This release updates Kubernetes to v1.34.5.
Important Note
If your server (control-plane) nodes were not started with the --token CLI flag or config file key, a randomized token was generated during initial cluster startup. This key is used both for joining new nodes to the cluster, and for encrypting cluster bootstrap data within the datastore. Ensure that you retain a copy of this token, as is required when restoring from backup.
You may retrieve the token value from any server already joined to the cluster:
cat /var/lib/rancher/rke2/server/tokenChanges since v1.34.4+rke2r1:
- Ingress-Nginx to Traefik Docker Test (#9736)
-
- Update to cilium v1.19.1 (#9750)
- Prevent a node transform from agent/server to server/agent (#9779)
- Fix package dev broken after dapper removal from rke2-packaging (#9805)
- Bump Traefik to v3.6.9 (#9821)
- Update to v1.34.5 and Go v1.24.13 (#9811)
- Bump k3s for etcd bootstrap fix (#9794)
- Bump ETCD version to v3.6.7-k3s1-20260227 (#9825)
- Chore: Bump ingress-nginx 2026-Feb (#9830)
- Backports for 2026-02 BONUS RELEASE (#9841)
- Bump crictl, runc and containerd to build20260303 (#9851)
Charts Versions
| Component | Version |
|---|---|
| rke2-cilium | 1.19.100 |
| rke2-canal | v3.31.3-build2026020600 |
| rke2-calico | v3.31.300 |
| rke2-calico-crd | v3.31.300 |
| rke2-coredns | 1.45.201 |
| rke2-ingress-nginx | 4.14.303 |
| rke2-metrics-server | 3.13.007 |
| rancher-vsphere-csi | 3.5.0-rancher200 |
| rancher-vsphere-cpi | 1.12.100 |
| harvester-cloud-provider | 0.2.1100 |
| harvester-csi-driver | 0.1.2500 |
| rke2-snapshot-controller | 4.2.001 |
| rke2-snapshot-controller-crd | 4.2.001 |
| rke2-snapshot-validation-webhook | 0.0.0 |
| rke2-traefik | 39.0.002 |
| rke2-traefik-crd | 39.0.002 |
Packaged Component Versions
| Component | Version |
|---|---|
| Kubernetes | v1.34.5 |
| Etcd | v3.6.7-k3s1 |
| Containerd | v2.1.5-k3s1 |
| Runc | v1.4.0 |
| Metrics-server | v0.8.1 |
| CoreDNS | v1.14.1 |
| Ingress-Nginx | v1.14.3-hardened3 |
| Helm-controller | v0.16.17 |
| Traefik | v3.6.9 |
Available CNIs
| Component | Version | FIPS Compliant |
|---|---|---|
| Canal (Default) | Flannel v0.28.1 Calico v3.31.3 | Yes |
| Calico | v3.31.3 | No |
| Cilium | v1.19.1 | No |
| Multus | v4.2.3 | No |
Helpful Links
As always, we welcome and appreciate feedback from our community of users. Please feel free to:
- Open issues here
- Join our Slack channel
- Check out our documentation for guidance on how to get started.