Kops Releases & Versioning

kops is intended to be backward compatible. It is always recommended to use thelatest version of kops with whatever version of Kubernetes you are using. We suggestkops users run one of the 3 minor versions Kubernetes is supporting however wedo our best to support previous releases for a period of time.

One exception, in regard to compatibility, kops supports the equivalentKubernetes minor release number. A minor version is the second digit in therelease number. kops version 1.16.0 has a minor version of 16. The numberingfollows the semantic versioning specification, MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.

For example, kops 1.16.0 does not support Kubernetes 1.17.0, but kops 1.16.0supports Kubernetes 1.15.2 and previous Kubernetes versions. Only when the kops minorversion matches the Kubernetes minor version does kops officially support theKubernetes release. kops does not stop a user from installing mismatchingversions of K8s, but Kubernetes releases always require kops to install specificversions of components like docker, that tested against the particularKubernetes version.

Compatibility Matrix

Use the latest version of kops for all releases of Kubernetes, with the caveatthat higher versions of Kubernetes are not officially supported by kops. Releases who are crossed out should work but we suggest should be upgraded soon.

Release Schedule

This project does not follow the Kubernetes release schedule. kops aims toprovide a reliable installation experience for kubernetes, and typicallyreleases about a month after the corresponding Kubernetes release. This timeallows for the Kubernetes project to resolve any issues introduced by the newversion and ensures that we can support the latest features. kops will releasealpha and beta pre-releases for people that are eager to try the latestKubernetes release. Please only use pre-GA kops releases in environments thatcan tolerate the quirks of new releases, and please do report any issuesencountered.