Strimzi 1.3 raises its Kubernetes floor to 1.32
The Kafka operator release adds Kafka 4.2.2 and early cert-manager integration while removing Kubernetes 1.30 and 1.31 from support.
Strimzi 1.3.0 is now available with a support boundary that operators need to check before upgrading: the release supports Kubernetes 1.32 and newer, while Kubernetes 1.30 and 1.31 are no longer supported. The upstream project published the release on October 12.[^1]
What changed
The release adds support for Apache Kafka 4.2.2 and updates Kafka Exporter to 1.10.0. It also introduces early-access options for configurable encryption and authentication on internal Kafka-cluster connections and for using cert-manager to issue certificates.[^1]
Strimzi has made Buildah the only supported tool for building Kafka Connect images. The UseConnectBuildWithBuildah feature gate is now generally available and enabled without an option to disable it, while Kaniko has been removed. The release also moves background pod deletion to beta and enables it by default, though operators can still disable that gate.[^1]
Other operational changes include support for projected service-account tokens and new Grafana panels for fenced brokers, offline replicas and ISR changes. PKCS12-format certificates are now deprecated, with the project saying its keystore-generation environment variable will default to false in a future release.[^1]
Who it affects
The immediate blocker is for clusters still running Kubernetes 1.30 or 1.31: those environments are outside the supported range for Strimzi 1.3.0. Teams upgrading from 1.2.0 also need their custom resources and CRDs on the v1 API; older v1beta2, v1beta1 and v1alpha1 APIs are not supported in the 1.x line.[^1]
Teams adopting the cert-manager integration should account for a known issue. When a component is scaled down or disabled, Strimzi removes the related cert-manager Certificate resources, but switching from a cert-manager CA to a custom CA can leave earlier resources behind. The release notes direct users to delete those remaining resources manually.[^1]
What to do
Before upgrading, verify that the Kubernetes control plane is at least version 1.32 and complete any remaining Strimzi custom-resource API conversion. Review Kafka Connect build automation for Kaniko dependencies, and treat both internal-cluster security configuration and cert-manager integration as early-access features rather than production defaults.[^1]
[^1]: Strimzi 1.3.0 release
sources
- Strimzi 1.3.0 releasegithub.com
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