v1.35.X

Upgrade Notice

Before upgrading from earlier releases, be sure to read the Kubernetes Urgent Upgrade Notes.
Version Release date Kubernetes Etcd Containerd Runc Metrics-server CoreDNS Ingress-Nginx Helm-controller Canal (Default) Calico Cilium Multus

v1.35.0+rke2r1

Dec 30 2025

v1.35.0

v3.6.6-k3s1

v2.1.5-k3s1

v1.4.0

v0.8.0

v1.13.1

v1.13.5-hardened2

v0.16.17

Flannel v0.27.4
Calico v3.31.2

v3.31.2

v1.18.4

v4.2.3

Release v1.35.0+rke2r1

This release updates Kubernetes to v1.35.0.

Important Note

If your server (control-plane) nodes were not started with the --token CLI flag or config file key, a randomized token was generated during initial cluster startup. This key is used both for joining new nodes to the cluster, and for encrypting cluster bootstrap data within the datastore. Ensure that you retain a copy of this token, as is required when restoring from backup.

You may retrieve the token value from any server already joined to the cluster:

cat /var/lib/rancher/rke2/server/token

Changes since v1.34.2+rke2r1:

  • Bump actions/checkout from 5 to 6 (#9310)

  • Bump rke2-multus to v4.2.303 (#9315)

  • Bump rke2-coredns to 1.45.002 (#9314)

  • Remove redundant cleanup function definition (#9331)

  • Update CNI to the latest versions (#9322)

  • Bump actions/stale from 10.1.0 to 10.1.1 (#9344)

  • Update to multus chart version v4.2.305 (#9348)

  • Update to CoreDNS chart 1.45.003 and Kubernetes Metrics Server chart 3.13.004 (#9347)

  • Bump images for 2025-12 (#9372)

  • Move Windows CNI startup into CNI function (#9339)

  • Bump traefik version to v3.6.4 (#9376)

    • Bump Traefik to v3.6.4

  • Update to v1.34.3 and Go v1.24.11 (#9389)

  • Bump rancher/ecm-distro-tools from 0.58.4 to 0.60.1 (#9256)

  • Bump ingress-nginx and vsphere-csi (#9398)

  • Bump kine to v0.14.9 (#9405)

  • Bump rancher/ecm-distro-tools from 0.60.1 to 0.61.0 (#9415)

  • Bump actions/download-artifact from 6 to 7 (#9414)

  • Bump actions/upload-artifact from 5 to 6 (#9413)

  • Bump actions/cache from 4 to 5 (#9412)

  • Bump klipper-helm to v0.9.12 (#9399)

  • Revert "Remove FlannelBackend from config" (#9420)

  • Update stable channel to v1.34.3+rke2r1 (#9436)

  • Remove dapper (#9429)

  • Bump stable to 1.34 and add 1.35 (#9437)

  • Update to kubernetes v1.35.0 and golang v1.25.5 (#9435)

Charts Versions

| Component | Version | | — | — | | rke2-cilium | 1.18.401 | | rke2-canal | v3.31.2-build2025120500 | | rke2-calico | v3.31.200 | | rke2-calico-crd | v3.31.200 | | rke2-coredns | 1.45.003 | | rke2-ingress-nginx | 4.13.500 | | rke2-metrics-server | 3.13.004 | | rancher-vsphere-csi | 3.6.0-rancher100 | | rancher-vsphere-cpi | 1.13.000 | | harvester-cloud-provider | 0.2.1100 | | harvester-csi-driver | 0.1.2500 | | rke2-snapshot-controller | 4.0.003 | | rke2-snapshot-controller-crd | 4.0.003 | | rke2-snapshot-validation-webhook | 0.0.0 | | rke2-traefik | 37.4.001 | | rke2-traefik-crd | 37.4.001 |