fix(fencing): remove pod existence check from FencingMetadataExecutor - #10035

…#10035)

Remove the pod existence check from the executor, as fencing operates on
a Cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence. Move
instance validation to the kubectl plugin fencingOn command instead.

Closes #10034

Signed-off-by: Marco Nenciarini <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Armando Ruocco <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Armando Ruocco <[email protected]>
(cherry picked from commit 3d6e698)

…#10035)

Remove the pod existence check from the executor, as fencing operates on
a Cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence. Move
instance validation to the kubectl plugin fencingOn command instead.

Closes #10034

Signed-off-by: Marco Nenciarini <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Armando Ruocco <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Armando Ruocco <[email protected]>
(cherry picked from commit 3d6e698)

…#10035)

Remove the pod existence check from the executor, as fencing operates on
a Cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence. Move
instance validation to the kubectl plugin fencingOn command instead.

Closes #10034

Signed-off-by: Marco Nenciarini <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Armando Ruocco <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Armando Ruocco <[email protected]>
(cherry picked from commit 3d6e698)

##### [\`v1.28.2\`](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/releases/tag/v1.28.2)

**Release date:** Mar 31, 2026

##### Important changes

- Updated the deprecation notice for native (in-tree) Barman Cloud support to reflect that it will now be removed in CloudNativePG 1.30.0, rather than 1.29.0. Users are still encouraged to migrate to the Barman Cloud Plugin. ([#10167](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10167)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

##### Enhancements

- Improved the `Pooler` CRD with support for granular configuration of TLS cipher suites and minimum/maximum TLS versions. This enables administrators to meet strict security compliance requirements for pooler-to-client and pooler-to-server connections. Contributed by [@alex1989hu](https://github.com/alex1989hu). ([#9571](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9571)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Improved the reliability of major upgrades by setting `BackoffLimit=0` on the upgrade job, preventing unnecessary retries of a failed `pg_upgrade`. The operator now automatically deletes the failed job when a user reverts the container image, allowing the cluster to restart gracefully on the original version. ([#10104](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10104), [#10298](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10298)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Improved role management by verifying the instance is the primary before each reconciliation cycle, avoiding unnecessary reconciliation attempts and spurious error messages on read-only replicas. ([#9971](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9971)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Extended the CRD schemas for `Cluster`, `ImageCatalog`, and `ClusterImageCatalog` to accept the `extensions`, `bin_path`, and `env` fields introduced in 1.29. The operator ignores these fields on older versions, but accepting them in the schema allows users to share a single manifest across clusters running different CNPG versions. ([#10131](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10131), [#10387](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10387)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- The operator now honors the `primaryUpdateMethod` when adding new PVCs to a cluster, ensuring that the rollout strategy (e.g., switchover vs. restart) is respected during storage expansion or additions. ([#9720](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9720)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Refined the `alpha.cnpg.io/unrecoverable` annotation logic to allow it to function even on pods that have not yet reached the `Ready` state, facilitating the recovery of stuck instances. ([#9968](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9968)) <!-- 1.28 -->

##### Security and Supply Chain

- **Security best practices integration**: integrated the OpenSSF baseline scanner and added a `SECURITY-INSIGHTS.yaml` file to the repository to align with industry-standard security reporting. ([#10054](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10054), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10062](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10062)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **SLSA provenance and SBOMs**: added SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance to release binaries and container images. Additionally, enabled Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation within the GoReleaser pipeline for improved dependency transparency. ([#10048](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10048), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10074](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10074)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **Password leak prevention**: fixed a potential security risk where PostgreSQL could leak role passwords in the logs during specific reconciliation phases. ([#9950](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9950)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Changes

- Updated the default PostgreSQL version to 18.3 (image `18.3-system-trixie`). ([#10090](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10090)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Fixes

- Fixed a deadlock during operator upgrades affecting clusters using synchronous replication, where pods running the old and new operator versions computed different PostgreSQL configuration hashes, causing the uniformity check to block indefinitely and preventing both rolling updates and in-place upgrades from proceeding. ([#10342](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10342)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Fixed an issue where fencing annotations could not be processed when the WAL disk was full, because the disk space check blocked the instance manager from starting. The check is now performed later in the lifecycle loop, after fencing is evaluated. ([#10302](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10302)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed an issue where replicas would get stuck in a `Pending` state if the `VolumeSnapshot` used for the initial bootstrap had been deleted. The operator now validates snapshot existence before use; if a snapshot is missing, it attempts to use the next available candidate or falls back to `pg_basebackup`. ([#10192](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10192)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Prevented the "supervised primary" rollout strategy from consuming all available rollout slots, which previously caused delays in scheduled updates. Contributed by [@ermakov-oleg](https://github.com/ermakov-oleg). ([#9977](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9977)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed an issue where certain hot-standby parameter changes were not being correctly applied to replica clusters. ([#9952](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9952)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a bug in the CNPG-I reconciler hook that could lead to skipping subsequent plugins when a "continue" result was returned. Contributed by [@sharifmshaker](https://github.com/sharifmshaker). ([#9978](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9978)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed a deadlock scenario that occurred when attempting to resize a filesystem on a PVC that was not currently attached to a Pod. Contributed by [@jmealo](https://github.com/jmealo). ([#9981](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9981)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed webhook validation of bootstrap recovery sources to accept external clusters configured with `ConnectionParameters` (for `pg_basebackup`-based recovery). Previously, these were incorrectly rejected unless a Barman object store or CNPG-i plugin was also configured. ([#10268](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10268)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Volume names for extensions and tablespaces are now prefixed to avoid naming collisions with standard cluster volumes. ([#9973](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9973)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- When hibernating a non-healthy cluster, the operator now reports a `WaitingForHealthy` condition, making the deferred hibernation state visible through `cnpg status`. ([#10193](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10193)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed fencing to work correctly even when the target pod does not exist. Fencing operates on a cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence; instance name validation is now performed only in the `cnpg fencing on` command. ([#10035](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10035)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the cluster and pooler service reconcilers to correctly handle changes to all spec fields when using the patch update strategy. The reconciler now uses RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patching, preventing cloud-provider-set fields (such as `loadBalancerClass`) from being inadvertently removed. ([#10190](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10190), [#10311](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10311)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a race condition in the deprecated in-tree Barman Cloud backup implementation affecting parallel WAL restore, where prefetched files could be read while still being downloaded, causing PostgreSQL recovery to fail with "invalid checkpoint record" errors. ([#10285](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10285)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the timeline history file validation to also apply to plugin-based WAL restore. Previously, the protection introduced in [#9650](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9650) only covered in-tree restores, allowing plugins to bypass the check and download future timeline history files, causing timeline mismatch errors on replicas. ([#9849](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9849)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- `cnpg` plugin:

