Upgrade Guide
Karpenter is a controller that runs in your cluster, but it is not tied to a specific Kubernetes version, as the Cluster Autoscaler is. Use your existing upgrade mechanisms to upgrade your core add-ons in Kubernetes and keep Karpenter up to date on bug fixes and new features.
To make upgrading easier we aim to minimize introduction of breaking changes with the followings:
Compatibility issues
To make upgrading easier, we aim to minimize the introduction of breaking changes with the followings components:
- Provisioner API
- Helm Chart
We try to maintain compatibility with:
- The application itself
- The documentation of the application
When we introduce a breaking change, we do so only as described in this document.
Karpenter follows Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 in its stable release versions, while in major version zero (v0.y.z) anything may change at any time. However, to further protect users during this phase we will only introduce breaking changes in minor releases (releases that increment y in x.y.z). Note this does not mean every minor upgrade has a breaking change as we will also increment the minor version when we release a new feature.
Users should therefore check to see if there is a breaking change every time they are upgrading to a new minor version.
Custom Resource Definition (CRD) Upgrades
Karpenter ships with a few Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs). These CRDs are published:
- As an independent helm chart karpenter-crd - source that can be used by Helm to manage the lifecycle of these CRDs.
- To upgrade or install
karpenter-crd
run:helm upgrade --install karpenter-crd oci://public.ecr.aws/karpenter/karpenter-crd --version vx.y.z --namespace karpenter --create-namespace
- To upgrade or install
Note
If you get the errorinvalid ownership metadata; label validation error:
while installing the karpenter-crd
chart from an older version of Karpenter, follow the Troubleshooting Guide for details on how to resolve these errors.
- As part of the helm chart karpenter - source. Helm does not manage the lifecycle of CRDs using this method, the tool will only install the CRD during the first installation of the helm chart. Subsequent chart upgrades will not add or remove CRDs, even if the CRDs have changed. When CRDs are changed, we will make a note in the version’s upgrade guide.
In general, you can reapply the CRDs in the crds
directory of the Karpenter helm chart:
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.30.0/pkg/apis/crds/karpenter.sh_provisioners.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.30.0/pkg/apis/crds/karpenter.sh_machines.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.30.0/pkg/apis/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_awsnodetemplates.yaml
How Do We Break Incompatibility?
When there is a breaking change we will:
- Increment the minor version when in major version 0
- Add a permanent separate section named
upgrading to vx.y.z+
under released upgrade notes clearly explaining the breaking change and what needs to be done on the user side to ensure a safe upgrade - Add the sentence “This is a breaking change, please refer to the above link for upgrade instructions” to the top of the release notes and in all our announcements
How Do We Find Incompatibilities?
Besides the peer review process for all changes to the code base we also do the followings in order to find incompatibilities:
- (To be implemented) To check the compatibility of the application, we will automate tests for installing, uninstalling, upgrading from an older version, and downgrading to an older version
- (To be implemented) To check the compatibility of the documentation with the application, we will turn the commands in our documentation into scripts that we can automatically run
Security Patches
While we are in major version 0 we will not release security patches to older versions. Rather we provide the patches in the latest versions. When at major version 1 we will have an EOL (end of life) policy where we provide security patches for a subset of older versions and deprecate the others.
Release Types
Karpenter offers three types of releases. This section explains the purpose of each release type and how the images for each release type are tagged in our public image repository.
Stable Releases
Stable releases are the most reliable releases that are released with weekly cadence. Stable releases are our only recommended versions for production environments.
Sometimes we skip a stable release because we find instability or problems that need to be fixed before having a stable release.
Stable releases are tagged with Semantic Versioning. For example v0.13.0
.
Release Candidates
We consider having release candidates for major and important minor versions. Our release candidates are tagged like vx.y.z-rc.0
, vx.y.z-rc.1
. The release candidate will then graduate to vx.y.z
as a normal stable release.
