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

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 <mjsax@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 <mjsax@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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>