SMCP 5.14 Release Notes

Platform9 SMCP 5.14

2025-12-22

Features/Enhancements

Added Continuous backup is now supported via cronjobs:

• airctl backup cronjob: Uses airctl backup command to take backup of components like consul, mysql, state.yaml, and kplane_values inside backup_ *.tar.gz and stores it under /var/pf9/backups/airctl/ dir.
• etcd backup cronjob: Uses the new command introduced for etcd backup, i.e. airctl mgmt-etcd-backup to take an etcd snapshot and store it under /var/pf9/backups/etcd/dir.

Upgrading to SMCP 5.14 will automatically deploy the cronjobs required to back up airctl and etcd.

Added Introduced airctl commands to provide etcd backup and restore features:

• airctl mgmt-etcd-backup: Triggers etcdctl snapshot save in backend to backup etcd.db under the directory provided in the command using the flag --outdir. By default backup is stored under /tmp dir.
• airctl mgmt-etcd-restore: Triggers etcdutl snapshot restore in backend to restore etcd db from provided etcd.db file in the command using the flag --etcd-backup-file-path (required field).

Added Enhanced airctl backup to store backup files containing the current date and time. Also added an optional flag , ``airctl backup `--outfile``` which will add the given argument as a prefix to the output backup file.

Added Workload cluster support for Kubernetes 1.32 and 1.33.

Added Updated the management cluster to Kubernetes 1.33.

Added Introducing support for Cilium as a Container Network Interface (CNI), providing a high-performance networking, observability, and security layer powered by eBPF. By leveraging eBPF's ability to run logic directly within the Linux kernel, Cilium enables efficient L3/L4 and L7 load balancing, identity-based network policy enforcement, and transparent encryption without the overhead of traditional iptables. This integration enables users to gain deep visibility into service-to-service communication and to achieve greater scalability in large Kubernetes clusters.

Added Replaced MinIO with SeaweedFS in the management plane due to licensing changes.

Bug Fixes

Fixed In airctl delete-mgmt where containerd failed to remove a container properly.

Fixed Installing the kube-prometheus helm chart due to wrong container images.

Known Issues

Known Issue etcd restore command i.e airctl mgmt-etcd-restore added in this release is not working as expected in multi-master setups. new

Known Issue On Ubuntu 22 : SMCP 5.10 to SMCP 5.11 upgrade procedure requires following commands to be run to update host side components:

• airctl configure-hosts --reset-pf9-managed-docker-conf --skip-docker-install --skip-docker-img-import --verbose
• airctl upgrade-hosts --verbose

Impact: For ubuntu22, above procedure breaks the host connection from the management cluster, terminates the pf9-comms leading to management cluster upgrade failure.

Workaround: For ubuntu22, reversing the order of the two commands works; run the upgrade-host then the configure-hosts

Known Issue During the DU upgrade process (airctl upgrade --config airctl-config.yaml --verbose), the sunpike-kube-apiserver pod enters a CrashLoopBackOff state following the successful execution of the airctl upgrade step. While the pod eventually reconciles itself, it may take an extended duration (30+ minutes or more).

Impact: This delay can disrupt cluster operations, leading to prolonged upgrade timelines and potential downtime for services dependent on the sunpike-kube-apiserver.

Workaround:

Manually restarting the sunpike-kube-apiserver pod resolves the issue and significantly reduces reconciliation time.

Known Issue On Ubuntu 22: When rebooting a management cluster node running Ubuntu 22, the node does not automatically recover. This can lead to an unavailable management plane and disruption of cluster operations.

Impact: Post-reboot, the management cluster node remains in a non-functional state until manual intervention is performed.

Workaround: To recover the node, run the following commands on the affected node:

• sudo systemctl stop pf9-nodeletd.
• sudo /opt/pf9/nodelet/nodeletd phases restart.

Known Issue airctl advance-dduscale-mgmt command fails for scale-down nodes .

SMCP 5.14 Kubernetes Components List