Re: Trying to gauge the eol for Kafka 3.9.1. Please help.

[Matthias J. Sax]

I am not familiar with the details. Sorry.

But many people run with KRaft in production for years already, so I 
would believe that it's not something to be seriously concerned about.


Also, looking into the Jira ticket, a lot of tasks are already resolved:

 - https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-12466 (only one open 
task about "shell tool integration")

 - https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-10310 (22/36 tickets 
resolved)



-Matthias

On 3/26/26 3:14 PM, Dima Brodsky via users wrote:
Hi Matthias,

Question regarding 4.x and controller log compaction / snapshotting
facilities.  As far as I understand KIP-630
<https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-630%3A+Kafka+Raft+Snapshot>
is
still open and being worked on.  There is still no mechanism in kraft kafka
4.x to compact and snapshot controller metadata logs.  Is there any concern
that these logs will grow quickly enough in a large, busy, cluster to
impact disk usage or controller startup times?

Thanks!
ttyl
Dima


On Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 1:47 PM Matthias J. Sax <mj...@apache.org> wrote:

Yes, we recently did 3.9.2 release, because the move to 4.x (which is
the first version w/o ZK) is a somewhat larger step for some users.

At this point, it's unclear if there will be 3.9.3 release or not. But
as more time progresses, and we get new releases 4.3, 4.4 out, the
probability for a 3.9.3 release decreases.

I would highly encourage users to make the step off 3.x and onto 4.x.

HTH,
   -Matthias


On 3/23/26 9:12 AM, Doug Whitfield via users wrote:
I notice 3.9 is still listed as supported at
https://kafka.apache.org/community/downloads/

Do we have any thoughts on whether there will be a 3.9.3?

From: Matthias J. Sax <mj...@apache.org>
Date: Tuesday, 25 November 2025 at 11:28
To: users@kafka.apache.org <users@kafka.apache.org>
Subject: Re: Trying to gauge the eol for Kafka 3.9.1. Please help.

Cf

https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Time+Based+Release+Plan#TimeBasedReleasePlan-WhatIsOurEOLPolicy
?

In general, we maintain 3 versions, so with AK 4.2 release, 3.9.x would
actually hit EOL.

Given that 4.0 is a major change with ZK removal in favor of KRaft, it
will most likely be maintained a little longer though. We are currently
discussing a 3.9.2 bug-fix release.

But it will depend on overall community demand, if their will be a 3.9.3
bug-fix release or not. In general, I would not expect 3.9.x to be
maintained too much longer, and migrating off ZK, and to upgrade to 4.x
is highly recommended.


-Matthias


On 11/24/25 9:15 PM, Ranjan, Ravi via users wrote:
Hi

Trying to gauge the eol for Kafka 3.9.1. I could figure out dates for
Kafka 3.9 https://endoflife.date/apache-kafka but not for 3.9.1 Please
help.


Regards

Ravi Ranjan

Senior Manager, Blue Plant Systems Design Architecture | Ciena

Gurgaon, Haryana






CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
click on links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know
the content is safe.


This e-mail may contain information that is privileged or confidential.
If you are not the intended recipient, please delete the e-mail and any
attachments and notify us immediately.