Remove v1beta1 apiVersion / IPAM & Rumtime v1alpha1

[sbueringer]

Tracking issue for v1beta1 apiVersion removal. This will stay around for a while.
For sake of simplicity, also IPAM v1alpha1 and Runtime v1alpha1 will be included

Context:

• CAPI supports 3 versions: for 2 versions we regularly release patch releases, for the 3rd one we create emergency patches on demand
• CAPI currently tests up to n-3 => n upgrades.
  • Note: This is not well documented at the moment, but we should follow-up.
  • Note: The n-3 => n policy in CAPI aligns to the corresponding policy in Kubernetes
• We want to make sure that removal of old apiVersions do not break the n-3 => n upgrade path. This means that we have to keep apiVersions around long enough that "storage version migration" and "managedField cleanup" are run.

v1beta1

CAPI	Release date	v1beta1	v1beta2	Notes
v1.9	Dec 2024	Served: true, Storage
v1.10	April 2025	Served: true, Storage
v1.11	August 2025	Served: true	Served: true, Storage	v1beta2 added
v1.12	December 2025	Served: true	Served: true, Storage
v1.13	April 2026	Served: true	Served: true, Storage
v1.14	August 2026	Served: false	Served: true, Storage	v1beta1 unserved
v1.15	December 2026	Served: false	Served: true, Storage
v1.16	April 2027	Served: false	Served: true, Storage
v1.17	August 2027	Served: false	Served: true, Storage
v1.18	December 2027		Served: true, Storage	v1beta1 removed

Notes:

• v1.11-v1.13: We have to keep v1beta1 served for 3 versions after introduction of v1beta2 according to the Kubernetes deprecation policy
• v1.14-v1.17: We have to keep v1beta1 around for 3 versions after it was unserved, to ensure that managedField cleanup is run even if someone upgrades from n-3 => n.
  • Note: We want to keep v1beta1 around for one additional release so that folks have 1 buffer release where they can revert v1beta1 back to served if they need more time to pick up v1beta2 (we did the same for v1alpha3 + v1alpha4 in the past).

Tasks:

• [v1.11] Introduce v1beta2 (tracked elsewhere)
• [v1.14] Unserve & deprecate v1beta1
  • While doing this also unserve & deprecate IPAM v1alpha1
• [v1.18] Remove v1beta1

Tasks after v1beta1 is removed:

• KubeadmConfig / KCP / etc.
  • Remove "unique" CEL rule from extraArgs
  • Remove validation that ControlPlaneComponentHealthCheckSeconds has to be the same for init/join configuration
• Remove --v1beta2 flag from clusterctl describe
• Cleanup: align all CRDs inutil/test/builder package to v1beta2 contract

For more context, see: #11894

[sbueringer]

/triage accepted
/assign
/lifecycle frozen

[sbueringer]

/milestone v1.11