[VOTE] 3.8.1 RC0

[Josep Prat]

Hello Kafka users, developers and client-developers,

This is the first candidate for release of Apache Kafka 3.8.1.

This is a bugfix release with several fixes.

Release notes for the 3.8.1 release:
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/3.8.1-rc0/RELEASE_NOTES.html

*** Please download, test and vote by Monday, October 21, 9am ET


Kafka's KEYS file containing PGP keys we use to sign the release:
https://kafka.apache.org/KEYS

* Release artifacts to be voted upon (source and binary):
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/3.8.1-rc0/

* Docker release artifacts to be voted upon:
apache/kafka:3.8.1-rc0
apache/kafka-native:3.8.1-rc0

* Maven artifacts to be voted upon:
https://repository.apache.org/content/groups/staging/org/apache/kafka/

* Javadoc:
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/3.8.1-rc0/javadoc/

* Tag to be voted upon (off 3.8 branch) is the 3.8.1 tag:
https://github.com/apache/kafka/releases/tag/3.8.1-rc0

* Documentation:

Mind that the home.apache.org server is retired now.

https://kafka.apache.org/38/documentation.html

And https://github.com/apache/kafka-site/pull/635

* Protocol:
https://kafka.apache.org/38/protocol.html
And https://github.com/apache/kafka-site/pull/635

* Jenkins builds for the 3.8 branch:

Unit/integration tests: There are some flaky tests, with the combination of these 3 builds all tests passed at least once:

https://ci-builds.apache.org/job/Kafka/job/kafka/job/3.8/101/testReport/, https://ci-builds.apache.org/job/Kafka/job/kafka/job/3.8/102/testReport/ and https://ci-builds.apache.org/job/Kafka/job/kafka/job/3.8/97/testReport/

System tests: Between these 2 runs all tests were successful:

https://confluent-open-source-kafka-system-test-results.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/3.8/2024-10-07--001.af519a09-fdc8-4d46-8478-e0280854e43e--1728373295--confluentinc--3.8--7dbc44143a/report.html

https://confluent-open-source-kafka-branch-builder-system-test-results.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/trunk/2024-10-01--001.e7b0a1be-bac1-4792-96da-ec94116e20ce--1727846843--confluentinc--3.8--99746d683a/report.html

* Successful Docker Image Github Actions Pipeline for 3.8 branch:
Docker Build Test Pipeline (JVM): https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/11360618017
Docker Build Test Pipeline (Native): https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/11360490943

/**************************************

Thanks,


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Josep Prat Open Source Engineering Director, Aiven josep...@aiven.io   |   +491715557497 aiven.io   |

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