docs: Announcement for 1.26.0, 1.25.2. and 1.24.4 (#308)

Closes #302

Signed-off-by: Gabriele Bartolini <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Floor Drees <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Floor Drees <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Jonathan Gonzalez V. <[email protected]>

Author: 3 people

content/releases/cloudnative-pg-1-26.0-released/58364dde1adc4a0a8.37186404-2048x1445.jpg

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+---
+title: "CloudNativePG 1.26.0 and 1.25.2 Released!"
+date: 2025-05-23
+draft: false
+author: gbartolini
+image:
+    url: 58364dde1adc4a0a8.37186404-2048x1445.jpg
+    attribution: from <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/58364dde1a/">Saurabh</a>
+tags:
+ - release
+ - postgresql
+ - postgres
+ - kubernetes
+ - k8s
+ - cloudnativepg
+ - preview
+ - cnpg
+summary: The CloudNativePG community is excited to announce version 1.26.0, featuring powerful new capabilities for PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, alongside the maintenance release 1.25.2. This release also includes 1.24.4, the final patch for the now-retired 1.24.x series.
+---
+
+The **CloudNativePG Community** is pleased to announce the release of:
+
+- CloudNativePG 1.26.0, featuring major enhancements and new capabilities
+- CloudNativePG 1.25.2, a maintenance update for the 1.25.x series
+- CloudNativePG 1.24.4, the final patch for the now unsupported 1.24.x series
+
+This is our first release since CloudNativePG officially entered the
+[CNCF Sandbox](https://www.cncf.io/sandbox-projects/), a major milestone that
+reinforces our commitment to sustainable, community-driven innovation.
+
+---
+
+## What's New in CloudNativePG 1.26.0?
+
+### Declarative Offline In-Place Major Upgrades of PostgreSQL
+
+You can now declaratively trigger
+[offline in-place major upgrades](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/postgres_upgrades/)
+of PostgreSQL by simply updating the container image to a newer major version.
+The cluster shuts down safely, and `pg_upgrade` performs the upgrade, ensuring
+consistency. This long-awaited feature simplifies major upgrades while
+maintaining declarative workflows.
+
+### Enhanced Startup and Readiness Probes for Replicas
+
+We've enhanced [startup and readiness probes](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/instance_manager/)
+for replicas, enabling both startup and readiness to be gated by replication
+lag. This means you can restrict promotion to only lag-free, synchronous
+replicas—greatly improving your high availability posture.
+
+### Declarative Management of Extensions and Schemas
+
+The `Database` resource now supports the declarative creation of:
+
+- [PostgreSQL extensions](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/declarative_database_management/#managing-extensions-in-a-database)
+- [`SCHEMA` objects](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/declarative_database_management/#managing-schemas-in-a-database)
+
+This makes it easier to manage consistent database configurations across
+environments.
+
+---
+
+## Important Changes
+
+### Barman Cloud Deprecation Begins
+
+With the 1.26 release, the **deprecation period** for in-tree Barman Cloud
+support officially begins. While it remains fully functional in 1.26, we
+**strongly encourage** users to begin planning the migration to the
+[Barman Cloud Plugin](https://cloudnative-pg.io/plugin-barman-cloud/)
+as early as possible and to adopt it for all new deployments.
+To help with this, we’ve published a comprehensive
+[migration guide](https://cloudnative-pg.io/plugin-barman-cloud/docs/migration/).
+
+In CloudNativePG 1.28, Barman Cloud will be fully removed from CloudNativePG’s
+core. You have until then to complete your migration.
+
+This marks a significant milestone in CloudNativePG’s evolution—the culmination
+of a multi-year effort that introduced CNPG-I, our extensible plugin interface.
+It is a crucial step toward making CloudNativePG a backup-agnostic solution
+while enabling leaner operand images by removing the need to bundle Barman
+Cloud directly. It also paves the way for future plugin support for volume
+snapshot backups and restores.
+
+### Declarative Hibernation Support for the Plugin
+
+The `hibernate` command of the plugin now leverages the declarative hibernation
+capability. Instead of executing an imperative hibernation process that
+destroyed replica PVCs, it will now annotate the cluster, aligning with
+CloudNativePG’s declarative approach.
+
+---
+
+## Additional Enhancements in 1.26.0
+
+Explore other improvements in this release, including:
+
+- A new annotation to enable/disable webhook validation.
+- A configuration option to set the TCP timeout for replicas, improving
+  failover recovery speed.
+- Integration with autoscalers like Karpenter for better node drain management.
+- Experimental enhancement to the liveness probe to detect network isolation on
+  primaries—allowing self-demotion in split-brain scenarios.
+
+Dive into the full details in the
+[release notes](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/release_notes/v1.26/).
+
+---
+
+## Upgrade Guidance
+
+We recommend all users:
+
+- Upgrade to 1.26.0 for the latest features and long-term stability.
+- If you're on 1.25.x, upgrade to 1.25.2 to stay up to date with fixes and
+  improvements.
+
+Support for the 1.25.x series continues until **22 August 2025**.
+
+Refer to the [upgrade instructions](https://cloudnative-pg.io/documentation/1.26/installation_upgrade/#upgrades)
+for a smooth transition.
+
+---
+
+## Get Involved with the Community
+
+CloudNativePG is a **vendor-neutral, open-source** project backed by a vibrant
+community of PostgreSQL and Kubernetes enthusiasts.
+[Join us](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg?tab=readme-ov-file#communications)
+to help shape the future of cloud-native Postgres!
+
+Thank you for your continued support! Upgrade today and discover how
+CloudNativePG can elevate your PostgreSQL experience to new heights.
+
+Join our vibrant community, share your insights, and stay updated on the latest developments by following us and joining our Slack channel.