# Database 8.1.1 Release Notes

February 9, 2026  |  **[Download](https://aerospike.com/download/)**

## New in this version

The 8.1.1 release introduces improvements to security and governance, developer experience, performance, and operational control — all designed for teams building and operating real-time systems at scale.

### Security and governance

**Data masking** – protects sensitive information by replacing original values with transformed, non-identifiable data, ensuring it remains usable for testing and development while preventing unauthorized access.

-   [Data masking overview](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/learn/security/data-masking/)
-   [Data masking Quickstart](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/learn/tutorials/quick-start-data-masking/)

### Developer experience

**Preview: Path expressions** – enable granular querying and indexing for nested [List](https://aerospike.com/docs/develop/data-types/collections/list/) and [Map](https://aerospike.com/docs/develop/data-types/collections/map/) structures using contextual [expressions](https://aerospike.com/docs/develop/expressions/path).

### Performance enhancements

**[XDR recovery](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/learn/architecture/xdr/#recovery-mode)** – Improved XDR recovery performance by parallelising recovery.

### Operational control

-   **Preview: [YAML configuration file](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/manage/database/as-config/#yaml-configuration)** – YAML configuration support is a preview feature that loads an Aerospike config file defined using YAML.
-   **[Modified read-touch generation](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/config/#namespace__default-read-touch-ttl-pct)** - Read-touch operations (which extend a record’s TTL based on `readTouchTtlPercent`) no longer advance the record generation counter.

## Upgrade instructions

You can upgrade directly to Database 8.1.1 from releases 7.1.0.x through 8.1.0.x.

-   For upgrade instructions, see [Upgrade or repair an Aerospike server](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/install/upgrade).
-   For special upgrade instructions, see [Special upgrades and downgrades](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/advanced/special-upgrades).

## Configuration updates

| Item | Action | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [`recovery-threads`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/config#xdr__recovery-threads) | added | configures the number of threads per datacenter (1-32) for use in parallel recovery. |

## Info command updates

| Item | Action | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [`release`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/tools/asadm/live-mode/#release) | added | consolidates legacy commands to return server release information in a single command |
| [`masking`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#masking) | added | adds, deletes, or changes the masking function to be applied for a given path |
| [`masking-show`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#masking-show) | added | returns all masking rules |
| [`build_arch`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#build_arch) | deprecated | use [`release`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#release) instead |
| [`build_ee_sha`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#build_ee_sha) | deprecated | use [`release`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#release) instead |
| [`build_os`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#build_os) | deprecated | use [`release`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#release) instead |
| [`build_sha`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#build_sha) | deprecated | use [`release`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#release) instead |
| [`build_time`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#build_time) | deprecated |  |
| [`edition`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#edition) | deprecated | use [`release`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#release) instead |
| [`version`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#version) | deprecated | use [`release`](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/info#release) instead |

### Server log updates

| Message | Action | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `permitted: masking rule added` | added | Audit log entry for successfully adding a masking rule. |
| `permitted: masking rule removed` | added | Audit log entry for successfully removing a masking rule. |
| `role violation: unauthorized masking rule operation` | added | Audit log entry for an unauthorized attempt to modify a masking rule. |

## Tools updates

-   `add diff` deprecated in Tools 12.0.2. Use `diff files` instead.
-   **Admin port visual cue** – When connecting `asadm` to a single node via the admin port, the `Admin` prompt is displayed in uppercase letters to indicate that the admin port is in use. For example: `ADMIN>` or `ADMIN+>`

Aerospike tools 12.1.0 is required for some of the features in Database 8.1.1. See [Aerospike Tools release notes](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/tools/release-notes) for more information.

## Client/server feature compatibility

For a complete list of client features and the server versions that support them, see the [Client Matrix](https://aerospike.com/docs/develop/client-matrix).

### Compatible client versions

For full feature access in Database 8.1.1:

-   Java Client: 9.3.0
-   Python Client: 19.0.0
-   C# Client: 8.3.0
-   C Client: 7.3.0
-   Go Client: 8.6.0
-   Node.js: 6.6.0
-   Rust: 2.1.0

## Compatible connector versions

-   Trino connector 1.2.0 or later
-   Spark connector 3.1.1 or later

## Platform updates

See [Platform support and compatibility](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/platform-support) for all currently supported platforms.

## Product lifecycle updates

Database 8.1.1 is a generally available (GA) minor release. Support lifetimes are defined at the major version level, and minor releases do not extend the major version EOL. Aerospike provides bug fixes and security patches on the latest minor release of each supported major version; earlier minor releases stop receiving patches when a newer minor version becomes available.

See [Aerospike Database versioning and releases](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/platform-support) and [product stages](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/product-stages) for details.

## Known issues

See [Database known issues reference](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/reference/issues?search=8.1.1.0) for details.

## Complete list of changes

| ID | Description |
| --- | --- |
| AER-6844 | (INFO) Added ‘release’ info command. |
| AER-6847 | (PACKAGING) Add support for Debian 13. |
| AER-6848 | (PACKAGING) Improve performance of build process. |
| AER-6853 | (SECONDARY INDEX) Reject sindex on expression creation when the expression’s result doesn’t match index parameters. |
| AER-6854 | (PACKAGING) Remove support for Debian 11. |
| AER-6855 | (XDR) Improved XDR recovery performance by parallelising recovery. |
| AER-6857 | (TRANSACTIONS) Introduced data-masking features. |
| AER-6859 | (PACKAGING) Added RHEL 10 support - removes support for OpenSSL version prior to 1.1.0. |
| AER-6861 | (CONFIGURATION) Added experimental support for YAML configurations with JSON-schema validation. |
| AER-6868 | (XDR) Improve forward compatibility by removing the deprecated ‘features’ command from the XDR client. |
| AER-6875 | (SERVER) Add version limit in the feature key expired warning message. |
| AER-6876 | (CDT) Introduced path expressions. |
| AER-6877 | (XDR) Add assertion in XDR to validate total in progress counter. |