  - The cnpg plugin now correctly propagates ImagePullSecrets to the `pgbench` Job pod template. ([#10174](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10174)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

This PR contains the following updates:

| Package | Update | Change |
|---|---|---|
| [cloudnative-pg](https://cloudnative-pg.io) ([source](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/charts)) | minor | `0.27.1` → `0.28.0` |
| [cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg) | minor | `1.28.1` → `1.29.0` |

---

### Release Notes

<details>
<summary>cloudnative-pg/charts (cloudnative-pg)</summary>

### [`v0.28.0`](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/charts/releases/tag/cloudnative-pg-v0.28.0)

[Compare Source](cloudnative-pg/charts@cloudnative-pg-v0.27.1...cloudnative-pg-v0.28.0)

CloudNativePG Operator Helm Chart

#### What's Changed

- fix(security): harden GitHub Actions workflows against expression injection by [@&#8203;mnencia](https://github.com/mnencia) in [#&#8203;823](cloudnative-pg/charts#823)
- feat(monitoring): add support for custom PodMonitor by [@&#8203;Dashing-Nelson](https://github.com/Dashing-Nelson) in [#&#8203;724](cloudnative-pg/charts#724)
- Release cloudnative-pg-v0.28.0 by [@&#8203;cnpg-bot](https://github.com/cnpg-bot) in [#&#8203;845](cloudnative-pg/charts#845)

#### New Contributors

- [@&#8203;Dashing-Nelson](https://github.com/Dashing-Nelson) made their first contribution in [#&#8203;724](cloudnative-pg/charts#724)

**Full Changelog**: <cloudnative-pg/charts@cluster-v0.6.0...cloudnative-pg-v0.28.0>

</details>

<details>
<summary>cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg (cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg)</summary>

### [`v1.29.0`](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/releases/tag/v1.29.0)

[Compare Source](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg@v1.28.2...v1.29.0-rc1)

**Release date:** Mar 31, 2026

##### Important changes

- Updated the deprecation notice for native (in-tree) Barman Cloud support to reflect that it will now be removed in CloudNativePG 1.30.0, rather than 1.29.0. Users are still encouraged to migrate to the Barman Cloud Plugin. ([#&#8203;10167](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10167)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

##### Features

- **PostgreSQL extensions in image catalogs**: extended the `ImageCatalog` functionality to support PostgreSQL extensions. This allows users to define and manage extension-specific images within a catalog, simplifying the deployment of customized PostgreSQL builds. ([#&#8203;9781](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9781))

- **Dynamic network access control via pod selectors**: introduced the declarative definition of `podSelectorRefs` to manage `pg_hba.conf` rules dynamically. By using label selectors to identify client pods, the operator automatically resolves their ephemeral IP addresses and updates the PostgreSQL host-based authentication rules accordingly. This ensures that only authorized workloads in the same namespace can connect to the database, eliminating the need for manual IP management or static CIDR ranges. ([#&#8203;10148](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10148))

- **Shared `ServiceAccount` support**: added an optional `serviceAccountName` field to both `Cluster` and `Pooler` specifications. This allows multiple resources to share a pre-existing ServiceAccount, facilitating one-time IAM configurations (such as AWS IRSA, GCP Workload Identity, or Azure Workload Identity) across all clusters and poolers. Contributed by [@&#8203;bozkayasalihx](https://github.com/bozkayasalihx). ([#&#8203;9287](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9287))

##### Enhancements

- Improved the `Pooler` CRD with support for granular configuration of TLS cipher suites and minimum/maximum TLS versions. This enables administrators to meet strict security compliance requirements for pooler-to-client and pooler-to-server connections. Contributed by [@&#8203;alex1989hu](https://github.com/alex1989hu). ([#&#8203;9571](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9571)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Improved the reliability of major upgrades by setting `BackoffLimit=0` on the upgrade job, preventing unnecessary retries of a failed `pg_upgrade`. The operator now automatically deletes the failed job when a user reverts the container image, allowing the cluster to restart gracefully on the original version. ([#&#8203;10104](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10104), [#&#8203;10298](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10298)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Improved the operator's observability by emitting native Kubernetes events during key phases of the reconciliation loop, providing visibility into the operator's decision-making process and the lifecycle of managed resources directly through `kubectl get events`. ([#&#8203;10040](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10040))

- Extended support for the `cnpg.io/reconciliationDisabled` annotation on Backup resources. This allows administrators to temporarily freeze the operator's reconciliation logic for specific backup objects. Contributed by [@&#8203;GabriFedi97](https://github.com/GabriFedi97). ([#&#8203;10020](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10020))

- Added a `bin_path` field to the `postgresql.extensions` stanza, as well as in `ImageCatalog` and `ClusterImageCatalog` resources. This allows extensions to specify directory paths for external binaries, which are automatically appended to the `PATH` environment variable of the Postgres process. ([#&#8203;10250](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10250))

- Added an `env` field to the `postgresql.extensions` stanza, as well as in `ImageCatalog` and `ClusterImageCatalog` resources. This allows cluster administrators to define custom environment variables for the Postgres process. This field supports the `${image_root}` placeholder to dynamically resolve to the extension's absolute mount path. ([#&#8203;10375](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10375))

- Implemented a finalizer for plugins to ensure that resources managed by a plugin are gracefully cleaned up when the corresponding service is deleted. ([#&#8203;9560](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9560))

