release notes for 1.25.4, 1.26.2, 1.27.1

Author: josh-heyer

product_docs/docs/postgres_for_kubernetes/1/rel_notes/src/1.25.4_rel_notes.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EnterpriseDB/docs/refs/heads/develop/tools/automation/generators/relgen/relnote-schema.json
+product: EDB CloudNativePG Cluster
+version: 1.25.4
+date: 24 October 2025
+upstream-merge: Upstream [1.25.4](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.25/release_notes/v1.25/)
+intro: |
+ This release of EDB CloudNativePG Cluster is built on the final community release of the 1.25.x series of CloudNativePG. 
+ EDB will continue providing LTS releases in the 1.25.x series for the next 12 months, per our [Long-Term Support
+ policy](/postgres_for_kubernetes/1/#long-term-support). 
+
+ This release of EDB CloudNativePG Cluster includes the following:
+components:
+  "Operator": 1.25.4
+  "CNP plugin": 1.25.4
+  upstream-merge: Upstream [1.25.4](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.25/release_notes/v1.25/)
+relnotes:
+- relnote: |
+    Merged with community CloudNativePG 1.25.4 upstream release. 
+    See the community <a href="https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.25/release_notes/v1.25/">release notes</a>
+  jira: 
+  addresses: ""
+  type: Change
+  impact: High

product_docs/docs/postgres_for_kubernetes/1/rel_notes/src/1.26.2_rel_notes.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EnterpriseDB/docs/refs/heads/develop/tools/automation/generators/relgen/relnote-schema.json
+product: EDB CloudNativePG Cluster
+version: 1.26.2
+date: 24 October 2025
+intro: |
+ This release of EDB CloudNativePG Cluster includes the following:
+components:
+  "Operator": 1.26.2
+  "CNP plugin": 1.26.2
+  upstream-merge: Upstream [1.26.2](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/release_notes/v1.26/)
+relnotes:
+- relnote: |
+    Merged with community CloudNativePG 1.26.2 upstream release. 
+    See the community <a href="https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/release_notes/v1.26/">release notes</a>
+  jira: 
+  addresses: ""
+  type: Change
+  impact: High

