What’s New in Nacos 2.2.0? Key Features, Plugins, and Fixes Explained

Nacos is a dynamic service discovery, configuration and service management platform. Version 2.2 has been officially released.

The community released a 2.2.0‑BETA in October; after more than a month of feedback, no critical core issues were found, and the focus shifted to database plugin optimizations and minor bug fixes.

Consequently, the BETA2 version was skipped and the GA 2.2.0 was launched directly.

This version introduces many new features, briefly outlined below:

1. Remove Redundant Code

Nacos 2.2.0 deletes old redundant code, including the 1.X mode service discovery and dual‑write related code. After removal, Nacos 2.2.0 cannot be upgraded from a 1.X server, only from at least version 2.0.0. This change does not affect compatibility with 1.X clients, which can still connect to the 2.2.0 server.

2. Add Plugin Support

Nacos 2.2.0 adds several new plugins, such as data source plugins, custom environment variable plugins, and rate‑limiting control plugins.

Rate Limiting Plugin – Refactored from the early open‑source summer project, this plugin allows users to write custom rate‑limiting logic to protect Nacos servers under high pressure.

Custom Environment Variable Plugin – Addresses community demand for encrypted database passwords by enabling special handling of configurations at startup, such as decrypting encrypted passwords.

Data Source Plugin – Starting from version 2.2.0, Nacos can inject multiple data sources via SPI, allowing the platform to support additional databases.

Additionally, 2.2.0 enhances the previously beta‑listed trace plugin and batch registration, making them easier to use.

3. Change List

Features

Support batch registration and deregistration of services

Add v2 OpenAPI for Nacos 2.0

Introduce data source plugin

Add data trace plugin

Integrate Prometheus service discovery (Prometheus HTTP SD)

Provide LDAP authentication plugin example

Add LDAP identity authentication

Refactoring

Remove 1.x naming and redundant code

Optimize selectors

Make server automatically stop on startup errors

Improve fuzzy query

Enhance data source plugin

Add isEmpty check for external data sources

Change NacosApplicationListener method visibility to default

Retain query conditions after returning from configuration list page

Retain query conditions after returning from service list page

Refactor rate‑limiting module into a plugin

Bug Fixes

Fix group_id length inconsistency across tables

Fix inability to create bean ldapAuthenticationProvider

Fix Prometheus metric instance creation error

Fix base64 decoding error of token.secret.key in authentication plugin

Fix namespace list issue

Fix client worker thread null‑pointer check order

Fix health check error after modifying some instances to HTTP

Fix incorrect selection when all instance weights are zero

Fix console configuration query button not adapting to browser width

Fix service metadata cleanup logic causing deregistration failure

Dependency Upgrade

Upgrade UI dependencies to address related vulnerabilities