By adopting this practice we allow our users who are early adopters to test out new releases before they are available to the wider community, thereby providing us with early feedback resulting in more stable releases.
Snapshot Releases
We release a snapshot release for every commit that gets merged into the main repository. This enables our users to immediately try a new feature or fix right after it’s merged rather than waiting days or weeks for release.
Snapshot releases are suitable for testing, and troubleshooting but users should exercise great care if they decide to use them in production environments.
Snapshot releases are tagged with the git commit hash prefixed by the Karpenter major version. For example v0-fc17bfc89ebb30a3b102a86012b3e3992ec08adf
. For more detailed examples on how to use snapshot releases look under “Usage” in Karpenter Helm Chart.
Released Upgrade Notes
Upgrading to v0.30.0+
- Karpenter will now statically drift on both Provisioner and AWSNodeTemplate Fields. For Provisioner Static Drift, the
karpenter.sh/provisioner-hash
annotation must be present on both the Provisioner and Machine. For AWSNodeTemplate drift, thekarpenter.k8s.aws/nodetemplate-hash
annotation must be present on the AWSNodeTemplate and Machine. Karpenter will not add these annotations to pre-existing nodes, so each of these nodes will need to be recycled one time for the annotations to be added. - Karpenter will now fail validation on AWSNodeTemplates and Provisioner
spec.provider
that haveamiSelectors
,subnetSelectors
, orsecurityGroupSelectors
set with a combination of id selectors (aws-ids
,aws::ids
) and other selectors. - Karpenter now statically sets the
securityContext
at both the pod and container-levels and doesn’t allow override values to be passed through the helm chart. This change was made to adhere to Restricted Pod Security Standard, which follows pod hardening best practices.
Note
If you have sidecar containers configured to run alongside Karpenter that cannot tolerate the pod-widesecurityContext
constraints, you will need to specify overrides to the sidecar securityContext
in your deployment.
Upgrading to v0.29.0+
Warning
Karpenterv0.29.1
contains a file descriptor and memory leak bug that leads to Karpenter getting OOMKilled and restarting at the point that it hits its memory or file descriptor limit. Karpenter >v0.29.2
fixes this leak.
-
Karpenter has changed the default metrics service port from 8080 to 8000 and the default webhook service port from 443 to 8443. In
v0.28.0
, the Karpenter pod port was changed to 8000, but referenced the service by name, allowing users to scrape the service at port 8080 for metrics.v0.29.0
aligns the two ports so that service and pod metrics ports are the same. These ports are set by thecontroller.metrics.port
andwebhook.port
helm chart values, so if you have previously set these to non-default values, you may need to update your Prometheus scraper to match these new values. -
Karpenter will now reconcile nodes that are drifted due to their Security Groups or their Subnets. If your AWSNodeTemplate’s Security Groups differ from the Security Groups used for an instance, Karpenter will consider it drifted. If the Subnet used by an instance is not contained in the allowed list of Subnets for an AWSNodeTemplate, Karpenter will also consider it drifted.
- Since Karpenter uses tags for discovery of Subnets and SecurityGroups, check the Threat Model to see how to manage this IAM Permission.
Upgrading to v0.28.0+
Warning
Karpenterv0.28.0
is incompatible with Kubernetes version 1.26+, which can result in additional node scale outs when using --cloudprovider=external
, which is the default for the EKS Optimized AMI. See: https://github.com/aws/karpenter-core/pull/375. Karpenter >v0.28.1
fixes this issue and is compatible with Kubernetes version 1.26+.
