AdditionalPodAntiAffinity are not set (#1663)

Version 1.18.2

Release date: Feb 14, 2023

Enhancements:

• Introduce support for Kubernetes' projected volumes (#1269)
• Introduce support custom environment variables for finer control of the PostgreSQL server process (#1275)
• Introduce the backup command in the cnpg plugin for kubectl to issue a new base backup of the cluster (#1348)
• Improve support for the separate WAL volume feature by enabling users to move WAL files to a dedicated volume on an existing Postgres cluster (#1066)
• Enhance WAL observability with additional metrics for the Prometheus exporter, including values equivalent to the min_wal_size, max_wal_size, keep_wal_size, wal_keep_segments, as well as the maximum number of WALs that can be stored in the dedicated volume (#1382)
• Add a database comment on the streaming_replica user (#1349)
• Document the firewall issues with webhooks on GKE (#1364)
• Add note about postgresql.conf in recovery (#1211)
• Add instructions on installing plugin using packages (#1357)
• Specify Postgres versions supported by each minor release (#1355)
• Clarify the meaning of PVC group in CloudNativePG (#1344)
• Add an example of the DigitalOcean S3-compatible Spaces (#1289)

Technical enhancements:

• Added daily end-to-end smoke test for release branches (#1235)

Fixes:

• Skip executing a CHECKPOINT as the streaming_replica user (#1408)
• Make waitForWalArchiveWorking resilient to connection errors (#1399)
• Ensure that the PVC roles are always consistent (#1380)
• Permit walStorage resize when using pvcTemplate (#1315)
• Ensure ExecCommand obeys timeout (#1242)
• Avoid PodMonitor reconcile if Prometheus is not installed (#1238)
• Avoid looking for PodMonitor when not needed (#1213)

Version 1.18.1

Release date: Dec 21, 2022

Important announcements:

• Alert on the impending deprecation of postgresql as a label to identify the CNPG cluster. In the remote case you have used this label, please start using the cnpg.io/cluster label instead (#1130)
• Recognizing Armando Ruocco (@armru) as a new CloudNativePG maintainer for his consistent and impactful contributions (#1167)
• Remove ARMv7 support (#1092)
• FINAL patch release for 1.16: 1.16.5. Release 1.16 reaches end of life.

Enhancements:

• Customize labels and annotations for the service account: add a service account template that can be used, for example, to make authentication easier via identity management on GKE or EKS via IRSA (#1105)
• Add nodeAffinity support (#1182) - allows for richer scheduling options
• Improve compatibility with Istio: add support for Istio's quit endpoint so that jobs with Istio sidecars do not run indefinitely (#967)
• Allow fields remapping in JSON logs: helpful for use cases where the level and ts fields might interfere with the existing logging (#843)
• Add fio command to the kubectl-cnpg plugin (#1097)
• Add rpm/deb package for kubectl-cnpg plugin (#1008)
• Update default PostgreSQL version for new cluster definitions to 15.1 (#908)
• Documentation
• Remove references to CNPG sandbox (#1120) - the CNPG sandbox has been deprecated, in favor of instructions on monitoring in the Quickstart documentation
• Link to the "Release updates" discussion (#1148) - the release updates discussion will become the default channel for release announcements and discussions
• Document emeritus status for maintainers in GOVERNANCE.md (#1033) - explains how maintainers should proceed if they are not ready to continue contributing
• Improve instructions on creating pull requests (#1132)
• Troubleshooting emergency backup instructions (#1184)
• Cover the Kubernetes layer in greater detail in the Architecture documentation (#1432)

Fixes:

• Ensure PGDATA permissions on bootstrap are properly set to 750 (#1164)
• Ensure the PVC containing WALs is deleted when scaling down the cluster (#1135)
• Fix missing ApiVersion and Kind in the pgbench manifest when using --dry-run (#1088)
• Ensure that we create secrets and services only when not found (#1145)
• Respect configured pg-wal when restoring (#1216)
• Filter out replicas from nodeToClusters map (#1194)

Technical enhancements:

• Use ciclops for test summary (#1064): rely on the ciclops GitHub action to provide summaries of the E2E suite, inheriting improvements from that project
• Add backport pull request workflow (#965) - automatically backport patches to release branches if they are so annotated
• Make the operator log level configurable in e2e test suite (#1094)
• Enable test execution based on labels (#951)
• Update Go version from 1.18 to 1.19 (#1166)

Version 1.18.0

Release date: Nov 10, 2022

Features:

• Cluster-managed physical replication slots for High Availability: automatically manages physical replication slots for each hot standby replica in the High Availability cluster, both in the primary and the standby (#740)
• Postgres cluster hibernation: introduces cluster hibernation via the plugin, with a new subcommand kubectl cnpg hibernate on/off/status <cluster-name>. Hibernation destroys all the resources generated by the cluster, except the PVCs that belong to the PostgreSQL primary instance (#782)

Security:

• Add SeccomProfile to Pods and Containers (#888)

Enhancements:

• Allow omitting the storage size in the cluster spec if there is a size request in the pvcTemplate (#914)
• status command for the cnpg plugin:
• Add replication slots information (#873)
• Clarify display for fenced clusters (#886)
• Improve display for replica clusters (#871)
• Documentation:
• Improve monitoring page, providing instructions on how to evaluate the observability capabilities of CloudNativePG on a local system using Prometheus and Grafana (#968)
• Add page on design reasons for custom controller (#918)
• Updates to the End-to-End Test Suite page (#945)
• New subcommands in the cnpg plugin:
  • pgbench generates a job definition executing pgbench against a cluster (#958)
  • install generates an installation manifest for the operator (#944)
• Set PostgreSQL 15.0 as the new default version (#821)

Fixes:

• Import a database with plpgsql functions (#974)
• Properly find the closest backup when doing Point-in-time recovery (#949)
• Clarify that the ScheduledBackup format does not follow Kubernetes CronJob format (#883)
• Bases the failover logic on the Postgres information from the instance manager, rather than Kubernetes pod readiness, which could be stale (#890)
• Ensure we have a WAL to archive for every newly created cluster. The lack could prevent backups from working (#897)
• Correct YAML key names for barmanObjectStore in documentation (#877)
• Fix krew release (#866)