Karmada
v1.18.2Orchestration & ManagementKarmada v1.18.2 brings overflow cluster affinities and scheduling overcommit protection alongside multiple removals of deprecated flags, config fields, and metric labels. Several mandatory operator-facing changes require config updates, and the webhook tightens validation for cluster tolerations. A prerequisite upgrade to v1.17.3+ is required before adopting the v1.18.x operator Helm chart.
breakingCluster lease flags removed
The flags --cluster-lease-duration and --cluster-lease-renew-interval-fraction have been removed in v1.18.0. Remove these flags from karmada-controller-manager and karmada-agent command-line configurations if present.
breakingMetric labels cluster and cluster_name replaced with member_cluster
Prometheus metric labels cluster and cluster_name have been removed in v1.18.0; use member_cluster instead. Update metric queries and dashboards that reference the old label names.
breakingEtcd.Local.InitImage init config field removed
The Etcd.Local.InitImage field in Karmada Init Configuration has been removed in v1.18.0. Remove this field from Init manifests if present.
breakingEstimator label removed from plugin execution metrics
The Estimator label value for estimating_plugin_extension_point has been removed from the estimating_plugin_execution_duration_seconds and estimating_plugin_extension_point_duration_seconds metrics in v1.18.0. Update metric queries that depend on this label.
breakingWebhook rejects Lt/Gt operators in clusterTolerations
The webhook now rejects PropagationPolicy and ClusterPropagationPolicy resources using Lt or Gt operators in spec.placement.clusterTolerations. Update any existing policies using these operators; only Exists, DoesNotExist, In, NotIn, Gt, and Lt are valid operators, but webhook validation now enforces disallowing Gt and Lt in this field.
Key changes (8)
- Overflow Cluster Affinities: progressive overflow scheduling from primary to supplementary cluster groups when capacity exhausted
- Scheduling Overcommit Protection: new feature gate (default false) with assume-and-deduct mechanism between scheduler and estimator
- Removed flags: --cluster-lease-duration, --cluster-lease-renew-interval-fraction
- Metric label migration: cluster and cluster_name → member_cluster; Estimator label removed from plugin metrics
- Removed Init config field: Etcd.Local.InitImage
- Webhook validation: now rejects Lt/Gt operators in spec.placement.clusterTolerations; tightens fieldOverrider validation in OverridePolicy
- Default log verbosity set to 2 across all components by karmada-operator, karmadactl, and Helm chart
- Fixes: scheduler error handling (exponential backoff instead of 5-minute retry), ClusterTaintPolicyController concurrent taints loss, graceful eviction race condition, agent CSR auto-approval, zone affinity matching relaxation, etcd health probes migration to /livez and /readyz
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