-
The
extraObjects
value is now removed from the Helm chart. Having this value in the chart proved to not work in the majority of Karpenter installs and often led to anti-patterns, where the Karpenter resources installed to manage Karpenter’s capacity were directly tied to the install of the Karpenter controller deployments. The Karpenter team recommends that, if you want to install Karpenter manifests alongside the Karpenter helm chart, to do so by creating a separate chart for the manifests, creating a dependency on the controller chart. -
The
aws.nodeNameConvention
setting is now removed from thekarpenter-global-settings
ConfigMap. Because Karpenter is now driving its orchestration of capacity through Machines, it no longer needs to know the node name, making this setting obsolete. Karpenter ignores configuration that it doesn’t recognize in thekarpenter-global-settings
ConfigMap, so leaving theaws.nodeNameConvention
in the ConfigMap will simply cause this setting to be ignored. -
Karpenter now defines a set of “restricted tags” which can’t be overridden with custom tagging in the AWSNodeTemplate or in the
karpenter-global-settings
ConfigMap. If you are currently using any of these tag overrides when tagging your instances, webhook validation will now fail. These tags include:karpenter.sh/managed-by
karpenter.sh/provisioner-name
kubernetes.io/cluster/${CLUSTER_NAME}
-
The following metrics changed their meaning, based on the introduction of the Machine resource:
karpenter_nodes_terminated
: Usekarpenter_machines_terminated
if you are interested in the reason why a Karpenter machine was deleted.karpenter_nodes_terminated
now only tracks the count of terminated nodes without any additional labels.karpenter_nodes_created
: Usekarpenter_machines_created
if you are interested in the reason why a Karpenter machine was created.karpenter_nodes_created
now only tracks the count of created nodes without any additional labels.karpenter_deprovisioning_replacement_node_initialized_seconds
: This metric has been replaced in favor ofkarpenter_deprovisioning_replacement_machine_initialized_seconds
.
-
v0.28.0
introduces the Machine CustomResource into thekarpenter.sh
API Group and requires this CustomResourceDefinition to run properly. Karpenter now orchestrates its CloudProvider capacity through these in-cluster Machine CustomResources. When performing a scheduling decision, Karpenter will create a Machine, resulting in launching CloudProvider capacity. The kubelet running on the new capacity will then register the node to the cluster shortly after launch.- If you are using Helm to upgrade between versions of Karpenter, note that Helm does not automate the process of upgrading or install the new CRDs into your cluster. To install or upgrade the existing CRDs, follow the guidance under the Custom Resource Definition (CRD) Upgrades section of the upgrade guide.
- Karpenter will hydrate Machines on startup for existing capacity managed by Karpenter into the cluster. Existing capacity launched by an older version of Karpenter is discovered by finding CloudProvider capacity with the
karpenter.sh/provisioner-name
tag or thekarpenter.sh/provisioner-name
label on nodes.
-
The metrics port for the Karpenter deployment was changed from 8080 to 8000. Users who scrape the pod directly for metrics rather than the service will need to adjust the commands they use to reference port 8000. Any users who scrape metrics from the service should be unaffected.
Warning
Karpenter creates a mapping between CloudProvider machines and CustomResources in the cluster for capacity tracking. To ensure this mapping is consistent, Karpenter utilizes the following tag keys:
karpenter.sh/managed-by
karpenter.sh/provisioner-name
kubernetes.io/cluster/${CLUSTER_NAME}
Because Karpenter takes this dependency, any user that has the ability to Create/Delete these tags on CloudProvider machines will have the ability to orchestrate Karpenter to Create/Delete CloudProvider machines as a side effect. Check the Threat Model to see how this might affect you, and ways to mitigate this.
Rolling Back
If, after upgrading to v0.28.0+
, a rollback to an older version of Karpenter needs to be performed, Karpenter will continue to function normally, though you will still have the Machine CustomResources on your cluster. You will need to manually delete the Machines and patch out the finalizers to fully complete the rollback.
Karpenter marks CloudProvider capacity as “managed by” a Machine using the karpenter-sh/managed-by
tag on the CloudProvider machine. It uses this tag to ensure that the Machine CustomResources in the cluster match the CloudProvider capacity managed by Karpenter. If these states don’t match, Karpenter will garbage collect the capacity. Because of this, if performing an upgrade, followed by a rollback, followed by another upgrade to v0.28.0+
, ensure you remove the karpenter.sh/managed-by
tags from existing capacity; otherwise, Karpenter will deprovision the capacity without a Machine CR counterpart.
