site: add blog posts for Velero v1.17 and v1.18 releases

Add release blog posts for v1.17 (Sep 2025) and v1.18 (Mar 2026)
covering major features, breaking changes, and community contributions.

v1.17 highlights: VolumeGroupSnapshot support, modernized fs-backup,
Windows cluster support, priority class support.

v1.18 highlights: concurrent backup processing, cache volume support
for data movers, incremental backup size reporting, VolumePolicy
enhancements.

Signed-off-by: Shubham Pampattiwar <spampatt@redhat.com>

site/content/posts/2025-09-15-Velero-1.17.md

@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+---
+title: "Velero 1.17: Volume Group Snapshots, Modernized fs-backup, and Windows Support"
+excerpt: Velero 1.17 introduces VolumeGroupSnapshot support for crash-consistent multi-volume backups, a modernized fs-backup architecture, Windows cluster support, and significant scalability improvements for data movers.
+author_name: Shubham Pampattiwar
+slug: Velero-1.17
+categories: ['velero','release']
+image: /img/posts/post-1.17.jpg
+tags: ['Velero Team', 'Shubham Pampattiwar', 'Velero Release']
+---
+
+We are pleased to announce the release of [Velero v1.17](https://github.com/velero-io/velero/releases/tag/v1.17.0). This is a feature-rich release that delivers volume group snapshot support, a modernized fs-backup architecture, Windows workload backup/restore, and major scalability improvements for data movers.
+
+### Full list of changes can be found [here](https://github.com/velero-io/velero/releases/tag/v1.17.0)
+
+## Release Highlights
+
+### Volume Group Snapshot Support
+
+Velero 1.17 supports [volume group snapshots](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2024/12/18/kubernetes-1-32-volume-group-snapshot-beta/), a beta feature in Kubernetes, for both CSI snapshot backup and CSI snapshot data movement. This allows snapshots to be taken from multiple volumes at the same point-in-time to achieve write order consistency, which is important for achieving better data consistency when multiple correlated volumes are backed up together.
+
+See the [documentation](https://velero.io/docs/v1.17/volume-group-snapshots/) for details.
+
+### Modernized fs-backup
+
+The fs-backup subsystem has been rebuilt on the micro-service architecture, bringing several benefits:
+
+- **Feature parity**: Load concurrency control, cancel, and resume on restart are now available for fs-backup.
+- **Improved robustness**: Running backups and restores survive node-agent restarts. Resource allocation is more granular, so the failure of one backup/restore does not impact others.
+- **Steady resource usage**: Node-agent pods no longer request large amounts of memory and hold it for extended periods.
+
+See the [design document](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/tree/v1.17.0/design/Implemented/vgdp-micro-service-for-fs-backup/vgdp-micro-service-for-fs-backup.md) for details.
+
+### Windows Cluster Support for fs-backup
+
+Velero fs-backup now supports backing up and restoring Windows workloads. By leveraging the new micro-service architecture, data mover pods can run on Windows nodes and handle Windows volumes. Together with CSI snapshot data movement for Windows delivered in v1.16, Velero now supports Windows workload backup/restore across all scenarios.
+
+### Priority Class Support
+
+[Kubernetes priority classes](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/pod-priority-preemption/#priorityclass) are now supported across all Velero modules. Users can configure priority classes separately for Velero server, node-agent, data mover pods, and backup repository maintenance jobs.
+
+See the [design document](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/tree/v1.17.0/design/Implemented/priority-class-name-support_design.md) for details.
+
+### Include/Exclude Policy for Resource Policy
+
+Velero resource policy now supports `includeExcludePolicy` alongside the existing `volumePolicy`. This allows users to set include/exclude filters for resources in a resource policy configmap, making these filters reusable across multiple backups.
