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About Luca Berton

Luca Berton is an Ansible automation expert, author of "Ansible for VMware by Examples" and "Ansible for Kubernetes by Example" published by Apress, and creator of the Ansible Pilot YouTube channel. He shares practical automation knowledge through tutorials, books, and video courses to help IT professionals and DevOps engineers master infrastructure automation.

Kubernetes Core 6.4.0: Helm v4 Support & k8s_drain Improvements

By Luca Berton · Published 2024-01-01 · Category: installation

kubernetes.core 6.4.0 collection release adds Helm v4 compatibility and improved k8s_drain check mode. Upgrade guide with practical examples.

Introduction

The kubernetes.core 6.4.0 collection has been released with two significant improvements: Helm v4 compatibility across all Helm modules and enhanced k8s_drain behavior with check mode support.

This update is important for teams using Ansible to manage Kubernetes clusters, especially those planning to adopt Helm v4.

What's New in 6.4.0

Helm v4 Compatibility

All Helm modules now work with Helm v4, ensuring forward compatibility as the Helm ecosystem evolves:

Improved k8s_drain with Check Mode

The k8s_drain module now handles check mode properly. When you explicitly allow evicting unmanaged pods, pods with local storage, or DaemonSet-managed pods, those cases are reported as informational output instead of warnings:

Upgrading to 6.4.0

Automate the upgrade:

Common Kubernetes Automation Patterns

Rolling Deployment

Helm Release Management

FAQ

Is kubernetes.core 6.4.0 included in Ansible 13.6.0?

Check with ansible-galaxy collection list kubernetes.core. If your version is older, upgrade manually with ansible-galaxy collection install kubernetes.core:==6.4.0 --force.

Does Helm v4 support require changes to my existing playbooks?

No. The 6.4.0 update adds forward compatibility — existing Helm v3 playbooks continue to work without modification.

What Python packages are required?

The kubernetes.core collection requires the kubernetes Python package and optionally helm CLI for Helm modules.

Conclusion

kubernetes.core 6.4.0 is a solid release that prepares your Ansible-Kubernetes automation for the Helm v4 era while improving operational safety with better drain handling. Upgrade your collection to take advantage of these improvements.

Related Articles • Ansible for Kubernetes Management • Ansible vs Kubernetes: Comparison Guide • Ansible CI/CD Pipeline Integration

Category: installation

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