Upgrading to v0.27.3+
- The
defaulting.webhook.karpenter.sh
mutating webhook was removed inv0.27.3
. If you are coming from an older version of Karpenter where this webhook existed and the webhook was not managed by Helm, you may need to delete the stale webhook.
kubectl delete mutatingwebhookconfigurations defaulting.webhook.karpenter.sh
Upgrading to v0.27.0+
- The Karpenter controller pods now deploy with
kubernetes.io/hostname
self anti-affinity by default. If you are running Karpenter in HA (high-availability) mode and you do not have enough nodes to match the number of pod replicas you are deploying with, you will need to scale-out your nodes for Karpenter. - The following controller metrics changed and moved under the
controller_runtime
metrics namespace:karpenter_metricscraper_...
karpenter_deprovisioning_...
karpenter_provisioner_...
karpenter_interruption_...
- The following controller metric names changed, affecting the
controller
label value undercontroller_runtime_...
metrics. These metrics include:podmetrics
->pod_metrics
provisionermetrics
->provisioner_metrics
metricscraper
->metric_scraper
provisioning
->provisioner_trigger
node-state
->node_state
pod-state
->pod_state
provisioner-state
->provisioner_state
- The
karpenter_allocation_controller_scheduling_duration_seconds
metric name changed tokarpenter_provisioner_scheduling_duration_seconds
Upgrading to v0.26.0+
- The
karpenter.sh/do-not-evict
annotation no longer blocks node termination when runningkubectl delete node
. This annotation on pods will only block automatic deprovisioning that is considered “voluntary,” that is, disruptions that can be avoided. Disruptions that Karpenter deems as “involuntary” and will ignore thekarpenter.sh/do-not-evict
annotation include spot interruption and manual deletion of the node. See Disabling Deprovisioning for more details. - Default resources
requests
andlimits
are removed from the Karpenter’s controller deployment through the Helm chart. If you have not set custom resourcerequests
orlimits
in your helm values and are using Karpenter’s defaults, you will now need to set these values in your helm chart deployment. - The
controller.image
value in the helm chart has been broken out to a map consisting ofcontroller.image.repository
,controller.image.tag
, andcontroller.image.digest
. If manually overriding thecontroller.image
, you will need to update your values to the new design.
Upgrading to v0.25.0+
- Cluster Endpoint can now be automatically discovered. If you are using Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), you can now omit the
clusterEndpoint
field in your configuration. In order to allow the resolving, you have to add the permissioneks:DescribeCluster
to the Karpenter Controller IAM role.
Upgrading to v0.24.0+
- Settings are no longer updated dynamically while Karpenter is running. If you manually make a change to the
karpenter-global-settings
ConfigMap, you will need to reload the containers by restarting the deployment withkubectl rollout restart -n karpenter deploy/karpenter
- Karpenter no longer filters out instance types internally. Previously,
g2
(not supported by the NVIDIA device plugin) and FPGA instance types were filtered. The only way to filter instance types now is to set requirements on your provisioner or pods using well-known node labels described here. If you are currently using overly broad requirements that allows all of theg
instance-category, you will want to tighten the requirement, or add an instance-generation requirement. aws.tags
inkarpenter-global-settings
ConfigMap is now a top-level field and expects the value associated with this key to be a JSON object of string to string. This is change from previous versions where keys were given implicitly by providing the key-value pairaws.tags.<key>: value
in the ConfigMap.
Upgrading to v0.22.0+
- Do not upgrade to this version unless you are on Kubernetes >= v1.21. Karpenter no longer supports Kubernetes v1.20, but now supports Kubernetes v1.25. This change is due to the v1 PDB API, which was introduced in K8s v1.20 and subsequent removal of the v1beta1 API in K8s v1.25.
