Technical specifications
This page describes technical specifications for F5 NGINX Ingress Controller LTS, such as its version compatibility with Kubernetes and other NGINX software.
NGINX Ingress Controller LTS is a feature-frozen release supported for 36 months from the date of release. Security patches and critical bug fixes are delivered as patch revisions throughout the support period.
We test NGINX Ingress Controller LTS on a range of Kubernetes platforms for each release, and list them in the Changelog.
We provide technical support for NGINX Ingress Controller LTS on any Kubernetes platform that is currently supported by its provider, and that passes the Kubernetes conformance tests.
We provide technical support for F5 customers using NGINX Ingress Controller LTS for 36 months from the date of release.
NGINX Ingress Controller supports the following versions of NGINX Plus and Kubernetes:
| NIC version | Kubernetes versions tested | NIC Helm Chart version | NIC Operator version | NGINX / NGINX Plus version | End of Technical Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5.0 | 1.29 - 1.36 | 2.6.0 | 3.6.0 | 1.31.1 / R37.0.1.1 | - |
| 5.4.3 | 1.28 - 1.35 | 2.5.3 | 3.5.4 | 1.31.1 / R37.0.1.1 | May 21, 2028 |
| 5.3.4 | 1.27 - 1.35 | 2.4.4 | 3.4.4 | 1.29.5 / R36 P2 | Feb 17, 2028 |
| 5.2.1 | 1.27 - 1.34 | 2.3.1 | 3.3.1 | 1.29.1 / R35 | Oct 10, 2027 |
| 5.1.1 | 1.25 - 1.33 | 2.2.2 | 3.2.3 | 1.29.1 / R35 | Aug 15, 2027 |
| 5.0.0 | 1.25 - 1.32 | 2.1.0 | 3.1.0 | 1.27.4 / R34 | Apr 16, 2027 |
| 4.0.1 | 1.25 - 1.32 | 2.0.1 | 3.0.1 | 1.27.4 / R33 P2 | Feb 7, 2027 |
| 3.7.2 | 1.25 - 1.31 | 1.4.2 | 2.4.2 | 1.27.2 / R32 P1 | Nov 25, 2026 |
| 3.6.2 | 1.25 - 1.31 | 1.3.2 | 2.3.2 | 1.27.1 / R32 P1 | Aug 19, 2026 |
| 3.5.2 | 1.23 - 1.30 | 1.2.2 | 2.2.2 | 1.27.0 / R32 | May 31, 2026 |
| 3.4.3 | 1.23 - 1.29 | 1.1.3 | 2.1.2 | 1.25.4 / R31 P1 | Feb 19, 2026 |
We provide the following Docker images, which include NGINX Plus bundled with the Ingress Controller binary.
NGINX Plus images include NGINX Plus R37.0.1.1.
NGINX Plus images are available through the F5 Container registry private-registry.nginx.com, explained in the Download NGINX Ingress Controller LTS from the F5 Registry and Add an NGINX Ingress Controller LTS image to your cluster topics.
The LTS image is a single artifact supporting AMD64 and ARM64 architectures. The base operating system is an implementation detail and is not exposed as part of the LTS release identity.
| Name | Additional modules |
F5 Container Registry Image | Architectures |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGINX Plus LTS image | NJS (NGINX JavaScript) OpenTelemetry |
nginx-ic/nginx-plus-ingress:2026-lts-r1 |
arm64 amd64 |
| NGINX Plus LTS image with F5 WAF for NGINX v5 | F5 WAF for NGINX v5 NJS (NGINX JavaScript) OpenTelemetry |
nginx-ic-nap-v5/nginx-plus-ingress:2026-lts-r1 |
amd64 |
| NGINX Plus LTS image with F5 DoS for NGINX | F5 DoS for NGINX NJS (NGINX JavaScript) OpenTelemetry |
nginx-ic-dos/nginx-plus-ingress:2026-lts-r1 |
amd64 |
| NGINX Plus LTS image with F5 WAF for NGINX v5 and DoS | F5 WAF for NGINX v5 and DoS NJS (NGINX JavaScript) OpenTelemetry |
nginx-ic-nap-dos/nginx-plus-ingress:2026-lts-r1 |
amd64 |
| Component | Version |
|---|---|
| LTS image tag | 2026-lts-r1 |
| NGINX Plus | R37.0.1.1 |
| NGINX Agent | v3 |
| End of Technical Support | 36 months from release date |
Custom images are not covered by the LTS support lifecycle. F5 technical support applies only to the official LTS images listed above.
You can customize an existing Dockerfile or use it as a reference to create a new one, which is necessary when:
- Choosing a different base image.
- Installing additional NGINX modules.
NGINX Ingress Controller LTS can be installed using Helm 3.0 or later.
WarningF5 WAF for NGINX package based installation (previously NGINX App Protect WAF v4) is not supported whenreadOnlyRootFilesystemis enabled.
NGINX Ingress Controller supports the following versions of F5 WAF for NGINX:
| NIC Version | NAP-WAF Version | Config Manager | Enforcer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5.0 | 37.0+5.635.1 | 5.13.1 | 5.13.1 |
| 5.4.3 | 37.0+5.635.1 | 5.13.1 | 5.13.1 |
| 5.3.4 | 35+5.527.0 | 5.11.2 | 5.11.2 |
| 5.2.1 | 35+5.527.0 | 5.9.0 | 5.9.0 |
| 5.1.1 | 35+5.498 | 5.8.0 | 5.8.0 |
| 5.0.0 | 34+5.342 | 5.6.0 | 5.6.0 |
| 4.0.1 | 33+5.264 | 5.5.0 | 5.5.0 |
| 3.7.2 | 32+5.1 | 5.3.0 | 5.3.0 |
| 3.6.2 | 32+5.48 | 5.2.0 | 5.2.0 |