.. _release_notes:


|cp| |version| Release Notes
============================

|version| is a major release of |cp| that provides you with |ak-tm| 3.4, the latest stable version of |ak|.

The technical details of this release are summarized below.

For more information about the |version| release, check out the `release blog <https://www.confluent.io/blog/introducing-confluent-platform-7-4/>`__.


Confluent Community / |ak|
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""

- In |cp| |version|, |kraft| is now production ready for new clusters.  |kraft| is |ak|'s new metadata consensus protocol that is replacing |zk|.  
  For several years, the |ak| community has been developing a new way to run |ak| with self-managed metadata. 
  This new mode, called |kraft| mode, improves partition scalability and resiliency while simplifying deployments for |ak|. 
  It also eliminates the need to run a |zk| cluster alongside every |ak| cluster. For more information, see :ref:`kraft-overview`.

- There are some features that are currently supported in |zk| mode that are not yet supported in |kraft| mode in |cp| |version|:

  - Multi-region clusters
  - JBOD
  - Delegate Tokens
  - SCRAM
  - Quorum reconfiguration
  - RBAC in |kraft| combined mode
  - ``TopicAclAuthorizer`` for |sr|

- Combined mode, where a broker is also a controller, is not currently supported for production workloads. 
  There are key security and feature gaps between combined mode and isolated mode in |cp|.
- Early Access for |zk| to |kraft| migrations for existing clusters is also available in |cp| |version|, with some exceptions:

  - Clusters with features that are currently not supported in |kraft| mode.
  - You cannot migrate clusters with :ref:`authorization-acl-with-mds`.
  
  For more information about migrating from |zk| to |kraft|, see :ref:`migrate-zk-kraft`. For more information on current limitations of |kraft| mode, see :ref:`kraft-limitations`.

- |cp| |version| features |ak| 3.4. For a full list of the KIPs, features, and bug fixes, see the `Apache Kafka release notes <https://blogs.apache.org/kafka/entry/what-s-new-in-apache9>`__.  
  For a summary of the improvements and changes in version 3.4, see 
  `Kafka 3.4 New Features and Updates <https://www.confluent.io/blog/apache-kafka-3-4-0-new-features-and-updates/>`__  on the Confluent blog, 
  or the |ak| 3.4 release video that follows.
  
  - One of the highlights of |ak| 3.4 is the ability to migrate |ak| clusters from |zk| to |kraft| mode with no downtime. Migration is an early access feature, which
    is suitable for testing in non-production environments. 

  .. raw:: html

     <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E9pqZ4QUeVI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


  

Cluster Management
""""""""""""""""""

|co-long| (formerly Confluent Operator)
---------------------------------------

**New features:** 

- |co| Blueprints are a new set of higher-level abstractions that enable teams to define a set of standardized ways 
  (production, staging, develepment, QA, 0-RPO-availability, and more) that |cp| must be deployed as, and then enables teams to stand up that Blueprint 
  in any Kubernetes infrastructure.

- |cp| now supports |kraft|-mode clusters for new deployments. |co| supports provisioning, managing and monitoring a |kraft| mode cluster through a newly introduced |kraft| 
  controller custom resource.

- Multi-Region Clusters (MRC) adds to the ability that |co| provides to |cp| components to communicate with external access endpoints in a MRC deployment. This avoids the 
  requirement in prior releases to change network settings to allow inter-|cp| component communication via DNS resolution of internal endpoints. 
  |co| has supported deploying and managing multi-region clusters since |co| 2.3. 

- |co| enables provisioning of separate certificates for internal communication between |cp| components (except |kconnect| and |ak| Rest Proxy), and 
  external communications between clients and the |cp| cluster.

- |co| metrics available via Health+ to enable proactive support using product telemetry.

- |co| allows for dynamic certificate loading for |ak| listeners. This enables you to update your |ak| broker certificates without requiring a |ak| cluster roll.

For the list of |co-long| release versions compatible with this release of |cp|, see :ref:`operator-cp-compatibility`.
See the `Confluent for Kubernetes Release Notes <https://docs.confluent.io/operator/current/release-notes.html>`__ for more details.


|ansible|
---------

**New features**

- |cp| |ansible| tool for migrating to Ansible managed |cp| environment called |cp|-|ansible| Discovery.
- |cp| |ansible| playbook for |kraft| based fresh |cp| deployments.


**Notable enhancements**

- Enhancement to use the `Confluent Hub Client <https://docs.confluent.io/kafka-connectors/self-managed/confluent-hub/client.html>`__ for installing local 
  and remote |kconnect| plugins.
- Improved error handling for deploying connectors.
- Support for custom Kerberos client configuration file and custom path.
- Separate on-demand playbook for host validation.

For more information, see the `Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform documentation <https://docs.confluent.io/ansible/7.4/overview.html>`__.

.. _release_notes-streams:

.. _release_notes-ksql:

|ksqldb|
""""""""

- Added new built-in functions:

  - ``TRUNC`` - Truncates (rounds down to zero) the given value.
  - ``CORRELATION`` - Returns the Pearson correlation coefficient between the given columns.
  
- New ``WITH`` parameter:

  - ``RETENTION_MS`` - Specifies the retention period in milliseconds for the underlying topic.



|sr|
"""""

- Added support for :ref:`Data Contracts <sr_data_contracts>` in the form of Schema Metadata and Schema Rules.
  
  - Schema rules are only available with |cpe|.

.. _release_notes-download:

How to download
"""""""""""""""

|cp| is available for download at https://www.confluent.io/download/. See the :ref:`installation`
section for detailed information.

.. important::

    .. include:: ../installation/includes/cs-license.rst

For more information about migrating to |cs|, see :ref:`migrate-confluent-server`.

To upgrade |cp| to a newer version, check the :ref:`upgrade` documentation.

.. _release_notes-sup-version:

Supported versions and interoperability
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Confluent Platform now supports RHEL 9. For the full list of supported versions and interoperability of |cp| and its components, see
:ref:`interoperability-versions`.

.. _release_notes-question:

Questions?
""""""""""

If you have questions regarding this release, feel free to reach out via the
`community mailing list <https://groups.google.com/forum/?pli=1#!forum/confluent-platform>`_ or
`community Slack <https://slackpass.io/confluentcommunity>`_. Confluent customers are encouraged to
contact our support directly.