Upgrading to v0.20.0+
- Prior to v0.20.0, Karpenter would prioritize certain instance type categories absent of any requirements in the Provisioner. v0.20.0+ removes prioritizing these instance type categories (“m”, “c”, “r”, “a”, “t”, “i”) in code. Bare Metal and GPU instance types are still deprioritized and only used if no other instance types are compatible with the node requirements. Since Karpenter does not prioritize any instance types, if you do not want exotic instance types and are not using the runtime Provisioner defaults, you will need to specify this in the Provisioner.
Upgrading to v0.19.0+
-
The karpenter webhook and controller containers are combined into a single binary, which requires changes to the helm chart. If your Karpenter installation (helm or otherwise) currently customizes the karpenter webhook, your deployment tooling may require minor changes.
-
Karpenter now supports native interruption handling. If you were previously using Node Termination Handler for spot interruption handling and health events, you will need to remove the component from your cluster before enabling
aws.interruptionQueueName
. For more details on Karpenter’s interruption handling, see the Interruption Handling Docs. For common questions on the migration process, see the FAQ -
Instance category defaults are now explicitly persisted in the Provisioner, rather than handled implicitly in memory. By default, Provisioners will limit instance category to c,m,r. If any instance type constraints are applied, it will override this default. If you have created Provisioners in the past with unconstrained instance type, family, or category, Karpenter will now more flexibly use instance types than before. If you would like to apply these constraints, they must be included in the Provisioner CRD.
-
Karpenter CRD raw YAML URLs have migrated from
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.30.0/charts/karpenter/crds/...
tohttps://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.30.0/pkg/apis/crds/...
. If you reference static Karpenter CRDs or rely onkubectl replace -f
to apply these CRDs from their remote location, you will need to migrate to the new location. -
Pods without an ownerRef (also called “controllerless” or “naked” pods) will now be evicted by default during node termination and consolidation. Users can prevent controllerless pods from being voluntarily disrupted by applying the
karpenter.sh/do-not-evict: "true"
annotation to the pods in question. -
The following CLI options/environment variables are now removed and replaced in favor of pulling settings dynamically from the
karpenter-global-settings
ConfigMap. See the Settings docs for more details on configuring the new values in the ConfigMap.CLUSTER_NAME
->settings.aws.clusterName
CLUSTER_ENDPOINT
->settings.aws.clusterEndpoint
AWS_DEFAULT_INSTANCE_PROFILE
->settings.aws.defaultInstanceProfile
AWS_ENABLE_POD_ENI
->settings.aws.enablePodENI
AWS_ENI_LIMITED_POD_DENSITY
->settings.aws.enableENILimitedPodDensity
AWS_ISOLATED_VPC
->settings.aws.isolatedVPC
AWS_NODE_NAME_CONVENTION
->settings.aws.nodeNameConvention
VM_MEMORY_OVERHEAD
->settings.aws.vmMemoryOverheadPercent
Upgrading to v0.18.0+
- v0.18.0 removes the
karpenter_consolidation_nodes_created
andkarpenter_consolidation_nodes_terminated
prometheus metrics in favor of the more generickarpenter_nodes_created
andkarpenter_nodes_terminated
metrics. You can still see nodes created and terminated by consolidation by checking thereason
label on the metrics. Check out all the metrics published by Karpenter here.
Upgrading to v0.17.0+
Karpenter’s Helm chart package is now stored in Karpenter’s OCI (Open Container Initiative) registry. The Helm CLI supports the new format since v3.8.0+. With this change charts.karpenter.sh is no longer updated but preserved to allow using older Karpenter versions. For examples on working with the Karpenter helm charts look at Install Karpenter Helm Chart.
Users who have scripted the installation or upgrading of Karpenter need to adjust their scripts with the following changes:
- There is no longer a need to add the Karpenter helm repo to helm
- The full URL of the Helm chart needs to be present when using the helm commands
- If you were not prepending a
v
to the version (i.e.0.17.0
), you will need to do so with the OCI chart,v0.17.0
.
