Release Notes for Confluent Platform 7.7

7.7 is a major release of Confluent Platform that provides you with Apache Kafka® 3.7, the latest stable version of Kafka.

The technical details of this release are summarized below.

For more information about the 7.7 release, check out the release blog.

Kafka brokers

Confluent Server

OAuth for Confluent Server is generally available in Confluent Platform 7.7. For more information, see the Security section later in this document and Use SASL/OAUTHBEARER Authentication between Confluent Server Brokers and Kafka Clients in Confluent Platform.

  • Cluster Linking has several new options:
    • Bidirectional mode for newly created cluster links. This can sync data in metadata in either direction between 2 clusters. The consumer offset sync enabled by this mode is crucial when using Cluster Linking for disaster recovery.
    • The ability to start mirror topic replication from the latest message, or from any timestamp in the log.
    • The ability to have mirror topics set a different retention period than their source topic. To learn more, see Override default syncing to specify independent mirror topic behavior.

Confluent Community / Kafka

Confluent Platform 7.7 features Kafka 3.7.

  • Change Notice: Effective with Confluent Platform 8.0, Confluent Platform, Community version will transition to follow the Kafka release cycle more closely. The Kafka community provides about one year of patch support for a Kafka version, from the minor version release date, and Confluent Community software will soon follow a similar support schedule. Confluent customers using Confluent Enterprise will continue to receive patch updates for three years following minor version release. For more details, see Confluent Platform and Apache Kafka compatibility.

In Confluent Platform 7.7, major features include:

  • KRaft Mode Enhancements:
  • Client Resilience & Metrics:
    • Exponential Backoff for Clients: Improved handling of retries.
    • Client Metrics: Enhanced observability with client-level metrics.
  • Kafka Streams Improvements:
    • StandbyTaskUpdateListener: New interface for standby task updates.
    • Rack-aware Task Assignment: Better task distribution across racks.

For a full list of the KIPs, features, and bug fixes, see the Apache Kafka release notes, Kafka 3.7 New Features and Updates on the Confluent blog, or the Kafka 3.7 release video that follows.

Cluster Management

Confluent for Kubernetes (formerly Confluent Operator)

For Confluent for Kubernetes release notes, see Confluent for Kubernetes Release Notes.

Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform

For Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform release notes, see the Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform.

Confluent CLI

  • Confluent Platform 7.7 ships with Confluent CLI version 3.64.3. For more information, see the CLI release notes. To install and use a later version of the CLI, you must download and install an alternative CLI version using these instructions.
  • Confluent CLI can now authenticate its users with SSO.
  • The Confluent Hub CLI installation feature was deprecated in Confluent Platform 7.6 and will be removed in later versions. Use the confluent connect plugin install command to install self-managed connectors.

Kafka Connect

  • OAuth for Kafka Connect is generally available in Confluent Platform 7.7.

Schema Registry

  • OAuth for Schema Registry is generally available in Confluent Platform 7.7.
  • Schema Registry clients built with Confluent Platform 7.7.4 and later include auto retries for 429 exceptions. For more information, see Support Notes.

Security

Confluent Platform 7.7 adds the following security improvements:

  • OAuth/OIDC capabilities are now available for Confluent Server, REST Proxy, Schema Registry, Kafka Connect, Confluent Control Center (Legacy) and also the Confluent CLI.
  • Clients and Connectors can run on OAuth with Confluent Platform services.
  • OAuth-based authentication is now available to enable Schema Linking and Cluster Linking from Confluent Platform to Confluent Cloud.
  • Confluent Control Center (Legacy) SSO and Confluent CLI SSO can be enabled for members of an organization.
  • LDAP resiliency and availability improvements were also made in Confluent Platform 7.7.

Confluent Platform for Apache Flink

Confluent Platform for Apache Flink® is in limited availability for Confluent Platform 7.7. This means it is fully supported for select customers.

To learn more about Confluent Platform for Apache Flink, see Confluent Platform for Apache Flink Features and Support. To get started, see Get Started with Confluent Platform for Apache Flink.

Other improvements and changes

  • Confluent Platform 7.7, Confluent Platform adds support for the following operating systems:

    • Amazon Linux 2023
    • Debian 12 (bookworm)

    For more information, see Operating systems.

  • The Confluent Platform 7.7 Docker images are now built with Java 17. For more information, see Docker.

  • Confluent Platform images are now FIPS compliant.

  • Starting October 1st, 2025, a new Enterprise license key for Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription is being introduced. This new license key entitles you to use self-managed Confluent Platform components exclusively with Confluent Cloud services.

    Prerequisites for installing the license key

    1. Ensure all your self-managed components are connected with Confluent Cloud and used for Confluent Cloud broker-related use cases. Confluent does not provide support for any self-managed Confluent Platform components that are used exclusively for Confluent Platform broker use cases under the Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription.
    2. You must upgrade Confluent Platform to the recommended minimum patch version for each minor version of Confluent Platform.

    Warning

    Applying this new Enterprise license key to Confluent Platform components or Control Center before upgrading them causes the license key update to fail. The failure is recorded as an error in the component logs, and it is shown on the Control Center if the license key was applied using Control Center.

    If you are an existing customer, your existing license key will continue to function until its expiration date.

    Note the following for Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud:

    • This license key is solely for the use of self-managed Confluent Platform components with Confluent Cloud. Confluent does not provide support for any self-managed Confluent Platform components that are used exclusively for Confluent Platform broker use cases under the Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription.
    • If you are using Control Center, apply the license key in Control Center (recommended). For more information, see Manage Confluent Platform Licenses using Control Center. Alternatively, you can configure the confluent.license parameter in the Connect worker configuration, or at the individual connector level for enterprise support. Enterprise support is not provided for Schema Registry and REST Proxy unless the confluent-security package is installed on all nodes and a valid Enterprise license key is configured. For more information, see Configure component licenses for more details.

    Note

    Confluent Platform Connect workers now perform a pre-check during startup to validate critical Confluent licensing libraries. This prevents potential runtime errors by ensuring all required libraries are present and compatible. If this check fails due to missing or incompatible libraries, the worker will not start. To avoid related library conflicts, use the plugin.path configuration property to load connectors and their dependencies. Avoid using the CLASSPATH environment variable for plugins, as this can lead to unpredictable failures in the Connect framework as described in the Install a plugin.

Supported versions and interoperability

For the supported versions and interoperability of Confluent Platform and its components, see Supported Versions and Interoperability for Confluent Platform.

How to download

Confluent Platform is available for download at https://confluent.io/download/. See the Install Confluent Platform On-Premises section for detailed information.

Important

The Confluent Platform package includes Confluent Server by default and requires a confluent.license key in your server.properties file. Starting with Confluent Platform 5.4.x, the Confluent Server broker checks for a license during start-up. You must supply a license string in each broker’s properties file using the confluent.license property as below:

confluent.license=LICENCE_STRING_HERE_NO_QUOTES

If you want to use the Kafka broker, download the confluent-community package. The Kafka broker is the default in all Debian or RHEL and CentOS packages.

For more information about migrating to Confluent Server, see Migrate Confluent Platform to Confluent Server.

To upgrade Confluent Platform to a newer version, check the Upgrade Confluent Platform documentation.

Questions?

  • If you have questions regarding this release, feel free to reach out via the community mailing list or community Slack. Confluent customers are encouraged to contact our support directly.
  • To provide feedback on the Confluent documentation, click the Give us feedback button located near the footer of each page.