The FRED team is proud to announce new public release 2026.1. New version contains two major changes - migration to Debian 12 and database upgrade to PostgreSQL 17. We've also completed the dockerization of the Messenger, Secretary, and Fileman and plan on adding other services.

Visit the Get FRED page, with the latest versions of packages in the Install binaries section.

In addition to the public release, a new version of FRED Demo image is available, which has pre-installed newest version of the registry and, in addition, the previously introduced new version of the DNSSEC automation tool AKM.

The demo image is available to download here

Development highlights

Messenger, secretary and fileman dockerization

We are continuing with our strategy of migrating everything to Docker. As part of this effort we recently successfully dockerized secretary, messenger and fileman marking a key milestone toward more consistent and maintainable deployments.

Building on this progress, the plan is to continue dockerizing additional packages to improve portability, scalability, and operational efficiency across environments.

Migration to Debian 12

Debian’s more conservative release cycle and focus on stability make it better suited for server deployments. Technically, this is a straightforward transition with minimal changes to configurations or service management, as the core components remain largely the same and it will result in the unification of the operational environment across infrastructure.

Future public releases will be based on Debian as well, so registries operating FRED are advised to start preparing migration plan as well in order to adapt these changes efficiently.

Upgrade to PostgreSQL17

The latest FRED release now requires PostgreSQL 17, which offers improved performance, better query handling, and more robust database management.

EPPIC 3.1.0

The CZ.NIC Association released a new version of EPPIC on July 2, 2025. Compared to the previous version, new commands have been added, the behavior of existing commands has been improved (in a backward-compatible way), and text errors have been fixed.

Session management in EPPIC 3.1.0 has been significantly improved to better align with the EPP protocol. A new epp-login command now allows users to specify full login parameters (like newPW, lang, extURI, and clTRID), offering more control than the previous simplified login approach. Support for the fred-client tool officially ended in April last year. It had served as the standard interface for communicating with the Czech domain registry FRED. A new client eppic is built on the modern Python library fred-epplib, which is significantly easier to integrate into existing systems and workflows compared to its predecessor.

More in our blog post https://en.blog.nic.cz/2025/07/17/eppic-3-1-0-is-released/

Future plans

GlobalBlock integration

Along with version 2.49.0, FRED added support for the GlobalBlock, a service from Brand Safety Alliance, allowing domain name registration blocking across multiple TLDs. Registries using FRED can now automate these blocks using this BSAPP extension. The extension is currently fully functional and available to members with paid support, and we plan to add it into the future public release.