Announcing the LocalStack for AWS 4.14 Release

Introduction

We’re excited to share the release of LocalStack for AWS 4.14. This release introduces a new Resource Groups Tagging API provider with native integrations for EC2, KMS, S3, Lambda, Route 53, SNS, SQS, OpenSearch, and Elastic Beanstalk, replacing the previous Moto-based implementation. We’ve also added KRaft cluster support for Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK), enabling Kafka deployments without ZooKeeper dependencies.

This release includes Glue as the default metastore for Hive with improved Athena parity, EKS nodes integration with the Instance Metadata Service (IMDS), and support for Kubernetes versions 1.34 and 1.35. Additional improvements span CloudFormation with DeletionPolicy and UpdateReplacePolicy support, S3 conditional headers for CopyObject, Route 53 CloudFormation UPDATE operations, ECS stopTimeout support, ElastiCache Users and UserGroups CRUD, RDS MSSQL persistence, and more.

Get your free LocalStack account to access the latest features and enhancements in LocalStack for AWS 4.14!

How to upgrade?

To upgrade to LocalStack for AWS 4.14 using the LocalStack CLI, run:

localstack update all

If using Docker CLI or Docker Compose, update the Docker image:

docker pull localstack/localstack:4.14.0 # Community Edition

docker pull localstack/localstack-pro:4.14.0 # Pro Edition

What’s new in LocalStack for AWS 4.14?

New Resource Groups Tagging API Provider
KRaft Cluster Support for MSK
Glue as the Default Metastore for Hive
Enhancements in the EKS provider
Enhancements in the CloudFormation provider
Enhancements in the Step Functions provider
Miscellaneous
Deprecations

New Resource Groups Tagging API Provider

LocalStack for AWS 4.14 introduces a new Resource Groups Tagging API provider as the default for licensed users. This provider offers native tagging integrations with multiple AWS services, replacing the previous Moto-based fallback implementation.

The new provider includes out-of-the-box integrations with:

Amazon EC2
AWS Key Management Service (KMS)
Amazon S3
AWS Lambda
Amazon Route 53
Amazon SNS
Amazon SQS
Amazon OpenSearch Service
AWS Elastic Beanstalk

This enables more accurate and consistent tagging behavior across your LocalStack environment, particularly for workflows that rely on resource tagging for organization, cost allocation, or access control. To revert to the legacy behavior (Moto-based fallback), set PROVIDER_OVERRIDE_RESOURCEGROUPSTAGGINGAPI=legacy.

Learn more about the Resource Groups Tagging API in the LocalStack documentation.

KRaft Cluster Support for MSK

LocalStack now supports KRaft-based clusters in Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK). KRaft is Kafka’s built-in consensus protocol that eliminates the need for ZooKeeper, simplifying cluster operations and reducing operational overhead.

Key features include:

CRUD operations for KRaft clusters via the MSK API.
Integration with Lambda Event Source Mappings for KRaft-based clusters.

This release also introduces support for running multiple Kafka brokers per cluster, alongside several additional parity improvements.

Learn more about MSK in the LocalStack documentation.

Glue as the Default Metastore for Hive

LocalStack for AWS 4.14 switches Hive to use Glue as its metastore by default, providing tighter integration between Glue, Athena, and Hive. This change improves parity with AWS behavior and simplifies big data workflows.

Key improvements include:

Native s3:// location support instead of rewriting to s3a://.
Multi-region database support between Glue and Athena — databases created in a specific region are now only visible in that region across both services.
Enhanced JDBC crawler support and improved partitioning support in Glue crawlers.
Improved API response parity in Athena and Glue including better exception handling.

Additionally, the Glue provider now supports the --python-modules-installer-option parameter, allowing users to pass extra arguments to pip install when creating or running Glue jobs.

Learn more about Glue and Athena in the LocalStack documentation.

Enhancements in the EKS provider

LocalStack’s EKS provider now includes the following enhancements:

IMDS Integration for EKS Nodes

EKS nodes from managed nodegroups now register with the Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) after creation, enabling pods to introspect their networking configuration. This is required for tools like the AWS Load Balancer Controller that interact directly with IMDS to fetch networking configuration such as subnets.

Kubernetes Version Updates

Added support for Kubernetes versions 1.34 and 1.35.
Kubernetes 1.34 is now the default version for EKS clusters.
Removed support for Kubernetes version 1.28.
Updated addon versions to align with the latest releases.

When creating clusters, the node.kubernetes.io/exclude-from-external-load-balancers=true label is now automatically added to server nodes to prevent the AWS Load Balancer Controller from considering them as load balancer targets.

Enhancements in the CloudFormation provider

LocalStack’s CloudFormation provider now includes the following enhancements:

DeletionPolicy and UpdateReplacePolicy Support

CloudFormation now supports DeletionPolicy and UpdateReplacePolicy attributes for resource management:

Resources with DeletionPolicy=Retain are preserved when the stack is deleted.
Resources with UpdateReplacePolicy=Retain are preserved when replaced during stack updates.
Support for intrinsic functions within policy values using Fn::If conditions.

Nested Intrinsic Functions in Fn::FindInMap

Fixed an issue where Fn::FindInMap with nested intrinsic functions (like {"Ref": "AWS::Partition"}) would raise a misleading InternalFailure error during stack redeployment. This particularly affected CDK-generated templates using CloudFront distributions with Route 53 alias targets.

Enhancements in the Step Functions provider

LocalStack’s Step Functions provider now includes the following enhancements:

Added support for the variables parameter in the TestState API, allowing pre-populated variables to be passed when testing individual states.
Improved Step Functions Local mock response handling to correctly iterate through numbered responses for multiple invocations of the same state.
Improved JSONata $merge() function handling with dynamic input references like $states.input.part1.

Miscellaneous

Added support for conditional headers (If-Match and If-None-Match) in the S3 CopyObject API, enabling atomic copy operations based on the destination object’s ETag.
Added UPDATE support for the AWS::Route53::RecordSet CloudFormation resource provider, including proper handling of SetIdentifier for weighted routing policies.
Added validation for supported runtimes when creating Lambda Managed Instances functions, along with improved capacity providers lifecycle management.
Added CRUD support for Users and UserGroups in ElastiCache, including CreateUser, CreateUserGroup, and related operations.
Added stopTimeout support for ECS container definitions, improving AWS parity for task termination behavior.
Implemented MSSQL data persistence in RDS, allowing database state to be preserved between LocalStack restarts when using the SQL Server engine.

Deprecations

Removal of Host Mode in the LocalStack CLI

We have streamlined the LocalStack CLI and it now includes only the capability to run LocalStack inside of a container. The --host option is no longer available for localstack start.

State Compatibility

Any state created with a version prior to 4.14 will not be compatible and will need to be recreated. This applies to Cloud Pods, state snapshots, and PERSISTENCE=1. LocalStack will display an explicit message when attempting to load incompatible state.

Conclusion

LocalStack for AWS 4.14 improves AWS parity for resource tagging, data workflows, Kubernetes-based development, and infrastructure provisioning. The release combines a new Resource Groups Tagging API provider, KRaft-based MSK support, Glue-backed Hive metastore behavior, and targeted parity improvements across CloudFormation, S3, Route 53, Lambda, ECS, ElastiCache, and RDS.

Upgrade to LocalStack for AWS 4.14 today to accelerate your AWS cloud application development with greater confidence and efficiency.