longhorn

Update Helm release longhorn to v1.8.0

Michi Kofler-Häusler

Michi Kofler-Häusler

— 14 min read
Update Helm release longhorn to v1.8.0
Photo by Tony Garcia / Unsplash

No problems deploying to Proxmox VE K3s Kubernetes cluster via Helm Chart and Flux V2 reconciliation in a GitOps approach.

This MR contains the following updates:

Package Update Change
longhorn (source) minor 1.7.3 -> 1.8.0

Release Notes

longhorn/longhorn (longhorn)

v1.8.0: Longhorn v1.8.0

Compare Source

Longhorn v1.8.0 Release Notes

This latest version of Longhorn introduces several features, enhancements, and bug fixes that are intended to improve system quality and the overall user experience. Highlights include new V2 Data Engine features, multiple backupstores, automatic RWX volume expansion, installation and upgrades via Helm Controller, and V2 Data Engine Support for Talos Linux.

The Longhorn team appreciates your contributions and anticipates receiving feedback regarding this release.

For more information about release-related terminology, see Releases.

[!WARNING]
An incorrect Longhorn image tag (v1.8.x-head) was used in the deployment manifest and the Helm chart. The correct tag for Longhorn v1.8.0 images is v1.8.0. For more information, see Issue #​10336.

If you installed or upgraded Longhorn using the deployment manifest or the Helm chart from the main Longhorn repository, perform the following actions to resolve the issue:

  • New installations: Replace v1.8.x-head with v1.8.0 in the deployment manifest or the Helm chart before deploying Longhorn.

  • Upgrades: Replace v1.8.x-head with v1.8.0 in the deployment manifest or Helm chart. Next, upgrade the Longhorn system and update the engine image for volumes that use v1.8.x-head.

This issue does not affect installations and upgrades performed using the Longhorn Helm repository. For more details, refer to the Install with Helm section of the official documentation.

[!IMPORTANT]
The CSI external-snapshotter was upgraded to v8.2.0. Ensure that all clusters are running Kubernetes v1.25 or later before upgrading to Longhorn v1.8.0 or a later version.

Deprecation & Incompatibilities

  • The default block size for block-type disks in earlier Longhorn releases is 4096 bytes. However, 512 bytes is more commonly used and aligns with the V1 Data Engine's configuration. Additionally, the 4096-byte block size is incompatible with backing images generated by the V1 Data Engine. To address these concerns, the default block size was changed to 512 bytes.

    If you have existing V2 volumes, perform the following steps:

    1. Back up the V2 volumes.
    2. Remove the V2 volumes.
    3. Delete the block-type disk with a 4096-byte block size from node.spec.disks.
    4. Erase the old data on the block-type disk using tools such as dd.
    5. Add the disk again to node.spec.disks with the updated configuration.
    6. Restore the V2 volumes.

    For more information, see #​10053.

  • A V2 volume data corruption issue that affects earlier Longhorn releases has been resolved in v1.8.0. The issue involves potential continual changes to the checksum of files in a V2 volume with multiple replicas. This occurs because SPDK allocates clusters without initialization, leading to data inconsistencies across replicas. The varying data read from the volume can result in data corruption and broken backups. For more information, see #​10035.

Primary Highlights

New V2 Data Engine Features

Although the V2 Data Engine is still considered an experimental feature in this release, the core functions have been significantly enhanced.

Multiple Backupstores and Default Backup Target

Starting with v1.8.0, Longhorn allows you to use multiple backupstores for storing backups of Longhorn volumes. Longhorn v1.8.0 also creates a default backup target (default) during installation and upgrades. The default backup target is used for system backups and volumes that were created without an assigned backup target name.

Demo | Documentation | GitHub Issue

Automatic RWX Volume Expansion

Longhorn v1.8.0 supports fully automatic online expansion of RWX volumes without the need to scale down the workload or apply manual commands. To use this feature, ensure that the v1.8.0 versions of Longhorn Manager, Share Manager, and the CSI plugin are all running.

Documentation | GitHub Issue

Helm Controller

You can now install and upgrade Longhorn on clusters running RKE2 or K3s using the Helm Controller that is built into those distributions. The Helm Controller manages Helm charts using a HelmChart Custom Resource Definition (CRD), which contains most of the options that would normally be passed to the Helm command-line tool.

Documentation | GitHub Issue

V2 Data Engine Support for Talos Linux

Longhorn v1.8.0 supports usage of V2 volumes in Talos Linux clusters. To use this feature, ensure that all nodes meet the V2 Data Engine prerequisites.

Documentation | GitHub Issue

Installation

[!IMPORTANT]
Ensure that your cluster is running Kubernetes v1.25 or later before installing Longhorn v1.8.0.

You can install Longhorn using a variety of tools, including Rancher, Kubectl, and Helm. For more information about installation methods and requirements, see Quick Installation in the Longhorn documentation.

Upgrade

[!IMPORTANT]
Ensure that your cluster is running Kubernetes v1.25 or later before upgrading from Longhorn v1.7.x to v1.8.0.

Longhorn only allows upgrades from supported versions. For more information about upgrade paths and procedures, see Upgrade in the Longhorn documentation.

Post-Release Known Issues

For information about issues identified after this release, see Release-Known-Issues.

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