---
# System prepended metadata

title: What's New (Major Themes)

---

Release Blog 

###### Authors: Kubernetes Release Team

Announcing the release of Kubernetes v1.27, the first release of 2023!

This release consist of sixty enhancements. Eighteen of those enhancements are entering Alpha, Tweentynine are graduating to Beta, and Thirteen are graduating to Stable.

## Release theme and logo
**Kubernetes v1.27: Chill Vibes**

The theme for Kubernetes v1.27 is *Chill Vibes*.

![](https://i.imgur.com/3zGbYOO.png)


It's a little silly, but there were some important shifts in this release that helped inspire the theme. Throughout a typical Kubernetes release cycle, there are several deadlines that features need to meet to remain included. If a feature misses any of these deadlines, there is an exception process they can go through. Handling these exceptions is a very normal part of the release. But v1.27 is the first release that anyone can remember where we didn't receive a single exception request after the enhancements freeze. Even as the release progressed, things remained much calmer than any of us are used to.

There's a specific reason we were able to enjoy a more calm release this time around, and that's all the work that folks put in beind the scenes to improve how we manage the release. That's what this theme celebrates, people putting in the work to make things better for the community.

Special thinks to [Britnee Laverack](https://www.instagram.com/artsyfie/) for creating the logo. Britnee also design the logo for [Kubernetes 1.24: Stargazer](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2022/05/03/kubernetes-1-24-release-announcement/#release-theme-and-logo).

# What's New (Major Themes)

## Freeze `k8s.gcr.io` image registry
Replacing the old image registry, [k8s.gcr.io](https://cloud.google.com/container-registry/) with [registry.k8s.io](https://github.com/kubernetes/registry.k8s.io) which has been generally available for several months. The Kubernetes project created and runs the `registry.k8s.io` image registry, which is fully controlled by the community.
This mean that all subsequent image releases would not be available on the old registry. Freezing  the `k8s.gcr.io` image registry by not pushing any new digests or tags after this release.

What does this change mean for contributors:

* If you are a maintainer of a subproject, you will need to update your manifests and Helm charts to use the new registry.

What does this change mean for end users:

* This Kubernetes release will not be published to the old registry.

* Patch releases for v1.24, v1.25, and v1.26 will no longer be published to the old registry from April. 

* Starting in v1.25, the default image registry has been set to `registry.k8s.io`. This value is overridable in kubeadm and kubelet but setting it to `k8s.gcr.io` will fail for new releases after April as they won’t be present in the old registry.

* If you want to increase the reliability of your cluster and remove dependency on the community-owned registry or you are running Kubernetes in networks where external traffic is restricted, you should consider hosting local image registry mirrors. Some cloud vendors may offer hosted solutions for this.


## SeccompDefault graduates to stable
To use seccomp profile defaulting, you must run the kubelet with the `--seccomp-default` [command line flag](/docs/reference/command-line-tools-reference/kubelet) enabled for each node where you want to use it. 
If enabled, the kubelet will use the `RuntimeDefault` seccomp profile by default, which is defined by the container runtime, instead of using the `Unconfined` (seccomp disabled) mode. The default profiles aim to provide a strong set of security defaults while preserving the functionality of the workload. It is possible that the default profiles differ between container runtimes and their release versions.

You can find more detailed information about a possible upgrade and downgrade strategy in the related Kubernetes Enhancement Proposal (KEP): [Enable seccomp by default](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-node/2413-seccomp-by-default).

## Pod Scheduling Readiness goes to beta 
Pods were considered ready for scheduling once created. Kubernetes scheduler does its due diligence to find nodes to place all pending Pods. However, in a real-world case, some Pods may stay in a "miss-essential-resources" state for a long period. These Pods actually churn the scheduler (and downstream integrators like Cluster AutoScaler) in an unnecessary manner.

By specifying/removing a Pod's `.spec.schedulingGates`, you can control when a Pod is ready to be considered for scheduling.