Upgrading to v0.16.2+
- v0.16.2 adds new kubeletConfiguration fields to the
provisioners.karpenter.sh
v1alpha5 CRD. The CRD will need to be updated to use the new parameters:
kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.16.2/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.sh_provisioners.yaml
Upgrading to v0.16.0+
- v0.16.0 adds a new weight field to the
provisioners.karpenter.sh
v1alpha5 CRD. The CRD will need to be updated to use the new parameters:
kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.16.0/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.sh_provisioners.yaml
Upgrading to v0.15.0+
- v0.15.0 adds a new consolidation field to the
provisioners.karpenter.sh
v1alpha5 CRD. The CRD will need to be updated to use the new parameters:
kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.15.0/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.sh_provisioners.yaml
Upgrading to v0.14.0+
- v0.14.0 adds new fields to the
provisioners.karpenter.sh
v1alpha5 andawsnodetemplates.karpenter.k8s.aws
v1alpha1 CRDs. The CRDs will need to be updated to use the new parameters:
kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.14.0/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.sh_provisioners.yaml
kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.14.0/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_awsnodetemplates.yaml
- v0.14.0 changes the way Karpenter discovers its dynamically generated AWS launch templates to use a tag rather than a Name scheme. The previous name scheme was
Karpenter-${CLUSTER_NAME}-*
which could collide with user created launch templates that Karpenter should not manage. The new scheme uses a tag on the launch templatekarpenter.k8s.aws/cluster: ${CLUSTER_NAME}
. As a result, Karpenter will not clean-up dynamically generated launch templates using the old name scheme. You can manually clean these up with the following commands:
## Find launch templates that match the naming pattern and you do not want to keep
aws ec2 describe-launch-templates --filters="Name=launch-template-name,Values=Karpenter-${CLUSTER_NAME}-*"
## Delete launch template(s) that match the name but do not have the "karpenter.k8s.aws/cluster" tag
aws ec2 delete-launch-template --launch-template-id <LAUNCH_TEMPLATE_ID>
- v0.14.0 introduces additional instance type filtering if there are no
node.kubernetes.io/instance-type
orkarpenter.k8s.aws/instance-family
orkarpenter.k8s.aws/instance-category
requirements that restrict instance types specified on the provisioner. This prevents Karpenter from launching bare metal and some older non-current generation instance types unless the provisioner has been explicitly configured to allow them. If you specify an instance type or family requirement that supplies a list of instance-types or families, that list will be used regardless of filtering. The filtering can also be completely eliminated by adding anExists
requirement for instance type or family.
- key: node.kubernetes.io/instance-type
operator: Exists
-
v0.14.0 introduces support for custom AMIs without the need for an entire launch template. You must add the
ec2:DescribeImages
permission to the Karpenter Controller Role for this feature to work. This permission is needed for Karpenter to discover custom images specified. Read the Custom AMI documentation here to get started -
v0.14.0 adds an an additional default toleration (CriticalAddonOnly=Exists) to the Karpenter helm chart. This may cause Karpenter to run on nodes with that use this Taint which previously would not have been schedulable. This can be overridden by using
--set tolerations[0]=null
. -
v0.14.0 deprecates the
AWS_ENI_LIMITED_POD_DENSITY
environment variable in-favor of specifyingspec.kubeletConfiguration.maxPods
on the Provisioner.AWS_ENI_LIMITED_POD_DENSITY
will continue to work whenmaxPods
is not set on the Provisioner. IfmaxPods
is set, it will overrideAWS_ENI_LIMITED_POD_DENSITY
on that specific Provisioner.