- Improved role management by verifying the instance is the primary before each reconciliation cycle, avoiding unnecessary reconciliation attempts and spurious error messages on read-only replicas. ([#&#8203;9971](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9971)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- The operator now honors the `primaryUpdateMethod` when adding new PVCs to a cluster, ensuring that the rollout strategy (e.g., switchover vs. restart) is respected during storage expansion or additions. ([#&#8203;9720](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9720)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Refined the `alpha.cnpg.io/unrecoverable` annotation logic to allow it to function even on pods that have not yet reached the `Ready` state, facilitating the recovery of stuck instances. ([#&#8203;9968](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9968)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Introduced a "Terminal Error" phase for backups that encounter unrecoverable issues (such as invalid credentials or non-existent cloud buckets). This ensures the operator stops retrying doomed operations, preventing resource exhaustion and providing immediate, clear feedback in the status. ([#&#8203;9353](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9353))

- Improved monitoring of long-running backups by introducing `reconciliationStartedAt` and `reconciliationTerminatedAt` fields to the `Backup` status. This change separates the operator's internal lifecycle from the actual backup tool's execution timing (`startedAt`/`stoppedAt`), allowing users to track when the operator begins processing a request. ([#&#8203;9351](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9351))

- Added a `Pending` phase to the `Backup` status to explicitly indicate when a backup is queued and waiting for an available worker or instance availability. ([#&#8203;9364](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9364))

##### Security and Supply Chain

- **Security best practices integration**: integrated the OpenSSF baseline scanner and added a `SECURITY-INSIGHTS.yaml` file to the repository to align with industry-standard security reporting. ([#&#8203;10054](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10054), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#&#8203;10062](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10062)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **SLSA provenance and SBOMs**: added SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance to release binaries and container images. Additionally, enabled Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation within the GoReleaser pipeline for improved dependency transparency. ([#&#8203;10048](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10048), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#&#8203;10074](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10074)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **Password leak prevention**: fixed a potential security risk where PostgreSQL could leak role passwords in the logs during specific reconciliation phases. ([#&#8203;9950](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9950)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Changes

- Updated the default PostgreSQL version to 18.3 (image `18.3-system-trixie`). ([#&#8203;10090](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10090)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Fixes

- Fixed a deadlock during operator upgrades affecting clusters using synchronous replication, where pods running the old and new operator versions computed different PostgreSQL configuration hashes, causing the uniformity check to block indefinitely and preventing both rolling updates and in-place upgrades from proceeding. ([#&#8203;10342](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10342)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Fixed an issue where fencing annotations could not be processed when the WAL disk was full, because the disk space check blocked the instance manager from starting. The check is now performed later in the lifecycle loop, after fencing is evaluated. ([#&#8203;10302](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10302)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed an issue where replicas would get stuck in a `Pending` state if the `VolumeSnapshot` used for the initial bootstrap had been deleted. The operator now validates snapshot existence before use; if a snapshot is missing, it attempts to use the next available candidate or falls back to `pg_basebackup`. ([#&#8203;10192](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10192)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Prevented the "supervised primary" rollout strategy from consuming all available rollout slots, which previously caused delays in scheduled updates. Contributed by [@&#8203;ermakov-oleg](https://github.com/ermakov-oleg). ([#&#8203;9977](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9977)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed an issue where certain hot-standby parameter changes were not being correctly applied to replica clusters. ([#&#8203;9952](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9952)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a bug in the CNPG-I reconciler hook that could lead to skipping subsequent plugins when a "continue" result was returned. Contributed by [@&#8203;sharifmshaker](https://github.com/sharifmshaker). ([#&#8203;9978](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9978)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed a deadlock scenario that occurred when attempting to resize a filesystem on a PVC that was not currently attached to a Pod. Contributed by [@&#8203;jmealo](https://github.com/jmealo). ([#&#8203;9981](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9981)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed webhook validation of bootstrap recovery sources to accept external clusters configured with `ConnectionParameters` (for `pg_basebackup`-based recovery). Previously, these were incorrectly rejected unless a Barman object store or CNPG-i plugin was also configured. ([#&#8203;10268](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10268)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Volume names for extensions and tablespaces are now prefixed to avoid naming collisions with standard cluster volumes. ([#&#8203;9973](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9973)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- When hibernating a non-healthy cluster, the operator now reports a `WaitingForHealthy` condition, making the deferred hibernation state visible through `cnpg status`. ([#&#8203;10193](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10193)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed fencing to work correctly even when the target pod does not exist. Fencing operates on a cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence; instance name validation is now performed only in the `cnpg fencing on` command. ([#&#8203;10035](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10035)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the cluster and pooler service reconcilers to correctly handle changes to all spec fields when using the patch update strategy. The reconciler now uses RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patching, preventing cloud-provider-set fields (such as `loadBalancerClass`) from being inadvertently removed. ([#&#8203;10190](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10190), [#&#8203;10311](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10311)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a race condition in the deprecated in-tree Barman Cloud backup implementation affecting parallel WAL restore, where prefetched files could be read while still being downloaded, causing PostgreSQL recovery to fail with "invalid checkpoint record" errors. ([#&#8203;10285](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10285)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the timeline history file validation to also apply to plugin-based WAL restore. Previously, the protection introduced in [#&#8203;9650](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9650) only covered in-tree restores, allowing plugins to bypass the check and download future timeline history files, causing timeline mismatch errors on replicas. ([#&#8203;9849](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9849)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- `cnpg` plugin:

  - The cnpg plugin now correctly propagates ImagePullSecrets to the `pgbench` Job pod template. ([#&#8203;10174](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10174)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Supported versions

- Kubernetes 1.35, 1.34, and 1.33
- PostgreSQL 18, 17, 16, 15, and 14
  - PostgreSQL 18.3 is the default image
  - [PostgreSQL 14 support ends on November 12, 2026](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/)

### [`v1.28.2`](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/releases/tag/v1.28.2)

[Compare Source](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg@v1.28.1...v1.28.2)

**Release date:** Mar 31, 2026

##### Important changes

- Updated the deprecation notice for native (in-tree) Barman Cloud support to reflect that it will now be removed in CloudNativePG 1.30.0, rather than 1.29.0. Users are still encouraged to migrate to the Barman Cloud Plugin. ([#&#8203;10167](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10167)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