The `schedulingGates` field contains a list of strings, and each string literal is perceived as a criteria that Pod should be satisfied before considered schedulable. This field can be initialized only when a Pod is created (either by the client, or mutated during admission). After creation, each schedulingGate can be removed in an arbitrary order, but addition of a new scheduling gate is disallowed.

## Node Service Log Viewer
This feature helps cluster administrators debug issues with services running on nodes by allowing them to query service logs. To use the feature, ensure that the `NodeLogQuery` [feature gate](/docs/reference/command-line-tools-reference/feature-gates/) is enabled for that node, and that the kubelet configuration options `enableSystemLogHandler` and `enableSystemLogQuery` are both set to true. On Linux we assume that service logs are available either via journald. On Windows we assume that service logs are available in the application log provider. On both operating systems, logs are also available by reading files within `/var/log/`.

A node level administrator can try out this alpha feature on all their nodes, or on just a subset. Provided you're authorized to do so.

## ReadWriteOncePod PersistentVolume Access Mode goes to beta 
ReadWriteOncePod is a new access mode for [PersistentVolumes](/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#persistent-volumes) (PVs) and [PersistentVolumeClaims](/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#persistentvolumeclaims) (PVCs) introduced in Kubernetes v1.22. This access mode enables you to restrict volume access to a single pod in the cluster, ensuring that only one pod can write to the volume at a time. This can be particularly useful for stateful workloads that require single-writer access to storage.

The ReadWriteOncePod beta adds support for [scheduler preemption](/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/pod-priority-preemption/) of pods using ReadWriteOncePod PVCs. Scheduler preemption allows higher-priority pods to preempt lower-priority pods, so that they can start running on the same node. With this release, pods using ReadWriteOncePod PVCs can also be preempted if a higher-priority pod requires the same PVC. For more context [see here](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-storage/2485-read-write-once-pod-pv-access-mode).


## Respect PodTopologySpread after rolling upgrades
`matchLabelKeys` is a list of pod label keys to select the pods over which spreading will be calculated. The keys are used to lookup values from the pod labels, those key-value labels are ANDed with `labelSelector` to select the group of existing pods over which spreading will be calculated for the incoming pod. Keys that don't exist in the pod labels will be ignored. A null or empty list means only match against the `labelSelector`.

With `matchLabelKeys`, users don't need to update the `pod.spec` between different revisions. The controller/operator just needs to set different values to the same `label` key for different revisions. The scheduler will assume the values automatically based on `matchLabelKeys`. For example, if users use Deployment, they can use the label keyed with `pod-template-hash`, which is added automatically by the Deployment controller, to distinguish between different revisions in a single Deployment.


## Speed up SELinux volume relabeling using mounts
In this release, how SELinux labels are applied to volumes used by Pods is graduating to beta. This feature speeds up container startup by mounting volumes with the correct SELinux label instead of changing each file on the volumes recursively. Linux kernel with SELinux support allows the first mount of a volume to set SELinux label on the whole volume using `-o context=` mount option. This way, all files will have assigned the given label in a constant time, without recursively walking through the whole volumes.

`context` mount option cannot be applied to bind-mounts or re-mounts of already mounted volumes. Since it's a CSI driver that does the first mount of a volume, it must be the CSI driver who actually applies this mount option. We added a new field `SELinuxMount` to CSI Driver object, so CSI drivers can announce if they support `-o context` mount option.

If Kubernetes knows SELinux label of a Pod **and** CSI driver responsible for a pod's volume announces `SELinuxMount: true` **and** the volume has Access Mode `ReadWriteOncePod`, then it will ask the CSI driver to mount the volume with mount option `context=` **and** it will tell the container runtime not to relabel content of the volume - all files already have the right label. Get more information on the KEP: [Speed up SELinux volume relabeling using mounts](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-storage/1710-selinux-relabeling)

## Robust VolumeManager reconstruction goes to beta
This is a VolumeManager refactoring that allows kubelet to populate additional information about how existing volumes are mounted during the kubelet startup. In general, this makes volume cleanup more robust. 
By adding `NewVolumeManagerReconstruction` feature gate and enabling it by default to enable improved discovery of mounted volumes during kubelet startup.

