Harvester, the open source hyperconverged infrastructure platform from SUSE's Rancher team, has released version 1.7.1 with a substantial list of bug fixes targeting upgrade reliability and virtual machine management. The update addresses over 25 issues, with particular focus on problems that caused upgrades from v1.6.x to get stuck due to incomplete kubeovn-operator processes, Longhorn manager image mismatches, and DHCP-related host IP changes during migration.
The release continues to expand ARM64 support with dedicated ISO images available alongside the standard AMD64 builds. Both architectures now offer full ISO and net install options, with the latter containing only core OS components for streamlined deployment. A notable change starting with v1.7.0 requires administrators to configure a login password for the default rancher user account during installation.
This version transitions from wicked to NetworkManager for network management, which requires manual intervention before upgrading if the management interface configuration was modified post-installation. The documentation details the migration steps to prevent upgrade errors. Key fixes include resolving snapshot restoration failures, addressing vTPM and UEFI virtual machine creation issues, and correcting raw image upload problems when using external storage.
The underlying component stack includes KubeVirt v1.6.3, Longhorn v1.10.2 for storage, and embedded Rancher v2.13.1. Harvester remains free and open source, targeting organizations seeking a VMware alternative for running virtual machines on bare metal Kubernetes clusters.
