Hi Omnia, Thanks for running the release and for the quick turnaround on the signing issue.
I did the following to validate RC4: - Verified the signatures and checksums of the source, binary, site-docs and release notes artifacts, and of all the staged Maven artifacts (the RC3 signing issue is fixed) - Checked that the source tarball matches the 4.4.0-rc4 tag - Built from source and ran the unit tests with JDK 17 and JDK 25 - Ran the quickstart with the binary on JDK 17 and JDK 25, with classic and consumer groups - Did a rolling upgrade of a 3-node combined cluster from 4.3.1 to 4.4.0 while producing and consuming (classic and consumer groups), then upgraded the features with `--release-version 4.4` - Ran the apache/kafka and apache/kafka-native images - Built a small producer/consumer/admin app against the staged Maven artifacts and ran it with JDK 17 and JDK 25 - Spot checked the release notes, Javadoc and documentation - Checked the system test results: the two NetworkDegradeTest failures fail on ping between the test workers, so they are not related to the release One non-blocking note: the documentation PR (https://github.com/apache/kafka-site/pull/905) still has the RC1 docs and references 4.3.0 in the quickstarts, so it needs to be updated before it is merged. +1 (binding) Best, David On Wed, Oct 7, 2026 at 11:05 PM <[email protected]> wrote: > > System test results are here > https://confluent-open-source-kafka-branch-builder-system-test-results.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/trunk/2026-10-07--001.d99104f8-407f-446e-847f-f08d3da30b3b--1791398518--apache--4.4--1156b2752a/report.html > the two failed tests are the same failed ones with other releases so not > 4.4.0 specific > > Thanks > Omnia > Sent from my iPhone > > > On 7 Oct 2026, at 10:09, Omnia Ibrahim <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hello Kafka users, developers and client-developers, > > > > This is the latest candidate for release of Apache Kafka 4.4.0. > > > > Apache Kafka 4.4.0 is a minor release that includes 26 KIPs spanning > > improvements to all components. > > > > Release notes for the 4.4.0 release: > > https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.4.0-rc4/RELEASE_NOTES.html > > > > *** Please download, test and vote by Monday, Oct 12, 9am PT *** > > Kafka's KEYS file containing PGP keys we use to sign the release: > > https://downloads.apache.org/kafka/KEYS > > > > Release artifacts to be voted upon (source and binary): > > https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.4.0-rc4/ > > > > Docker release artifacts to be voted upon: > > apache/kafka:4.4.0-rc4 > > apache/kafka-native:4.4.0-rc4 > > > > 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/4.4.0-rc4/javadoc/index.html > > > > Tag to be voted upon (off 4.4 branch) is the 4.4.0 tag: > > https://github.com/apache/kafka/releases/tag/4.4.0-rc4 > > Documentation: > > PR: https://github.com/apache/kafka-site/pull/905 > > > > Protocol: > > PR: https://github.com/apache/kafka-site/pull/905 > > > > Successful CI builds for the 4.4 branch: > > Unit/integration tests: > > https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/37496670106 > > System tests: <PENDING> > > > > Successful Docker Image Github Actions Pipeline for 4.4 branch: > > Docker Build Test Pipeline (JVM): > > https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/37591376291 > > Docker Build Test Pipeline (Native): > > https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/37591376291 > > > > Thanks > > Omnia