Before Kubernetes v1.25, the kubelet used different default behavior for discovering mounted volumes during the kubelet startup. If you disable this feature gate (it's enabled by default), you select the legacy discovery behavior.

In Kubernetes v1.25 and v1.26, this behavior toggle was part of the `SELinuxMountReadWriteOncePod` feature gate.

## `JobMutableNodeSchedulingDirectives` graduates to GA
This was introduced in v1.22 and started as a beta level, now it's stable. In most cases a parallel job will want the pods to run with constraints, like all in the same zone, or all either on GPU model x or y but not a mix of both. The suspend field is the first step towards achieving those semantics. Suspend allows a custom queue controller to decide when a job should start. However, once a job is unsuspended, a custom queue controller has no influence on where the pods of a job will actually land.

This feature allows updating a Job's scheduling directives before it starts, which gives custom queue controllers the ability to influence pod placement while at the same time offloading actual pod-to-node assignment to kube-scheduler. This is allowed only for suspended Jobs that have never been unsuspended before. The fields in a Job's pod template that can be updated are node affinity, node selector, tolerations, labels and annotations and [scheduling gates](/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/pod-scheduling-readiness/). Find more details in KEP: [Allow updating scheduling directives of jobs](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-scheduling/2926-job-mutable-scheduling-directives)

## Mutable Pod Scheduling Directives goes to beta
This allows a pod to make pod scheduling directives (nodeSelector, affinity) mutable as long as the pod is gated.  It gives the ability to mutate a pods scheduling directives before it is allowed to be scheduled, and gives an external resource controller the ability to influence pod placement while at the same time offload actual pod-to-node assignment to kube-scheduler.

This opens the door for a new pattern of adding scheduling features to Kubernetes.  Specifically, building lightweight schedulers that implement features not supported by kube-scheduler, while relying on the existing kube-scheduler to support all upstream features and handle the pod-to-node binding. This pattern should be the preferred one if the custom feature doesn't require implementing a schedule plugin, which entails re-building and maintaining a custom kube-scheduler binary.

## DownwardAPIHugePages graduates to stable 
Support for `requests.hugepages-<pagesize>` and `limits.hugepages-<pagesize>` is being added to the downward API to be consistent with other resources like cpu, memory, and ephemeral storage. You can find more details in the KEP: [Downward API HugePages](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-node/2053-downward-api-hugepages).

# Other Updates

## Graduations to stable

This release includes a total of thirteen enhancements promoted to Stable:
* [Mutable scheduling directives for suspended Jobs](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2926)
* [Add downward API support for hugepages](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2053)
* [Kubelet option to enable seccomp by default](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2413)
* [Default container annotation that to be used by kubectl](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2227)
* [TimeZone support in CronJob](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/3140)
* [Expose metrics about resource requests and limits that represent the pod model](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/1748)
* [Server Side Unknown Field Validation](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2885)
* [Node Topology Manager](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/693)
* [Freeze k8s.gcr.io image registry](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/3720)
* [Add gRPC probe to Pod.Spec.Container.{Liveness,Readiness,Startup} Probe](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2727)
* [Add configurable grace period to probes](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2238)
* [OpenAPI v3](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/2896)
* [Stay on supported go versions](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/3744)

## Deprecations and removals
This release saw several removals:

* [Removal of `storage.k8s.io/v1beta1` from CSIStorageCapacity](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108445)
* [Removal of support for deprecated seccomp annotations](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/114947)
* [Removal of `--master-service-namespace` command line argument](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112797)
* [Removal of the `ControllerManagerLeaderMigration` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/113534)
* [Removal of `--enable-taint-manager` command line argument](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111411)
* [Removal of `--pod-eviction-timeout` command line argument](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/113710)
* [Removal of the `CSI Migration` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110410)
* [Removal of `CSIInlineVolume` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111258)
* [Removal of `EphemeralContainers` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111402)
* [Removal of `LocalStorageCapacityIsolation` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111513)
* [Removal of `NetworkPolicyEndPort` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110868)
* [Removal of `StatefulSetMinReadySeconds` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110896)
* [Removal of `IdentifyPodOS` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111229)
* [Removal of `DaemonSetUpdateSurge` feature gate](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/111194)



## Release notes

The complete details of the Kubernetes v1.27 release are available in our [release notes](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/blob/master/CHANGELOG/CHANGELOG-1.27.md).