##### Enhancements

- Improved the `Pooler` CRD with support for granular configuration of TLS cipher suites and minimum/maximum TLS versions. This enables administrators to meet strict security compliance requirements for pooler-to-client and pooler-to-server connections. Contributed by [@&#8203;alex1989hu](https://github.com/alex1989hu). ([#&#8203;9571](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9571)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Improved the reliability of major upgrades by setting `BackoffLimit=0` on the upgrade job, preventing unnecessary retries of a failed `pg_upgrade`. The operator now automatically deletes the failed job when a user reverts the container image, allowing the cluster to restart gracefully on the original version. ([#&#8203;10104](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10104), [#&#8203;10298](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10298)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Improved role management by verifying the instance is the primary before each reconciliation cycle, avoiding unnecessary reconciliation attempts and spurious error messages on read-only replicas. ([#&#8203;9971](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9971)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Extended the CRD schemas for `Cluster`, `ImageCatalog`, and `ClusterImageCatalog` to accept the `extensions`, `bin_path`, and `env` fields introduced in 1.29. The operator ignores these fields on older versions, but accepting them in the schema allows users to share a single manifest across clusters running different CNPG versions. ([#&#8203;10131](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10131), [#&#8203;10387](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10387)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- The operator now honors the `primaryUpdateMethod` when adding new PVCs to a cluster, ensuring that the rollout strategy (e.g., switchover vs. restart) is respected during storage expansion or additions. ([#&#8203;9720](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9720)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Refined the `alpha.cnpg.io/unrecoverable` annotation logic to allow it to function even on pods that have not yet reached the `Ready` state, facilitating the recovery of stuck instances. ([#&#8203;9968](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9968)) <!-- 1.28 -->

##### Security and Supply Chain

- **Security best practices integration**: integrated the OpenSSF baseline scanner and added a `SECURITY-INSIGHTS.yaml` file to the repository to align with industry-standard security reporting. ([#&#8203;10054](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10054), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#&#8203;10062](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10062)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **SLSA provenance and SBOMs**: added SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance to release binaries and container images. Additionally, enabled Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation within the GoReleaser pipeline for improved dependency transparency. ([#&#8203;10048](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10048), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#&#8203;10074](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10074)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **Password leak prevention**: fixed a potential security risk where PostgreSQL could leak role passwords in the logs during specific reconciliation phases. ([#&#8203;9950](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9950)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Changes

- Updated the default PostgreSQL version to 18.3 (image `18.3-system-trixie`). ([#&#8203;10090](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10090)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Fixes

- Fixed a deadlock during operator upgrades affecting clusters using synchronous replication, where pods running the old and new operator versions computed different PostgreSQL configuration hashes, causing the uniformity check to block indefinitely and preventing both rolling updates and in-place upgrades from proceeding. ([#&#8203;10342](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10342)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Fixed an issue where fencing annotations could not be processed when the WAL disk was full, because the disk space check blocked the instance manager from starting. The check is now performed later in the lifecycle loop, after fencing is evaluated. ([#&#8203;10302](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10302)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed an issue where replicas would get stuck in a `Pending` state if the `VolumeSnapshot` used for the initial bootstrap had been deleted. The operator now validates snapshot existence before use; if a snapshot is missing, it attempts to use the next available candidate or falls back to `pg_basebackup`. ([#&#8203;10192](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10192)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Prevented the "supervised primary" rollout strategy from consuming all available rollout slots, which previously caused delays in scheduled updates. Contributed by [@&#8203;ermakov-oleg](https://github.com/ermakov-oleg). ([#&#8203;9977](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9977)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed an issue where certain hot-standby parameter changes were not being correctly applied to replica clusters. ([#&#8203;9952](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9952)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a bug in the CNPG-I reconciler hook that could lead to skipping subsequent plugins when a "continue" result was returned. Contributed by [@&#8203;sharifmshaker](https://github.com/sharifmshaker). ([#&#8203;9978](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9978)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed a deadlock scenario that occurred when attempting to resize a filesystem on a PVC that was not currently attached to a Pod. Contributed by [@&#8203;jmealo](https://github.com/jmealo). ([#&#8203;9981](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9981)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed webhook validation of bootstrap recovery sources to accept external clusters configured with `ConnectionParameters` (for `pg_basebackup`-based recovery). Previously, these were incorrectly rejected unless a Barman object store or CNPG-i plugin was also configured. ([#&#8203;10268](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10268)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Volume names for extensions and tablespaces are now prefixed to avoid naming collisions with standard cluster volumes. ([#&#8203;9973](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9973)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- When hibernating a non-healthy cluster, the operator now reports a `WaitingForHealthy` condition, making the deferred hibernation state visible through `cnpg status`. ([#&#8203;10193](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10193)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed fencing to work correctly even when the target pod does not exist. Fencing operates on a cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence; instance name validation is now performed only in the `cnpg fencing on` command. ([#&#8203;10035](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10035)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the cluster and pooler service reconcilers to correctly handle changes to all spec fields when using the patch update strategy. The reconciler now uses RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patching, preventing cloud-provider-set fields (such as `loadBalancerClass`) from being inadvertently removed. ([#&#8203;10190](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10190), [#&#8203;10311](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10311)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a race condition in the deprecated in-tree Barman Cloud backup implementation affecting parallel WAL restore, where prefetched files could be read while still being downloaded, causing PostgreSQL recovery to fail with "invalid checkpoint record" errors. ([#&#8203;10285](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10285)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the timeline history file validation to also apply to plugin-based WAL restore. Previously, the protection introduced in [#&#8203;9650](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9650) only covered in-tree restores, allowing plugins to bypass the check and download future timeline history files, causing timeline mismatch errors on replicas. ([#&#8203;9849](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9849)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- `cnpg` plugin:

  - The cnpg plugin now correctly propagates ImagePullSecrets to the `pgbench` Job pod template. ([#&#8203;10174](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10174)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

</details>

---

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♻ **Rebasing**: Whenever PR is behind base branch, or you tick the rebase/retry checkbox.

