docs: announcement for 1.28.0, 1.27.2, and 1.26.3

content/releases/cloudnative-pg-1-28.0-released/index.md

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+---
+title: "CloudNativePG 1.28.0 Released!"
+date: 2025-12-09
+draft: false
+authors:
+ - gbartolini
+image:
+    url: 58364dde1adc4a0a8.37186404-2048x1445.jpg
+    attribution: from <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/58364dde1a/">Saurabh</a>
+tags:
+ - release
+ - postgresql
+ - postgres
+ - kubernetes
+ - k8s
+ - cloudnativepg
+ - cnpg
+ - FailoverQuorum
+ - FDW
+ - ForeignData
+ - maintenance
+summary: CloudNativePG 1.28 is here! This stable release promotes Quorum-Based Failover and introduces Declarative Foreign Data Management for FDWs and foreign servers via the `Database` CRD. We also announce maintenance releases 1.27.2 and the final 1.26.3. Upgrade today for enhanced stability, security, and networking resilience.
+---
+
+The CloudNativePG Community is excited to announce the immediate availability
+of **CloudNativePG 1.28.0**!
+
+This minor release graduates a key high-availability feature to stable
+and introduces powerful new capabilities for managing external data sources,
+further cementing CloudNativePG as the leading operator for running PostgreSQL
+workloads on Kubernetes.
+
+We are also pleased to announce the release of maintenance versions **1.27.2**
+and **1.26.3**, the latter of which is the final planned release in the 1.26.x
+series. We encourage users on 1.26 to plan their upgrade to 1.27 or 1.28.
+
+With the release of CloudNativePG 1.28.0, the End-of-Life (EOL) date for the
+CloudNativePG 1.27.x series is confirmed as March 9, 2026.
+
+---
+
+## Highlights in 1.28.0
+
+### Quorum-Based Failover Promoted to Stable
+
+The quorum-based failover mechanism, introduced experimentally in 1.27, is now
+a stable feature.
+
+This data-driven approach enhances failover safety and data durability for
+high-availability clusters by ensuring that a replacement primary is only
+promoted when a majority of synchronous replicas are ready, preventing data
+loss.
+
+- **New Configuration:** This feature is now configured via the stable field:
+  `spec.postgresql.synchronous.failoverQuorum`
+
+### Declarative Foreign Data Management
+
+CloudNativePG 1.28 introduces comprehensive declarative management for
+Foreign Data Wrappers (FDW) and their corresponding foreign servers.
+
+By extending the `Database` Custom Resource Definition (CRD) with `.spec.fdws`
+and `.spec.servers` fields, users can now define external data connections
+directly within their cluster manifest, treating them as first-class Kubernetes
+objects.
+
+- This work was contributed by Ying Zhu ([@EdwinaZhu](https://github.com/EdwinaZhu))
+  as part of the LFX Mentorship Program.
+
+---
+
+## Enhanced Security and Resilience
+
+This release includes significant improvements focused on stability, security,
+and network resilience:
+
+- **Granular Security Contexts:** Introduced fine-grained security contexts,
+  allowing `securityContext` at the Pod level and `containerSecurityContext`
+  for individual containers (`postgres`, `init`, sidecars).
+- **Custom PgBouncer TLS:** Allowed providing fine-grained custom TLS
+  certificates for PgBouncer (client-to-pooler and pooler-to-server
+  connections), overriding operator-generated certificates for better security
+  control.
+- **Faster Network Failure Detection:** Improved network resilience for
+  replicas by setting the default `tcp_user_timeout` to 5 seconds. Replicas can
+  now detect and recover from silent network drops much quicker than the previous
+  default of 127 seconds.
+- **Least-Privileged Reporting:** The `cnpg report operator` command now works
+  with minimal, least-privileged access, gracefully handling permission errors
+  and continuing to generate the report with available data.
+- **TLS for Operator Metrics:** Added optional TLS support for the operator's
+  metrics server (via `METRICS_CERT_DIR`).
+
+## Other Notable Enhancements
+
+- **Simultaneous Image and Config Changes:** The operator can now safely handle
+  simultaneous updates to the container image (e.g., PostgreSQL version) and
+  PostgreSQL configuration in a single operation.
+- **Replica Auto-Recreation:** Introduced the
+  `alpha.cnpg.io/unrecoverable=true` annotation to automatically delete and
+  recreate an unrecoverable replica Pod and its PVCs.
+- **Standard Kubernetes Labels:** Adopted standard Kubernetes recommended
+  labels (e.g., `app.kubernetes.io/name`) for all generated resources,
+  improving integration with ecosystem tools.
+- **Improved Cluster Restore:** Enhanced cluster restore to wait for all init
+  containers to complete, ensuring data is fully prepared before the restore
+  process begins.
+
+Dive into the full list of changes and fixes in the
+[Release notes for CloudNativePG 1.28](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/release_notes/v1.28/).
+
+## Maintenance Releases: 1.27.2 & 1.26.3
+
+In parallel with the 1.28 release, we have also shipped maintenance updates for
+previous stable series:
+
+- **CloudNativePG 1.27.2:** Includes various fixes and improvements backported
+  from 1.28, such as resilience to transient Kubernetes API connectivity issues
+  and improved PgBouncer image configuration.
+- **CloudNativePG 1.26.3:** The final planned maintenance release for the
+  1.26.x series. We strongly recommend planning an upgrade to a currently
+  supported version.
+
+We encourage all users to upgrade to the latest stable versions to benefit from
+the latest features, security enhancements, and bug fixes.
+
+Follow the [upgrade instructions](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.28/installation_upgrade/#upgrades)
+for a smooth transition.
+
+---
+
+## Get Involved with the Community
+
+[Join us](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg?tab=readme-ov-file#communications)
+to help shape the future of cloud-native Postgres!
+
+If you're using CloudNativePG in production, consider
+[adding your organization as an adopter](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/blob/main/ADOPTERS.md)
+to support the project's growth and evolution.
+
+Thank you for your continued support! Upgrade today and discover how
+CloudNativePG can elevate your PostgreSQL experience to new heights.
+
+<!--
+## About CloudNativePG
+
+[CloudNativePG](https://cloudnative-pg.io) is an open-source Kubernetes
+Operator specifically designed for PostgreSQL workloads. It manages the entire
+lifecycle of a PostgreSQL cluster, including bootstrapping, configuration, high
+availability, connection routing, and comprehensive backup and disaster
+recovery mechanisms. By leveraging PostgreSQL's native streaming replication,
+CloudNativePG efficiently distributes data across pods, nodes, and zones using
+standard Kubernetes patterns, enabling seamless scaling of replicas in a
+Kubernetes-native manner. Originally developed and supported by
+[EDB](https://www.enterprisedb.com/), CloudNativePG is a CNCF Sandbox project
+and the sole PostgreSQL operator in this category.
+-->