product_docs/docs/postgres_for_kubernetes/1/rel_notes/src/1.27.1_rel_notes.yml

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EnterpriseDB/docs/refs/heads/develop/tools/automation/generators/relgen/relnote-schema.json
 product: EDB CloudNativePG Cluster
 version: 1.27.1
-date: 31 October 2025
+date: 24 October 2025
 intro: |    
   This release includes the following:
 components:
@@ -10,8 +10,177 @@ components:
   upstream-merge: Upstream [1.27.1](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.27/release_notes/v1.27/)
 relnotes:
 - relnote: |
-    TBD
+    Delayed the decommissioning of native in-core support for Barman Cloud to at
+    least version 1.29.
   jira: 
-  addresses: 
-  type: Feature
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8670">#8670</a>
+  type: Change
+  impact: High
+- relnote: |
+    Adopted the new format of `postgres-containers` and `postgis-containers`
+    images and image catalog artifacts
+  details: |
+    and **updated** the default PostgreSQL
+    version to `18.0-system-trixie` (PostgreSQL 18 is now supported).
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8578">#8578</a>,
+             <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8760">#8760</a>,
+             <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8558">#8558</a>
+  type: Change
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Deprecated the `monitoring.enablePodMonitor` field
+  details: |
+    in the `Cluster` and `Pooler` resources. This field will be removed in a future release. Users who
+    rely on `PodMonitor` resources should create them manually instead.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8753">#8753</a>  
+  type: Change
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Added support for overriding the PgBouncer `auth_type`, `server_tls_sslmode`, and `client_tls_sslmode` settings
+  details: |
+    which were previously hardcoded. Default values remain consistent with the former behavior but can now be customized when required.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8674">#8674</a>  
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Added a `CHECKPOINT` step before PostgreSQL smart and fast shutdowns
+  details: |
+    to reduce shutdown duration and replica promotion time, especially on systems with a high `checkpoint_timeout`.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8867">#8867</a>
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Added a warning in the instance manager for deprecated or unsupported OS versions
+  details: |
+    based on the official `postgres-containers` project.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8601">#8601</a>
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Improved certificate parsing error reporting
+  details: |
+    Failures now log specific errors instead of a generic message, aiding troubleshooting.
+    This is particularly relevant after the CVE-2025-58187 fix in Go 1.25.2 and 1.24.8,
+    which may trigger parsing failures for invalid DNS SANs.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8801">#8801</a>
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Added a check to ensure the destination WAL archive path is empty when bootstrapping a cluster using the `pg_basebackup` method
+  details: |
+    consistent with other bootstrap methods.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8895">#8895</a>
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Added validation to prevent backups from running on hibernated clusters
+  details: |
+    Backups attempted on such clusters now fail with reason `ClusterIsHibernated`,
+    following the standard prerequisite check pattern.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8870">#8870</a>
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Added support for `pprof` profiling
+  details: |
+    Instances can now enable the `pprof` tool by adding the `alpha.k8s.enterprisedb.io/enableInstancePprof` annotation
+    to the `Cluster` resource for advanced debugging.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/7876">#7876</a>
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Updated the Flexible I/O Tester (FIO) image in the `cnp` plugin
+  details: |
+    to `wallnerryan/fiotools-aio:v2`, as provided by Ryan Wallner.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8847">#8847</a>
+  component: CNP plugin
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Enhanced the `cnp status backup` command to provide more detailed status information when using a `barman-cloud`-based backup plugin
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8780">#8780</a>,
+              <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8690">#8690</a>
+  type: Enhancement
+  impact: High
+  component: CNP plugin
+
+- relnote: Fixed backup restoration failures when using custom WAL segment sizes with parallel WAL recovery.
+  details: |
+    The operator no longer manages the end-of-WAL file marker during restoration,
+    preventing errors when backups span multiple WAL segments.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8873">#8873</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: |
+    Fixed a bug in major upgrades where a volume snapshot from a previous minor version 
+    could be incorrectly used to optimize replica creation.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8475">#8475</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Fixed `initdb` to wait for the application user secret before bootstrapping a new cluster
+  details: |
+    preventing potential race conditions.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8663">#8663</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: |
+    Fixed quorum-based failover to work correctly in clusters with only two
+    instances using synchronous replication.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8680">#8680</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Fixed configuration hash calculation to ignore internal configuration fields
+  details: |
+    preventing unnecessary reconciliations.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8868">#8868</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Fixed the connection retry logic in the `cnpgi` plugin
+  details: |
+    The reconciliation loop now detects connection pool changes correctly and uses exponential
+    backoff to reduce "closed pool" errors.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8554">#8554</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Fixed volume snapshot usage during replica scaling to work with backup plugins.
+  details: |
+    Previously, this optimization was only available with the in-tree backup
+    implementation, but now clusters using backup plugins can also leverage volume
+    snapshots when creating new replicas.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8506">#8506</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Fixed the `Pooler` templating to correctly inherit settings for the bootstrap controller init container.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8394">#8394</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Fixed webhook errors to use the correct API group
+  details: |
+    (`postgresql.k8s.enterprisedb.io`) in `Pooler` and backup webhooks, ensuring consistent API error reporting.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8485">#8485</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote : Fixed a potential nil pointer dereference in the hibernation reconciler 
+  details: |
+    when handling errors. Contributed by @PascalBourdier.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8756">#8756</a>
+  type: Bug fix
+  impact: High
+- relnote: Fixed an issue in the environment cache where callers could inadvertently modify shared data.
+  details: |
+    The `LoadEnv` function now returns a copy of cached environment slices to prevent mutations from affecting the cache.
+  jira:
+  addresses: <a href="https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/cloud-native-postgres/pull/8880">#8880</a>
+  type: Bug fix
   impact: High