👻 **Immortal**: This PR will be recreated if closed unmerged. Get [config help](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/discussions) if that's undesired.

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---

This PR has been generated by [Renovate Bot](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate).
<!--renovate-debug:eyJjcmVhdGVkSW5WZXIiOiI0My4xMDIuNCIsInVwZGF0ZWRJblZlciI6IjQzLjEwMi42IiwidGFyZ2V0QnJhbmNoIjoibWFpbiIsImxhYmVscyI6WyJoZWxtIl19-->

Reviewed-on: https://gitea.alexlebens.dev/alexlebens/infrastructure/pulls/5367
Co-authored-by: Renovate Bot <[email protected]>
Co-committed-by: Renovate Bot <[email protected]>

##### [\`v1.28.2\`](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/releases/tag/v1.28.2)

**Release date:** Mar 31, 2026

##### Important changes

- Updated the deprecation notice for native (in-tree) Barman Cloud support to reflect that it will now be removed in CloudNativePG 1.30.0, rather than 1.29.0. Users are still encouraged to migrate to the Barman Cloud Plugin. ([#10167](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10167)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

##### Enhancements

- Improved the `Pooler` CRD with support for granular configuration of TLS cipher suites and minimum/maximum TLS versions. This enables administrators to meet strict security compliance requirements for pooler-to-client and pooler-to-server connections. Contributed by [@alex1989hu](https://github.com/alex1989hu). ([#9571](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9571)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Improved the reliability of major upgrades by setting `BackoffLimit=0` on the upgrade job, preventing unnecessary retries of a failed `pg_upgrade`. The operator now automatically deletes the failed job when a user reverts the container image, allowing the cluster to restart gracefully on the original version. ([#10104](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10104), [#10298](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10298)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Improved role management by verifying the instance is the primary before each reconciliation cycle, avoiding unnecessary reconciliation attempts and spurious error messages on read-only replicas. ([#9971](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9971)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Extended the CRD schemas for `Cluster`, `ImageCatalog`, and `ClusterImageCatalog` to accept the `extensions`, `bin_path`, and `env` fields introduced in 1.29. The operator ignores these fields on older versions, but accepting them in the schema allows users to share a single manifest across clusters running different CNPG versions. ([#10131](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10131), [#10387](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10387)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- The operator now honors the `primaryUpdateMethod` when adding new PVCs to a cluster, ensuring that the rollout strategy (e.g., switchover vs. restart) is respected during storage expansion or additions. ([#9720](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9720)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Refined the `alpha.cnpg.io/unrecoverable` annotation logic to allow it to function even on pods that have not yet reached the `Ready` state, facilitating the recovery of stuck instances. ([#9968](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9968)) <!-- 1.28 -->

##### Security and Supply Chain

- **Security best practices integration**: integrated the OpenSSF baseline scanner and added a `SECURITY-INSIGHTS.yaml` file to the repository to align with industry-standard security reporting. ([#10054](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10054), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10062](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10062)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **SLSA provenance and SBOMs**: added SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance to release binaries and container images. Additionally, enabled Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation within the GoReleaser pipeline for improved dependency transparency. ([#10048](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10048), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10074](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10074)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **Password leak prevention**: fixed a potential security risk where PostgreSQL could leak role passwords in the logs during specific reconciliation phases. ([#9950](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9950)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Changes

- Updated the default PostgreSQL version to 18.3 (image `18.3-system-trixie`). ([#10090](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10090)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Fixes

- Fixed a deadlock during operator upgrades affecting clusters using synchronous replication, where pods running the old and new operator versions computed different PostgreSQL configuration hashes, causing the uniformity check to block indefinitely and preventing both rolling updates and in-place upgrades from proceeding. ([#10342](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10342)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Fixed an issue where fencing annotations could not be processed when the WAL disk was full, because the disk space check blocked the instance manager from starting. The check is now performed later in the lifecycle loop, after fencing is evaluated. ([#10302](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10302)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed an issue where replicas would get stuck in a `Pending` state if the `VolumeSnapshot` used for the initial bootstrap had been deleted. The operator now validates snapshot existence before use; if a snapshot is missing, it attempts to use the next available candidate or falls back to `pg_basebackup`. ([#10192](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10192)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Prevented the "supervised primary" rollout strategy from consuming all available rollout slots, which previously caused delays in scheduled updates. Contributed by [@ermakov-oleg](https://github.com/ermakov-oleg). ([#9977](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9977)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed an issue where certain hot-standby parameter changes were not being correctly applied to replica clusters. ([#9952](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9952)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a bug in the CNPG-I reconciler hook that could lead to skipping subsequent plugins when a "continue" result was returned. Contributed by [@sharifmshaker](https://github.com/sharifmshaker). ([#9978](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9978)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed a deadlock scenario that occurred when attempting to resize a filesystem on a PVC that was not currently attached to a Pod. Contributed by [@jmealo](https://github.com/jmealo). ([#9981](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9981)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed webhook validation of bootstrap recovery sources to accept external clusters configured with `ConnectionParameters` (for `pg_basebackup`-based recovery). Previously, these were incorrectly rejected unless a Barman object store or CNPG-i plugin was also configured. ([#10268](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10268)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Volume names for extensions and tablespaces are now prefixed to avoid naming collisions with standard cluster volumes. ([#9973](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9973)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- When hibernating a non-healthy cluster, the operator now reports a `WaitingForHealthy` condition, making the deferred hibernation state visible through `cnpg status`. ([#10193](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10193)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed fencing to work correctly even when the target pod does not exist. Fencing operates on a cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence; instance name validation is now performed only in the `cnpg fencing on` command. ([#10035](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10035)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the cluster and pooler service reconcilers to correctly handle changes to all spec fields when using the patch update strategy. The reconciler now uses RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patching, preventing cloud-provider-set fields (such as `loadBalancerClass`) from being inadvertently removed. ([#10190](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10190), [#10311](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10311)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a race condition in the deprecated in-tree Barman Cloud backup implementation affecting parallel WAL restore, where prefetched files could be read while still being downloaded, causing PostgreSQL recovery to fail with "invalid checkpoint record" errors. ([#10285](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10285)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the timeline history file validation to also apply to plugin-based WAL restore. Previously, the protection introduced in [#9650](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9650) only covered in-tree restores, allowing plugins to bypass the check and download future timeline history files, causing timeline mismatch errors on replicas. ([#9849](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9849)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- `cnpg` plugin:

  - The cnpg plugin now correctly propagates ImagePullSecrets to the `pgbench` Job pod template. ([#10174](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10174)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### [\`v1.29.0\`](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/releases/tag/v1.29.0)

**Release date:** Mar 31, 2026

##### Important changes

- Updated the deprecation notice for native (in-tree) Barman Cloud support to reflect that it will now be removed in CloudNativePG 1.30.0, rather than 1.29.0. Users are still encouraged to migrate to the Barman Cloud Plugin. ([#10167](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10167)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

##### Features

- **PostgreSQL extensions in image catalogs**: extended the `ImageCatalog` functionality to support PostgreSQL extensions. This allows users to define and manage extension-specific images within a catalog, simplifying the deployment of customized PostgreSQL builds. ([#9781](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9781))

- **Dynamic network access control via pod selectors**: introduced the declarative definition of `podSelectorRefs` to manage `pg_hba.conf` rules dynamically. By using label selectors to identify client pods, the operator automatically resolves their ephemeral IP addresses and updates the PostgreSQL host-based authentication rules accordingly. This ensures that only authorized workloads in the same namespace can connect to the database, eliminating the need for manual IP management or static CIDR ranges. ([#10148](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10148))

- **Shared `ServiceAccount` support**: added an optional `serviceAccountName` field to both `Cluster` and `Pooler` specifications. This allows multiple resources to share a pre-existing ServiceAccount, facilitating one-time IAM configurations (such as AWS IRSA, GCP Workload Identity, or Azure Workload Identity) across all clusters and poolers. Contributed by [@bozkayasalihx](https://github.com/bozkayasalihx). ([#9287](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9287))

##### Enhancements

- Improved the `Pooler` CRD with support for granular configuration of TLS cipher suites and minimum/maximum TLS versions. This enables administrators to meet strict security compliance requirements for pooler-to-client and pooler-to-server connections. Contributed by [@alex1989hu](https://github.com/alex1989hu). ([#9571](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9571)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Improved the reliability of major upgrades by setting `BackoffLimit=0` on the upgrade job, preventing unnecessary retries of a failed `pg_upgrade`. The operator now automatically deletes the failed job when a user reverts the container image, allowing the cluster to restart gracefully on the original version. ([#10104](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10104), [#10298](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10298)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Improved the operator's observability by emitting native Kubernetes events during key phases of the reconciliation loop, providing visibility into the operator's decision-making process and the lifecycle of managed resources directly through `kubectl get events`. ([#10040](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10040))

- Extended support for the `cnpg.io/reconciliationDisabled` annotation on Backup resources. This allows administrators to temporarily freeze the operator's reconciliation logic for specific backup objects. Contributed by [@GabriFedi97](https://github.com/GabriFedi97). ([#10020](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10020))

- Added a `bin_path` field to the `postgresql.extensions` stanza, as well as in `ImageCatalog` and `ClusterImageCatalog` resources. This allows extensions to specify directory paths for external binaries, which are automatically appended to the `PATH` environment variable of the Postgres process. ([#10250](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10250))

- Added an `env` field to the `postgresql.extensions` stanza, as well as in `ImageCatalog` and `ClusterImageCatalog` resources. This allows cluster administrators to define custom environment variables for the Postgres process. This field supports the `${image_root}` placeholder to dynamically resolve to the extension's absolute mount path. ([#10375](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10375))

- Implemented a finalizer for plugins to ensure that resources managed by a plugin are gracefully cleaned up when the corresponding service is deleted. ([#9560](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9560))

- Improved role management by verifying the instance is the primary before each reconciliation cycle, avoiding unnecessary reconciliation attempts and spurious error messages on read-only replicas. ([#9971](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9971)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- The operator now honors the `primaryUpdateMethod` when adding new PVCs to a cluster, ensuring that the rollout strategy (e.g., switchover vs. restart) is respected during storage expansion or additions. ([#9720](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9720)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Refined the `alpha.cnpg.io/unrecoverable` annotation logic to allow it to function even on pods that have not yet reached the `Ready` state, facilitating the recovery of stuck instances. ([#9968](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9968)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Introduced a "Terminal Error" phase for backups that encounter unrecoverable issues (such as invalid credentials or non-existent cloud buckets). This ensures the operator stops retrying doomed operations, preventing resource exhaustion and providing immediate, clear feedback in the status. ([#9353](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9353))

- Improved monitoring of long-running backups by introducing `reconciliationStartedAt` and `reconciliationTerminatedAt` fields to the `Backup` status. This change separates the operator's internal lifecycle from the actual backup tool's execution timing (`startedAt`/`stoppedAt`), allowing users to track when the operator begins processing a request. ([#9351](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9351))

- Added a `Pending` phase to the `Backup` status to explicitly indicate when a backup is queued and waiting for an available worker or instance availability. ([#9364](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9364))

##### Security and Supply Chain

- **Security best practices integration**: integrated the OpenSSF baseline scanner and added a `SECURITY-INSIGHTS.yaml` file to the repository to align with industry-standard security reporting. ([#10054](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10054), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10062](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10062)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **SLSA provenance and SBOMs**: added SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance to release binaries and container images. Additionally, enabled Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation within the GoReleaser pipeline for improved dependency transparency. ([#10048](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10048), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10074](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10074)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **Password leak prevention**: fixed a potential security risk where PostgreSQL could leak role passwords in the logs during specific reconciliation phases. ([#9950](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9950)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Changes

- Updated the default PostgreSQL version to 18.3 (image `18.3-system-trixie`). ([#10090](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10090)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Fixes

