Release notes for 8.18.0 (#17102)

* Update release notes for 8.18.0

* Refined release notes

* Updated plugins section after Nokogiri update

* Updated release docs after backport of #17185

* Re-added plugins section for 8.18.0

* Update after backport of #17120

* Update release notes with plugin changes

* Update release notes with recent changes

* Update docs/static/releasenotes.asciidoc

Co-authored-by: Karen Metts <[email protected]>

* Removed duplicated PR description

Co-authored-by: Karen Metts <[email protected]>

* Moved JDK update section before the plugin section

---------

Co-authored-by: logstashmachine <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: andsel <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Karen Metts <[email protected]>

Author: 4 people

docs/static/releasenotes.asciidoc

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 This section summarizes the changes in the following releases:
 
+* <<logstash-8-18-0,Logstash 8.18.0>>
 * <<logstash-8-17-4,Logstash 8.17.4>>
 * <<logstash-8-17-3,Logstash 8.17.3>>
 * <<logstash-8-17-2,Logstash 8.17.2>>
@@ -81,6 +82,59 @@ This section summarizes the changes in the following releases:
 * <<logstash-8-0-0-alpha2,Logstash 8.0.0-alpha2>>
 * <<logstash-8-0-0-alpha1,Logstash 8.0.0-alpha1>>
 
+[[logstash-8-18-0]]
+=== Logstash 8.18.0 Release Notes
+
+[[notable-8.18.0]]
+==== Performance improvements and notable issues fixed
+* Avoid possible integer overflow in string tokenization https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/17353[#17353].
+* Fixed an issue to execute pqcheck and pqrepair on Windows OS. Previously https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/16205[#16205] solved the problem with space character in the installation path but introduced another issue now solved by https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/17120[#17120]
+* Fixed an issue where the `/_node/stats` API displayed empty pipeline metrics when X-Pack monitoring was enabled https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/17185[#17185].
+* Persistence queue moved deserialization of read events outside a critical section, this could give a boost up to 5 times to events per second read speed https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/17050[#17050].
+* Starting from es-output 12.0.2, a 404 response is treated as an error. Previously, central pipeline management considered 404 as an empty pipeline, not an error https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/17052[#17052].
+* Exposes the qualifier, like GA or RC, in cli and in the http api https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/16904[#16904].
+* Set Jackson stream read constraints defaults in code to avoid missed `jvm.options` updates during installation upgrade https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/16854[#16854].
+
+[[dependencies-8.18.0]]
+==== Updates to dependencies
+* Update JDK to 21.0.6+7 https://github.com/elastic/logstash/pull/16932[#16932]
+
+[[plugins-8.18.0]]
+==== Plugins
+*Elasticsearch Filter - 3.17.1*
+
+* Add elastic-transport client support used in elasticsearch-ruby 8.x https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-filter-elasticsearch/pull/193[#193]
+
+*Xml Filter - 4.3.0*
+
+* Update Nokogiri dependency version https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-filter-xml/pull/87[#87]
+
+*Elastic_serverless_forwarder Input - 1.0.0*
+
+* Promote from technical preview to GA https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-input-elastic_serverless_forwarder/pull/10[#10]
+
+*Elasticsearch Input - 4.21.2*
+
+* Add elastic-transport client support used in elasticsearch-ruby 8.x https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-input-elasticsearch/pull/225[#225]
+
+*Syslog Input - 3.7.1*
+
+* Fix issue where the priority field was not being set correctly when grok failed https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-input-syslog/pull/78[#76]
+
+*Aws Integration - 7.2.1*
+
+* [DOC] Remove unneeded content and links in SNS and CloudWatch https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-integration-aws/pull/54[#54]
+
+* Added an option `web_identity_token_file` to support IRSA (IAM Roles for Service Accounts) https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-integration-aws/pull/52[#52]
+  
+
+*Jdbc Integration - 5.5.3*
+
+* [DOC] Rework inline comment to a callout in preparation for upcoming MD conversion https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-integration-jdbc/pull/181[#181]
+
+*Kafka Integration - 11.6.0*
+
+* Support additional `oauth` and `sasl` configuration options for configuring kafka client https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-integration-kafka/pull/189[#189]
 
 [[logstash-8-17-4]]
 === Logstash 8.17.4 Release Notes
@@ -122,7 +176,6 @@ This section summarizes the changes in the following releases:
 
 [[plugins-8-17-3]]
 ==== Plugins
-
 *Beats Input - 6.9.3*
 
 * Upgrade netty to 4.1.118 https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-input-beats/pull/514[#514]