Upgrading to v0.13.0+
-
v0.13.0 introduces a new CRD named
AWSNodeTemplate
which can be used to specify AWS Cloud Provider parameters. Everything that was previously specified underspec.provider
in the Provisioner resource, can now be specified in the spec of the new resource. The use ofspec.provider
is deprecated but will continue to function to maintain backwards compatibility for the current API version (v1alpha5) of the Provisioner resource. v0.13.0 also introduces support for custom user data that doesn’t require the use of a custom launch template. The user data can be specified in-line in the AWSNodeTemplate resource. Read the UserData documentation here to get started.If you are upgrading from v0.10.1 - v0.11.1, a new CRD
awsnodetemplate
was added. In v0.12.0, this crd was renamed toawsnodetemplates
. Since helm does not manage the lifecycle of CRDs, you will need to perform a few manual steps for this CRD upgrade:- Make sure any
awsnodetemplate
manifests are saved somewhere so that they can be reapplied to the cluster. kubectl delete crd awsnodetemplate
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.13.2/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_awsnodetemplates.yaml
- Perform the Karpenter upgrade to v0.13.x, which will install the new
awsnodetemplates
CRD. - Reapply the
awsnodetemplate
manifests you saved from step 1, if applicable.
- Make sure any
-
v0.13.0 also adds EC2/spot price fetching to Karpenter to allow making more accurate decisions regarding node deployments. Our getting started guide documents this, but if you are upgrading Karpenter you will need to modify your Karpenter controller policy to add the
pricing:GetProducts
andec2:DescribeSpotPriceHistory
permissions.
Upgrading to v0.12.0+
- v0.12.0 adds an OwnerReference to each Node created by a provisioner. Previously, deleting a provisioner would orphan nodes. Now, deleting a provisioner will cause Kubernetes cascading delete logic to gracefully terminate the nodes using the Karpenter node finalizer. You may still orphan nodes by removing the owner reference.
- If you are upgrading from v0.10.1 - v0.11.1, a new CRD
awsnodetemplate
was added. In v0.12.0, this crd was renamed toawsnodetemplates
. Since helm does not manage the lifecycle of CRDs, you will need to perform a few manual steps for this CRD upgrade:- Make sure any
awsnodetemplate
manifests are saved somewhere so that they can be reapplied to the cluster. kubectl delete crd awsnodetemplate
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.12.1/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_awsnodetemplates.yaml
- Perform the Karpenter upgrade to v0.12.x, which will install the new
awsnodetemplates
CRD. - Reapply the
awsnodetemplate
manifests you saved from step 1, if applicable.
- Make sure any
Upgrading to v0.11.0+
v0.11.0 changes the way that the vpc.amazonaws.com/pod-eni
resource is reported. Instead of being reported for all nodes that could support the resources regardless of if the cluster is configured to support it, it is now controlled by a command line flag or environment variable. The parameter defaults to false and must be set if your cluster uses security groups for pods. This can be enabled by setting the environment variable AWS_ENABLE_POD_ENI
to true via the helm value controller.env
.
Other extended resources must be registered on nodes by their respective device plugins which are typically installed as DaemonSets (e.g. the nvidia.com/gpu
resource will be registered by the NVIDIA device plugin. Previously, Karpenter would register these resources on nodes at creation and they would be zeroed out by kubelet
at startup. By allowing the device plugins to register the resources, pods will not bind to the nodes before any device plugin initialization has occurred.
v0.11.0 adds a providerRef
field in the Provisioner CRD. To use this new field you will need to replace the Provisioner CRD manually:
kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.11.0/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.sh_provisioners.yaml
Upgrading to v0.10.0+
v0.10.0 adds a new field, startupTaints
to the provisioner spec. Standard Helm upgrades do not upgrade CRDs so the field will not be available unless the CRD is manually updated. This can be performed prior to the standard upgrade by applying the new CRD manually:
kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/karpenter/v0.10.0/charts/karpenter/crds/karpenter.sh_provisioners.yaml
📝 If you don’t perform this manual CRD update, Karpenter will work correctly except for rejecting the creation/update of provisioners that use startupTaints
.
Upgrading to v0.6.2+
If using Helm, the variable names have changed for the cluster’s name and endpoint. You may need to update any configuration that sets the old variable names.
controller.clusterName
is nowclusterName
controller.clusterEndpoint
is nowclusterEndpoint