## Availability
Kubernetes v1.27 is available for download on [GitHub](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/releases/tag/v1.27.0). To get started with Kubernetes, you can run local Kubernetes clusters using [minikube](https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/), [kind](https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/), etc. You can also easily install v1.27 using [kubeadm](https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/production-environment/tools/kubeadm/create-cluster-kubeadm/).
 
## Release team

Kubernetes is only possible with the support, commitment, and hard work of its community. Each release team is made up of dedicated community volunteers who work together to build the many pieces that make up the Kubernetes releases you rely on. This requires the specialized skills of people from all corners of our community, from the code itself to its documentation and project management.

Special thanks to our Release Lead Xander Grzywinski for guiding us through a smooth and successful release cycle and to all members of the release team for supporting one another and working so hard to produce the v1.27 release for the community.

## Ecosystem updates

* KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2023 will take place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 17 – 21 April 2023! You can find more information about the conference and registration on the [event site](https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/).
* cdCon +  GitOpsCon will be held in Vancouver, Canada, on May 8th and 9th, 2023!  More information about the conference and registration can be found on the [event site](https://events.linuxfoundation.org/cdcon-gitopscon/).

## Project velocity

The [CNCF K8s DevStats](https://k8s.devstats.cncf.io/d/12/dashboards?orgId=1&refresh=15m) project aggregates a number of interesting data points related to the velocity of Kubernetes and various sub-projects. This includes everything from individual contributions to the number of companies that are contributing, and is an illustration of the depth and breadth of effort that goes into evolving this ecosystem.

In the v1.27 release cycle, which [ran for 14 weeks](https://github.com/kubernetes/sig-release/tree/master/releases/release-1.27) (January 9 to April 11), we saw contributions from [1020 companies](https://k8s.devstats.cncf.io/d/9/companies-table?orgId=1&var-period_name=v1.26.0%20-%20now&var-metric=contributions) and [1603 individuals](https://k8s.devstats.cncf.io/d/66/developer-activity-counts-by-companies?orgId=1&var-period_name=v1.26.0%20-%20now&var-metric=contributions&var-repogroup_name=Kubernetes&var-repo_name=kubernetes%2Fkubernetes&var-country_name=All&var-companies=All).

## Upcoming Release Webinar
Join members of the Kubernetes v1.27 release team on <date> to learn about the major features of this release, as well as deprecations and removals to help plan for upgrades. For more information and registration, visit the [event page](#) on the CNCF Online Programs site.

## Get Involved

The simplest way to get involved with Kubernetes is by joining one of the many [Special Interest Groups](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/sig-list.md) (SIGs) that align with your interests.

Have something you’d like to broadcast to the Kubernetes community? Share your voice at our weekly [community meeting](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/communication), and through the channels below:

* Find out more about contributing to Kubernetes at the [Kubernetes Contributors website](https://www.kubernetes.dev/).

* Follow us on Twitter [@Kubernetesio](https://twitter.com/kubernetesio) for the latest updates.

* Join the community discussion on [Discuss](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/).

* Join the community on [Slack](https://communityinviter.com/apps/kubernetes/community).

* Post questions (or answer questions) on [Server Fault](https://serverfault.com/questions/tagged/kubernetes).

* [Share](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScuI7Ye3VQHQTwBASrgkjQDSS5TP0g3AXfFhwSM9YpHgxRKFA/viewform) your Kubernetes story.

* Read more about what’s happening with Kubernetes on the [blog](https://kubernetes.io/blog/).

* Learn more about the [Kubernetes Release Team](https://github.com/kubernetes/sig-release/tree/master/release-team).