NGINX 1.29.6 and 1.29.7 introduce significant updates and mark the first in a planned series to add capabilities to NGINX Open Source formerly limited to NGINX Plus. With updates to core runtime behavior and network support, these releases ensure that NGINX can continue to meet the needs of modern applications and AI workloads.
Highlights of these releases include:
- Open sourced sticky cookie session persistence
- Upstream proxy connections now default to HTTP/1.1 and no longer require explicitly configured keep-alives and connection headers
- Multipath TCP (MPTCP) support
- Several important security-related fixes
Together, these changes expand what operators can do with NGINX Open Source while simplifying configurations for optimizing performance to proxied services.
Open Sourced Sticky Cookies for Session Persistence
NGINX 1.29.6 adds support for cookie-based session persistence to open source, a capability previously only available commercially in NGINX Plus.
Sticky cookies allow NGINX to issue a session cookie and route subsequent requests from that client to the same upstream server. Unlike IP-based affinity methods, cookie persistence avoids issues introduced by NAT, mobile networks, carrier-grade proxies, or large-scale edge routing.
Example configuration:
upstream backend {
server backend1.example.com;
server backend2.example.com;
sticky cookie srv_id expires=1h domain=.example.com path=/;
}
Why it matters:
- Many production workloads still rely on in-memory session state
- Stateless design is not always immediately achievable
- Cookie-based persistence provides deterministic routing without requiring external session stores or application refactoring
Who it helps:
- E-commerce platforms maintaining transactional continuity
- Real-time dashboards and WebSocket applications
- Enterprises modernizing legacy stateful services
- Platform teams that need controlled session affinity in Kubernetes or VM environments
Default to HTTP/1.1 for Upstream Connections
NGINX 1.29.7 now defaults to HTTP/1.1 when proxying to upstreams.
HTTP/1.1 enables persistent upstream connections via keep-alives, chunked transfer encoding, and broader compatibility with modern application frameworks. Learn more about this change in our dedicated post on this topic.
Why it matters:
- Operators no longer need to explicitly configure HTTP/1.1, enable keep-alives and remove connection headers when routing traffic to upstreams
- Backend interoperability issues are reduced
- Default behavior aligns with modern framework expectations
Who it helps:
- Teams running modern frameworks that expect persistent connections
- Operators troubleshooting inconsistent upstream behavior
- Platform teams standardizing proxy behavior across environments
Multipath TCP (MPTCP) Support
NGINX 1.29.7 adds support for Multipath TCP (MPTCP). MPTCP allows a single TCP connection to use multiple network paths simultaneously, improving resilience and throughput in multi-homed or heterogeneous network environments.
Why it matters:
- Applications benefit from improved reliability without modification
- Transport-layer resilience increases as kernel-level MPTCP support matures
- Infrastructure performance improves across heterogeneous networks
Who it helps:
- Edge and mobile deployments with variable connectivity
- Multi-interface servers in high-availability configurations
- Infrastructure teams optimizing network resilience
A Deliberate Direction
NGINX 1.29.6 and 1.29.7 represent our continued effort to align NGINX Open Source more closely with modern application requirements. Over the next several months, we will continue to release more commercial features as open source and, while subject to change, we have made these and other plans public in our new Github roadmap.
Capabilities made available in NGINX 1.29.6 and 1.29.7, along with several bug and security fixes, mean that NGINX Open Source is now even more performant and production-ready. We encourage you to upgrade to NGINX 1.29.7 to take advantage of all the new features and ensure that you’re protected by all the latest security patches.
View all updates and fixes in GitHub:
1.29.6 -> https://github.com/nginx/nginx/releases/tag/release-1.29.6
1.29.7 -> https://github.com/nginx/nginx/releases/tag/release-1.29.7
Download NGINX and view the full changelog.
