Sitecore 10.4 was released on 30th April 2024 with bunch of really cool new features. Especially introducing support for SQL Server 2022 was very welcomed and also latest AKS support. On 29th July 2024 is was slightly updated with container images for ltsc2019 and ltsc2022.

I was eagerly waiting what Sitecore will come up with for first Update of 10.4 release -> 10.4.1. I thought that it will be just another “security” release to update referenced nuget packages. How off I was when it was finally released without big fanfares on 25th June 2025… 🥳🍾

New features / Improvements

  • Solr 8.11.2 that has reached end of life was replaced by latest Solr 9.8.1
  • Sitecore Identity Server 8.0.16 was introduced and is used instead of former version 7.1.11
    • Identity Server 8.0.16 includes the update of .NET 6 to 8
  • Indirectly Sitecore released also Sitecore Publishing Service 8.0.3 on the same date
    • Similarly to Identity Server, it updated .NET 6 to .NET 8 and also The Sitecore Publishing Service now requires encrypted communication with SQL Server by default
    • Also it now changes connection to Application Insights which now expects connection string instead of Instrumentation Key like it was before similarly to big brother XM/XP

Breaking changes

  • One of the consequences of introducing Sitecore Identity Server 8 together with this release is encrypted communication with SQL Server. Also database schema change is needed therefore you need to run upgrade script Sitecore XP 10.4.1 Update Release Installation Guide.
  • Instrumentation key is not used anymore for Application Insights. Instead Connection string is expected.
  • Deploying with a new Solr container image released with Sitecore XP 10.4.1 also requires using the corresponding new Sitecore 10.4 Container Deployment Package. 

Fixes

Useful links

Release notes and all other information about this release can be found on usual place -> https://developers.sitecore.com/downloads/Sitecore_Experience_Platform/104/Sitecore_Experience_Platform_104_Update1

Nuget feed was updated with new versions -> https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-packages/package/nuget/Sitecore.Kernel/10.4.1

Also container tags have been updated: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sitecore/docker-images/refs/heads/master/tags/sitecore-tags.md

Don’t forget Identity Server has a new tagging logic for container images 🙂 You won’t find it under id8 following previous pattern of id6 or id7. Now it’s following logic that other tags have. It’s simply “sitecore-identity” now 🙂

Happy sitecoring with new release!