- Fixed a deadlock during operator upgrades affecting clusters using synchronous replication, where pods running the old and new operator versions computed different PostgreSQL configuration hashes, causing the uniformity check to block indefinitely and preventing both rolling updates and in-place upgrades from proceeding. ([#10342](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10342)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Fixed an issue where fencing annotations could not be processed when the WAL disk was full, because the disk space check blocked the instance manager from starting. The check is now performed later in the lifecycle loop, after fencing is evaluated. ([#10302](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10302)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed an issue where replicas would get stuck in a `Pending` state if the `VolumeSnapshot` used for the initial bootstrap had been deleted. The operator now validates snapshot existence before use; if a snapshot is missing, it attempts to use the next available candidate or falls back to `pg_basebackup`. ([#10192](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10192)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Prevented the "supervised primary" rollout strategy from consuming all available rollout slots, which previously caused delays in scheduled updates. Contributed by [@ermakov-oleg](https://github.com/ermakov-oleg). ([#9977](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9977)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed an issue where certain hot-standby parameter changes were not being correctly applied to replica clusters. ([#9952](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9952)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a bug in the CNPG-I reconciler hook that could lead to skipping subsequent plugins when a "continue" result was returned. Contributed by [@sharifmshaker](https://github.com/sharifmshaker). ([#9978](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9978)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed a deadlock scenario that occurred when attempting to resize a filesystem on a PVC that was not currently attached to a Pod. Contributed by [@jmealo](https://github.com/jmealo). ([#9981](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9981)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed webhook validation of bootstrap recovery sources to accept external clusters configured with `ConnectionParameters` (for `pg_basebackup`-based recovery). Previously, these were incorrectly rejected unless a Barman object store or CNPG-i plugin was also configured. ([#10268](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10268)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Volume names for extensions and tablespaces are now prefixed to avoid naming collisions with standard cluster volumes. ([#9973](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9973)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- When hibernating a non-healthy cluster, the operator now reports a `WaitingForHealthy` condition, making the deferred hibernation state visible through `cnpg status`. ([#10193](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10193)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed fencing to work correctly even when the target pod does not exist. Fencing operates on a cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence; instance name validation is now performed only in the `cnpg fencing on` command. ([#10035](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10035)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the cluster and pooler service reconcilers to correctly handle changes to all spec fields when using the patch update strategy. The reconciler now uses RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patching, preventing cloud-provider-set fields (such as `loadBalancerClass`) from being inadvertently removed. ([#10190](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10190), [#10311](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10311)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a race condition in the deprecated in-tree Barman Cloud backup implementation affecting parallel WAL restore, where prefetched files could be read while still being downloaded, causing PostgreSQL recovery to fail with "invalid checkpoint record" errors. ([#10285](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10285)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the timeline history file validation to also apply to plugin-based WAL restore. Previously, the protection introduced in [#9650](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9650) only covered in-tree restores, allowing plugins to bypass the check and download future timeline history files, causing timeline mismatch errors on replicas. ([#9849](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9849)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- `cnpg` plugin:

  - The cnpg plugin now correctly propagates ImagePullSecrets to the `pgbench` Job pod template. ([#10174](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10174)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Supported versions

- Kubernetes 1.35, 1.34, and 1.33
- PostgreSQL 18, 17, 16, 15, and 14
  - PostgreSQL 18.3 is the default image
  - [PostgreSQL 14 support ends on November 12, 2026](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/)

##### [\`v1.29.0\`](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/releases/tag/v1.29.0)

**Release date:** Mar 31, 2026

##### Important changes

- Updated the deprecation notice for native (in-tree) Barman Cloud support to reflect that it will now be removed in CloudNativePG 1.30.0, rather than 1.29.0. Users are still encouraged to migrate to the Barman Cloud Plugin. ([#10167](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10167)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

##### Features

- **PostgreSQL extensions in image catalogs**: extended the `ImageCatalog` functionality to support PostgreSQL extensions. This allows users to define and manage extension-specific images within a catalog, simplifying the deployment of customized PostgreSQL builds. ([#9781](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9781))

- **Dynamic network access control via pod selectors**: introduced the declarative definition of `podSelectorRefs` to manage `pg_hba.conf` rules dynamically. By using label selectors to identify client pods, the operator automatically resolves their ephemeral IP addresses and updates the PostgreSQL host-based authentication rules accordingly. This ensures that only authorized workloads in the same namespace can connect to the database, eliminating the need for manual IP management or static CIDR ranges. ([#10148](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10148))

- **Shared `ServiceAccount` support**: added an optional `serviceAccountName` field to both `Cluster` and `Pooler` specifications. This allows multiple resources to share a pre-existing ServiceAccount, facilitating one-time IAM configurations (such as AWS IRSA, GCP Workload Identity, or Azure Workload Identity) across all clusters and poolers. Contributed by [@bozkayasalihx](https://github.com/bozkayasalihx). ([#9287](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9287))

##### Enhancements

- Improved the `Pooler` CRD with support for granular configuration of TLS cipher suites and minimum/maximum TLS versions. This enables administrators to meet strict security compliance requirements for pooler-to-client and pooler-to-server connections. Contributed by [@alex1989hu](https://github.com/alex1989hu). ([#9571](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9571)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Improved the reliability of major upgrades by setting `BackoffLimit=0` on the upgrade job, preventing unnecessary retries of a failed `pg_upgrade`. The operator now automatically deletes the failed job when a user reverts the container image, allowing the cluster to restart gracefully on the original version. ([#10104](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10104), [#10298](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10298)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Improved the operator's observability by emitting native Kubernetes events during key phases of the reconciliation loop, providing visibility into the operator's decision-making process and the lifecycle of managed resources directly through `kubectl get events`. ([#10040](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10040))

- Extended support for the `cnpg.io/reconciliationDisabled` annotation on Backup resources. This allows administrators to temporarily freeze the operator's reconciliation logic for specific backup objects. Contributed by [@GabriFedi97](https://github.com/GabriFedi97). ([#10020](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10020))

- Added a `bin_path` field to the `postgresql.extensions` stanza, as well as in `ImageCatalog` and `ClusterImageCatalog` resources. This allows extensions to specify directory paths for external binaries, which are automatically appended to the `PATH` environment variable of the Postgres process. ([#10250](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10250))