+
+## Scalability and Resiliency Improvements
+
+### Reduced Data Mover Pod Congestion
+
+A new `PrepareQueueLength` setting in node-agent configuration limits how many data mover pods and volumes are created ahead of available data path quota. This prevents excessive cluster resource consumption, particularly helpful in large-scale environments. This applies to both fs-backup and CSI snapshot data movement.
+
+See the [design document](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/tree/v1.17.0/design/Implemented/node-agent-load-soothing.md) for details.
+
+### Enhanced Node-Agent Restart Handling
+
+Data movements in all phases now survive node-agent restarts and resume automatically. Orphaned data movements from scenarios like cluster node absence are canceled appropriately after restart.
+
+### Restore Node-Selection for CSI Snapshot Data Movement
+
+CSI snapshot data movement restore now has the same node-selection capability as backup. Users can specify which nodes can or cannot run data mover pods for both backup and restore, with per-storage-class configuration for environments where a storage class is not usable by all cluster nodes.
+
+## Breaking Changes
+
+### Deprecation of Restic
+
+Per the [Velero deprecation policy](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/tree/v1.17.0/GOVERNANCE.md#deprecation-policy), backup under the Restic path is removed in v1.17. `--uploader-type=restic` is no longer a valid installation configuration. Restores from previous Restic-path backups remain supported until v1.19.
+
+### Repository Maintenance Job Configuration
+
+Repository maintenance job configurations have been moved from Velero server parameters to a repository maintenance job configmap. The following server parameters are removed: `--keep-latest-maintenance-jobs`, `--maintenance-job-cpu-request`, `--maintenance-job-mem-request`, `--maintenance-job-cpu-limit`, `--maintenance-job-mem-limit`.
+
+## Community Contributions
+
+Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release:
+
+- [@Lyndon-Li](https://github.com/Lyndon-Li) -- modernized fs-backup, Windows support, data mover scalability, node-agent restart handling
+- [@blackpiglet](https://github.com/blackpiglet) -- configmap validation, maintenance job improvements, VolumeSnapshot cleanup
+- [@shubham-pampattiwar](https://github.com/shubham-pampattiwar) -- VolumeGroupSnapshot support, VGS documentation, maintenance job configmap, VGS PVC plugin
+- [@sseago](https://github.com/sseago) -- hook tracking improvements
+- [@kaovilai](https://github.com/kaovilai) -- priority class restore ordering, ResticIdentifier fix
+- [@reasonerjt](https://github.com/reasonerjt) -- include/exclude resource policy, BSL availability metrics
+- [@ywk253100](https://github.com/ywk253100) -- server version check improvements
+- [@priyansh17](https://github.com/priyansh17) -- context-based logging, Azure credential cleanup
+- [@amastbau](https://github.com/amastbau) -- label selector restore fix
+- [@longxiucai](https://github.com/longxiucai) -- parameterized kubelet mount path
+- [@farodin91](https://github.com/farodin91) -- bug fixes
+- [@flx5](https://github.com/flx5) -- bug fixes
+- [@hu-keyu](https://github.com/hu-keyu) -- bug fixes
+- [@pandurangkhandeparker](https://github.com/pandurangkhandeparker) -- bug fixes
+- [@vishal-chdhry](https://github.com/vishal-chdhry) -- bug fixes
+
+## Join the Community
+
+- **Slack**: [#velero-users](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/velero) and [#velero-dev](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/velero-dev) on Kubernetes Slack
+- **GitHub**: [github.com/velero-io/velero](https://github.com/velero-io/velero)
+- **Community Meetings**: Bi-weekly, alternating US/Europe and US/Asia time zones. See the [community page](https://velero.io/community/) for details.
+- **LinkedIn**: [Project Velero](https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-velero)
+- **Twitter/X**: [@projectvelero](https://twitter.com/projectvelero)

