Kubernetes 1.22 Is Out. Here's What You Need To Know.

The 2nd wave of the CNCF flagship project after the newly implemented cadence of 3 releases per year features the usual enhancements paradigm and an unorthodox new control panel.

Aug. 12, 2021, 8:58 a.m.

TL;DR

The Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), on August 4, 2021, sanctioned the announcement of Kubernetes 1.22 with a slew of ameliorative additions and cultural dents into general availability.

Kubernetes for Windows is not left out in terms of new features.

Key Facts

1
This release features 53 enhancements and three deprecations.
2
The perceived endgame of Kubernetes 1.22 is feature improvement.
3
The new gig allows the deployment of Kubelet in a user namespace.
4
The new version allows user flexibility with cloud-provider instances.

Details

April saw a change in the release cadence of Google's biggest blessing to container orchestration yet, Kubernetes. A mandate was released that Kubernetes would now undergo three upgrade releases per year in contrast to the existing 4 per annum, which had been in place since Kubernetes was first announced on June 7, 2014. 2021 is the first implementation of that cycle release. The first wave was the Kubernetes 1.21. Now, this is version 1.22. The new cadence reduces the pressure on end-users that have been accustomed to staying up to date with Kubernetes versions. Having to update four times per year comes with its untold toll. Changing the release paradigm also promises good delivery of innovative and industrious features. "Countless" is not an exaggeration if the subject is based on the strides, acquisitions and deployments around Kubernetes since Kubernetes 1.0. Having sailed the boat of the most popular container orchestrator since then, the container world is welcoming Kubernetes 1.22, the 22nd update since its debut.

Common expectations in k8s updates are enhancements, some oddities, and deprecation. In this case, there are 53 enhancements, 1 oddity, and 3 scrapings. 13 features have taken the leap to the stable status, 24 features have graduated to beta, with 16 now in the alpha circle. One of the stable status debutants is the server-side Apply, a feature applied in resource management embedded with declarative configurations and has been a beta feature since Kubernetes versions 1.16. These improvements along with the option to run Kubelet in a namespace leaves suggestions that Kubernetes 1.22 is bent on feature maturity.

Kubernetes for Windows is not left out in terms of new features. The new SIG Windows Development Environment is accessible for Kubernetes in Windows on the Kubernetes 1.22 GitHub channel, supporting Antrea and Calico Container Network Interfaces (CNI) and attempts to make Kubernetes for Windows easier to use. Windows is increasingly edging Linux in its viability with Kubernetes. What's more?! Kubernetes 1.22 with the CSI node plug-ins boasts stability in the Windows worker nodes.

It is impressive that intentional organizations are aware of what the upgrade entails. 12 beta APIs removed from Kubernetes 1.22 would force cultural changes. CustomResourceDefinition, APIService, TokenReview are some of the APIs that make up the beta 12.

In addition, version 1.22 adds a feature gate to block cloud-provider initialization in multiple instances, a kubeadm field to indicate which phases to skip during init and join operations. The tool has finally learned to mask personal values in different outputs by default.

The rootless control plane stands atop the new security improvements.

More educational events are taking place with the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021 which will take place in Los Angeles, California, on October 12 – 15, 2021.