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Amazon EMR introduces Long Term Support with Apache Spark 4.1

Published
September 22, 2026
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/09/amazon-emr-long-term-support-spark-4-1/

Amazon EMR Long Term Support (LTS) Releases

Amazon EMR introduces Long Term Support (LTS) releases, starting with emr-spark-8.1.0 and Apache Spark 4.1. LTS provides 36 months of support for designated versions of the AWS runtime for Apache Spark, including critical and high severity security, bug, and data-corruption fixes.

New Features

  • Apache Iceberg v3 Support: Full support for Apache Iceberg v3, including geospatial, high-precision timestamp, and schema-evolution capabilities.
  • Cross-Account Catalogs: Spark SQL queries can reference catalogs by name, including cross-account and Amazon S3 Tables catalogs, automatically detecting Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, and Apache Hudi table formats.
  • Fine-Grained Access Control: Expanded fine-grained access control for more Apache Iceberg operations and Delta Lake VACUUM operation, allowing column-level and row-level permissions for a wider set of jobs.
  • Spark Connect Endpoints: Amazon EMR on EKS clusters now support Spark Connect endpoints with token-based authentication.

What to do

  • Create an EMR cluster or application with emr-spark-8.1.0 from the AWS Management Console.
  • Use the Apache Spark Upgrade Agent for Amazon EMR to move existing applications to the release.

Source: AWS release notes




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