site/content/posts/2026-03-06-Velero-1.18.md

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+---
+title: "Velero 1.18: Concurrent Backups, Cache Volumes, and More"
+excerpt: Velero 1.18 introduces concurrent backup processing, cache volume support for data movers, incremental backup size reporting, and several scalability and performance improvements.
+author_name: Shubham Pampattiwar
+slug: Velero-1.18
+categories: ['velero','release']
+image: /img/posts/post-1.18.jpg
+tags: ['Velero Team', 'Shubham Pampattiwar', 'Velero Release']
+---
+
+We are pleased to announce the release of [Velero v1.18](https://github.com/velero-io/velero/releases/tag/v1.18.0). This release brings significant improvements in concurrency, performance, and observability, with contributions from engineers across multiple organizations.
+
+### Full list of changes can be found [here](https://github.com/velero-io/velero/releases/tag/v1.18.0)
+
+## Release Highlights
+
+### Concurrent Backup Processing
+
+Velero can now process multiple backups concurrently. This is a major usability improvement for multi-tenant environments -- backups submitted by different users or teams run simultaneously without interfering with each other.
+
+Previously, backups were serialized, meaning a long-running backup would block all other pending backups. With concurrent processing, backup throughput scales with available resources.
+
+See the [design document](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/blob/main/design/Implemented/concurrent-backup-processing.md) for details.
+
+### Cache Volume Support for Data Movers
+
+Velero 1.18 allows users to configure cache volumes for data mover pods during restore operations for both CSI snapshot data movement and fs-backup. This solves several real-world problems:
+
+- Data mover pods failing when a pod's ephemeral disk is limited
+- Multiple data mover pods failing to run concurrently on a single node due to disk constraints
+- Combined with backup repository cache limit configuration, appropriately sized cache volumes improve restore throughput
+
+See the [design document](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/blob/main/design/Implemented/backup-repo-cache-volume.md) for details.
+
+### Incremental Backup Size Reporting
+
+Users can now observe the incremental size of data mover backups for CSI snapshot data movement and fs-backup. This provides visibility into data reduction from incremental backups, helping teams understand and optimize their backup storage usage.
+
+### Wildcard Namespace Filtering
+
+Velero now supports Glob regular expressions for namespace filters during backup and restore. This allows users to filter namespaces in batch -- for example, backing up all namespaces matching `team-*` or excluding `test-*` namespaces.
+
+### VolumePolicy Enhancements
+
+VolumePolicy receives two improvements in this release:
+
+- **PVC Phase support**: Users can now filter volumes by PVC phase, enabling actions like skipping PVCs in Pending or Lost status from backups to avoid failures caused by unbound volumes.
+- **VolumeGroupSnapshot integration**: Volume policies now apply to VolumeGroupSnapshot PVC filtering, building on the VolumeGroupSnapshot support introduced in v1.17.
+
+## Scalability and Resiliency
+
+### Prevent Velero Server OOM for Large Backup Repositories
+
+Some backup repository operations are now executed outside the Velero server process, preventing OOM kills when working with large repositories.
+
+### VolumePolicy Performance
+
+VolumePolicy evaluation has been optimized for environments with large numbers of pods and PVCs, resulting in significantly improved performance through a PVC-to-Pod cache that avoids redundant lookups.
+
+### Events for Data Mover Pod Diagnostics
+
+Events are now recorded in data mover pod diagnostics, giving users more information for troubleshooting when data mover pods fail.
+
+## Breaking Changes
+
+### Deprecation of PVC Selected Node Feature
+
+Per the [Velero deprecation policy](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md#deprecation-policy), the PVC selected node feature is deprecated in v1.18. Velero now handles PVC selected-node annotations automatically, so no user action is required.
+
+## Community Contributions
+
+This release includes contributions from across the Velero community. Thank you to everyone who contributed:
+
+- [@sseago](https://github.com/sseago) -- concurrent backup processing, incremental size reporting
+- [@Lyndon-Li](https://github.com/Lyndon-Li) -- cache volume support, data mover diagnostics
+- [@blackpiglet](https://github.com/blackpiglet) -- maintenance job improvements, restore ordering fixes
+- [@shubham-pampattiwar](https://github.com/shubham-pampattiwar) -- VolumePolicy performance, VolumeGroupSnapshot filtering, Prometheus metrics
+- [@kaovilai](https://github.com/kaovilai) -- BSL secret-based CA certificate support
+- [@mpryc](https://github.com/mpryc) -- plugin init container DNS fix
+- [@mjnagel](https://github.com/mjnagel) -- install command `--apply` flag
+- [@Joeavaikath](https://github.com/Joeavaikath) -- backup label cleanup
+- [@0xLeo258](https://github.com/0xLeo258) -- VolumeSnapshotter cache concurrency control
+- [@clementnuss](https://github.com/clementnuss) -- bug fixes
+- [@priyansh17](https://github.com/priyansh17) -- backend improvements
+- [@T4iFooN-IX](https://github.com/T4iFooN-IX) -- documentation fixes
+
+## Join the Community
+
+- **Slack**: [#velero-users](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/velero) and [#velero-dev](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/velero-dev) on Kubernetes Slack
+- **GitHub**: [github.com/velero-io/velero](https://github.com/velero-io/velero)
+- **Community Meetings**: Bi-weekly, alternating US/Europe and US/Asia time zones. See the [community page](https://velero.io/community/) for details.
+- **LinkedIn**: [Project Velero](https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-velero)
+- **Twitter/X**: [@projectvelero](https://twitter.com/projectvelero)