What’s New in the Helm Charts

This topic includes new content and significant changes in the Redpanda and Redpanda Console Helm charts. For a complete list of all updates, see:

See also:

Redpanda chart v25.1.1-beta1

Changelog.

See also: Try the 25.1 Beta of the Redpanda Operator

Redpanda Console v3

This beta version deploys Redpanda Console v3, which includes unified authentication and authorization between the Console and Redpanda, including user impersonation. For more information, see Authentication.

This version does not support Redpanda Console v2.

Schema validation

The Redpanda Helm chart now includes stricter schema validation to ensure configurations conform to expected standards. With schema validation enabled, you must ensure your overrides include valid fields.

Removed fields

The following deprecated fields have been removed from the Helm values. Before upgrading, review your configurations and replace the removed fields with their replacements. For the list of removed fields, see the changelog.

Updated versioning scheme

An updated versioning scheme now better supports and tracks compatible Redpanda versions, ensuring smoother upgrades and improved compatibility management.

See also: Kubernetes Compatibility.

Connectors subchart removed

The connectors subchart has been removed from the Helm chart because it is not officially supported.

For a supported and scalable Kafka Connect alternative, consider using Redpanda Connect. For more information, see Get Started.

Redpanda chart v5.10.x

Ability to change StatefulSet replicas without restarting brokers

Starting in v5.10.1, the Redpanda Helm chart allows you to increase or decrease the number of replicas in a StatefulSet without restarting existing brokers. This ability is useful for scaling your cluster up or down without downtime.

Redpanda chart v5.9.x

Sidecar for broker decommissioning and PVC cleanup

Version v5.9.21 of the Redpanda Helm chart introduces two new sidecar-based controllers to manage broker decommissioning and persistent volume cleanup:

  • BrokerDecommissioner: Detects non-graceful broker failures, such as node crashes, and triggers automated decommissioning.

  • PVCUnbinder: Ensures persistent volume claims (PVCs) are properly unbound and cleaned up after broker removal.

The NodeWatcher and Decommission controllers are deprecated and replaced by a single sidecar. To enable the equivalent of the controllers, set the enabled flag to true in your Redpanda custom resource. For example:

statefulset:
  sideCars:
    brokerDecommissioner:
      enabled: true
      decommissionAfter: 60s
    pvcUnbinder:
      enabled: true
      unbindAfter: 60s
rbac:
  enabled: true

If you previously relied on the NodeWatcher or Decommission controllers, switch to the new sidecars for improved stability and control.