- Added an `env` field to the `postgresql.extensions` stanza, as well as in `ImageCatalog` and `ClusterImageCatalog` resources. This allows cluster administrators to define custom environment variables for the Postgres process. This field supports the `${image_root}` placeholder to dynamically resolve to the extension's absolute mount path. ([#10375](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10375))

- Implemented a finalizer for plugins to ensure that resources managed by a plugin are gracefully cleaned up when the corresponding service is deleted. ([#9560](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9560))

- Improved role management by verifying the instance is the primary before each reconciliation cycle, avoiding unnecessary reconciliation attempts and spurious error messages on read-only replicas. ([#9971](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9971)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- The operator now honors the `primaryUpdateMethod` when adding new PVCs to a cluster, ensuring that the rollout strategy (e.g., switchover vs. restart) is respected during storage expansion or additions. ([#9720](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9720)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Refined the `alpha.cnpg.io/unrecoverable` annotation logic to allow it to function even on pods that have not yet reached the `Ready` state, facilitating the recovery of stuck instances. ([#9968](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9968)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Introduced a "Terminal Error" phase for backups that encounter unrecoverable issues (such as invalid credentials or non-existent cloud buckets). This ensures the operator stops retrying doomed operations, preventing resource exhaustion and providing immediate, clear feedback in the status. ([#9353](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9353))

- Improved monitoring of long-running backups by introducing `reconciliationStartedAt` and `reconciliationTerminatedAt` fields to the `Backup` status. This change separates the operator's internal lifecycle from the actual backup tool's execution timing (`startedAt`/`stoppedAt`), allowing users to track when the operator begins processing a request. ([#9351](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9351))

- Added a `Pending` phase to the `Backup` status to explicitly indicate when a backup is queued and waiting for an available worker or instance availability. ([#9364](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9364))

##### Security and Supply Chain

- **Security best practices integration**: integrated the OpenSSF baseline scanner and added a `SECURITY-INSIGHTS.yaml` file to the repository to align with industry-standard security reporting. ([#10054](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10054), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10062](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10062)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **SLSA provenance and SBOMs**: added SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance to release binaries and container images. Additionally, enabled Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation within the GoReleaser pipeline for improved dependency transparency. ([#10048](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10048), <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 --> [#10074](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10074)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- **Password leak prevention**: fixed a potential security risk where PostgreSQL could leak role passwords in the logs during specific reconciliation phases. ([#9950](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9950)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Changes

- Updated the default PostgreSQL version to 18.3 (image `18.3-system-trixie`). ([#10090](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10090)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Fixes

- Fixed a deadlock during operator upgrades affecting clusters using synchronous replication, where pods running the old and new operator versions computed different PostgreSQL configuration hashes, causing the uniformity check to block indefinitely and preventing both rolling updates and in-place upgrades from proceeding. ([#10342](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10342)) <!-- 1.28 -->

- Fixed an issue where fencing annotations could not be processed when the WAL disk was full, because the disk space check blocked the instance manager from starting. The check is now performed later in the lifecycle loop, after fencing is evaluated. ([#10302](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10302)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed an issue where replicas would get stuck in a `Pending` state if the `VolumeSnapshot` used for the initial bootstrap had been deleted. The operator now validates snapshot existence before use; if a snapshot is missing, it attempts to use the next available candidate or falls back to `pg_basebackup`. ([#10192](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10192)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Prevented the "supervised primary" rollout strategy from consuming all available rollout slots, which previously caused delays in scheduled updates. Contributed by [@ermakov-oleg](https://github.com/ermakov-oleg). ([#9977](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9977)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed an issue where certain hot-standby parameter changes were not being correctly applied to replica clusters. ([#9952](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9952)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a bug in the CNPG-I reconciler hook that could lead to skipping subsequent plugins when a "continue" result was returned. Contributed by [@sharifmshaker](https://github.com/sharifmshaker). ([#9978](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9978)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed a deadlock scenario that occurred when attempting to resize a filesystem on a PVC that was not currently attached to a Pod. Contributed by [@jmealo](https://github.com/jmealo). ([#9981](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9981)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- Fixed webhook validation of bootstrap recovery sources to accept external clusters configured with `ConnectionParameters` (for `pg_basebackup`-based recovery). Previously, these were incorrectly rejected unless a Barman object store or CNPG-i plugin was also configured. ([#10268](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10268)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Volume names for extensions and tablespaces are now prefixed to avoid naming collisions with standard cluster volumes. ([#9973](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9973)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 -->

- When hibernating a non-healthy cluster, the operator now reports a `WaitingForHealthy` condition, making the deferred hibernation state visible through `cnpg status`. ([#10193](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10193)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed fencing to work correctly even when the target pod does not exist. Fencing operates on a cluster-level annotation and should not depend on pod existence; instance name validation is now performed only in the `cnpg fencing on` command. ([#10035](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10035)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the cluster and pooler service reconcilers to correctly handle changes to all spec fields when using the patch update strategy. The reconciler now uses RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patching, preventing cloud-provider-set fields (such as `loadBalancerClass`) from being inadvertently removed. ([#10190](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10190), [#10311](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10311)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed a race condition in the deprecated in-tree Barman Cloud backup implementation affecting parallel WAL restore, where prefetched files could be read while still being downloaded, causing PostgreSQL recovery to fail with "invalid checkpoint record" errors. ([#10285](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10285)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- Fixed the timeline history file validation to also apply to plugin-based WAL restore. Previously, the protection introduced in [#9650](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9650) only covered in-tree restores, allowing plugins to bypass the check and download future timeline history files, causing timeline mismatch errors on replicas. ([#9849](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#9849)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

- `cnpg` plugin:

  - The cnpg plugin now correctly propagates ImagePullSecrets to the `pgbench` Job pod template. ([#10174](cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg#10174)) <!-- 1.28 1.27 1.25 -->

##### Supported versions

- Kubernetes 1.35, 1.34, and 1.33
- PostgreSQL 18, 17, 16, 15, and 14
  - PostgreSQL 18.3 is the default image
  - [PostgreSQL 14 support ends on November 12, 2026](https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/)