Upgrading Streaming and Governance Charts to 2026.2

Changes in version 2026.2

General prerequisites

Before you upgrade to 2026.2, please make sure:

  • You are performing the deployment with any of the following Axual Streaming 2026.1 versions

    • Axual Streaming Charts 1.6.x series

  • You are performing the deployment with any of the following Axual Governance 2026.1 versions

    • Axual Governance Charts 1.4.x series

  • You are running kubernetes version 1.24.x or later

  • You are not overriding any components' versions (search for tag: overrides in your values.yaml)

You can upgrade each part of the Axual Platform independently, we suggest starting from the Axual Streaming and then moving to the Axual Governance.

Performing the upgrade

Use the general upgrade steps for upgrading best-practice.

Axual Streaming Charts Prerequisites

  • Be sure that you have migrated your Confluent Schema Registry to Apicurio Schema Registry.

If not done, please follow this guide before proceeding.

Axual Governance Charts Prerequisites

  • Be sure to have set the connectionCollation=utf8mb4_unicode_ci parameter to the Platform Manager’s spring.datasource.url to connect to your database.

platform-manager:
  config:
    spring:
      datasource:
        url: "[YOUR_EXISTING_JDBC_URL]&connectionCollation=utf8mb4_unicode_ci"

  • Be sure that that your Keycloak database has a consistent charset and collation configuration. Inconsistent settings between existing tables can cause foreign key constraint errors during Keycloak upgrade. To avoid potential mismatches:

    • Set your desired charset and collation as the database default before installing or upgrading Keycloak.

      We suggest using charset=utf8mb4 and collation=utf8mb4_unicode_ci

    • Ensure all existing Keycloak tables use the same charset and collation.

    • When upgrading, Keycloak will align new tables and columns with your database default settings.

    • By relying on the database default, Keycloak respects your intent and allows you to maintain control over your database configuration throughout its lifecycle.

Upgrade Axual Streaming to 2.0.0

Start with Axual Streaming 2026.1 being installed using Axual Streaming Charts of the 1.6.x series.

Your existing Apicurio Registry v2 is unaffected by this upgrade — it keeps its apicurio-registry chart and global.apicurio.enabled toggle (enabled by default), so its configuration and Kubernetes resources stay exactly as they are. Apicurio Registry v3 is added as a separate, disabled-by-default dependency (apicurio-registry-v3 / global.apicurio-registry-v3.enabled); you enable and configure it only when you upgrade.

Axual Streaming Charts 2.0.0 ship with Apicurio Registry enabled by default (global.apicurio.enabled=true), unlike previous chart versions where it was disabled by default. If you do not want Apicurio Registry deployed, explicitly disable it in your values.yaml:

global:
  apicurio:
    enabled: false

Perform the upgrade:

  1. Update the Axual helm repository to download the latest charts available

    helm repo update

  2. Upgrade the Axual Streaming installation

    helm upgrade --install streaming oci://registry.axual.io/axual-charts/axual-streaming --version=2.0.0 -n kafka -f values.yaml

This command will restart all streaming pods.

Once restarted, verify everything is running fine before considering the upgrade done.

Apicurio v2 remains supported in 2026.2 and will be removed in 2026.3. You are encouraged to upgrade to Apicurio Registry v3 during this release. v2 runs alongside v3 so schema reads stay up with zero downtime while you upgrade.

Upgrade Axual Governance Charts to 1.5.2

Start from Axual Governance 2026.1 installed using Axual Governance Charts series 1.4.x.

  1. Update the Axual helm repository to download the latest charts available

    helm repo update

  2. Upgrade the Axual Governance installation

    helm upgrade --install governance oci://registry.axual.io/axual-charts/axual-governance --version=1.5.2 -n kafka

This command will restart all governance pods.

Once restarted, verify everything is running fine before considering the upgrade done.

You can follow the Post upgrade section to enable new features.

Post upgrade

Upgrade to Apicurio Registry v3

Axual Streaming 2.0.0 includes Apicurio Registry v3 while Apicurio Registry v2 remains supported for this release.

Upgrading the Apicurio Registry from v2 to v3 — export/import, traffic cutover, rollback and troubleshooting — is a self-contained procedure documented on its own page:

Apicurio Registry v2 deployment is supported in 2026.2 and will be removed in 2026.3, so you are encouraged to complete the upgrade during this release.