diff --git a/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/action.yml b/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/action.yml
index 3139cfe..9cda8f4 100644
--- a/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/action.yml
@@ -39,15 +39,15 @@ inputs:
   version:
     description: "The chart-testing version to install"
     required: false
-    default: v3.11.0
+    default: v3.12.0
   yamllint_version:
     description: "The yamllint version to install"
     required: false
-    default: '1.33.0'
+    default: '1.35.1'
   yamale_version:
     description:  "The yamale version to install"
     required: false
-    default: '4.0.4'
+    default: '6.0.0'
 runs:
   using: composite
   steps:
diff --git a/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/ct.sh b/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/ct.sh
index e03eb65..9873ec1 100755
--- a/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/ct.sh
+++ b/.github/actions/chart-testing-action/ct.sh
@@ -35,9 +35,9 @@ set -o errexit
 set -o nounset
 set -o pipefail
 
-DEFAULT_CHART_TESTING_VERSION=v3.11.0
-DEFAULT_YAMLLINT_VERSION=1.33.0
-DEFAULT_YAMALE_VERSION=4.0.4
+DEFAULT_CHART_TESTING_VERSION=v3.12.0
+DEFAULT_YAMLLINT_VERSION=1.35.1
+DEFAULT_YAMALE_VERSION=6.0.0
 
 ARCH=$(uname -m)
 case $ARCH in
@@ -131,18 +131,24 @@ install_chart_testing() {
         tar -xzf ct.tar.gz -C "$cache_dir"
         rm -f ct.tar.gz
 
+        # if uv (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) is not installed, install it
+        if ! command -v uv &> /dev/null; then
+            echo 'Installing uv...'
+            curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
+        fi
+
         echo 'Creating virtual Python environment...'
-        python3 -m venv "$venv_dir"
+        uv venv "$venv_dir"
 
         echo 'Activating virtual environment...'
         # shellcheck disable=SC1090
         source "$venv_dir/bin/activate"
 
         echo 'Installing yamllint...'
-        pip3 install "yamllint==${yamllint_version}"
+        uv pip install "yamllint==${yamllint_version}"
 
         echo 'Installing Yamale...'
-        pip3 install "yamale==${yamale_version}"
+        uv pip install "yamale==${yamale_version}"
     fi
 
     # https://github.com/helm/chart-testing-action/issues/62
diff --git a/.github/actions/tune-runner-vm/action.yml b/.github/actions/tune-runner-vm/action.yml
index 402b920..ab0f657 100644
--- a/.github/actions/tune-runner-vm/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/tune-runner-vm/action.yml
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ runs:
             # tune filesystem mount options, https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
             # commit=999999, effectively disables automatic syncing to disk (default is every 5 seconds)
             # nobarrier/barrier=0, loosen data consistency on system crash (no negative impact to empheral CI nodes)
-            sudo mount -o remount,nodiscard,commit=999999,barrier=0 /
-            sudo mount -o remount,nodiscard,commit=999999,barrier=0 /mnt
+            sudo mount -o remount,nodiscard,commit=999999,barrier=0 / || true
+            sudo mount -o remount,nodiscard,commit=999999,barrier=0 /mnt || true
             # disable discard/trim at device level since remount with nodiscard doesn't seem to be effective
             # https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-ide/msg52562.html
             for i in /sys/block/sd*/queue/discard_max_bytes; do
@@ -77,12 +77,6 @@ runs:
             # stop Azure Linux agent to save RAM
             sudo systemctl stop walinuxagent.service || true
           
-            # enable docker experimental mode which is
-            # required for using "docker build --squash" / "-Ddocker.squash=true"
-            daemon_json="$(sudo cat /etc/docker/daemon.json  | jq '.experimental = true')"
-            echo "$daemon_json" | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json
-            # restart docker daemon
-            sudo systemctl restart docker
             echo '::endgroup::'
 
             # show memory
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pulsar-helm-chart-ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/pulsar-helm-chart-ci.yaml
index 7bbb2b1..13aade0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pulsar-helm-chart-ci.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pulsar-helm-chart-ci.yaml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ concurrency:
 jobs:
   preconditions:
     name: Preconditions
-    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     if: (github.event_name != 'schedule') || (github.repository == 'apache/pulsar-helm-chart')
     outputs:
       docs_only: ${{ steps.check_changes.outputs.docs_only }}
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ jobs:
   license-check:
     needs: preconditions
     name: License Check
-    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     timeout-minutes: 10
     if: ${{ needs.preconditions.outputs.docs_only != 'true' }}
     steps:
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ jobs:
   ct-lint:
     needs: ['preconditions', 'license-check']
     name: chart-testing lint
-    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     timeout-minutes: 45
     if: ${{ needs.preconditions.outputs.docs_only != 'true' }}
     steps:
@@ -107,13 +107,17 @@ jobs:
         if: ${{ steps.check_changes.outputs.docs_only != 'true' }}
         uses: azure/setup-helm@v4
         with:
-          version: v3.14.4
+          version: v3.16.4
 
       - name: Set up Python
         if: ${{ steps.check_changes.outputs.docs_only != 'true' }}
         uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
-          python-version: '3.9'
+          python-version: '3.12'
+
+      - name: Install uv, a fast modern package manager for Python
+        if: ${{ steps.check_changes.outputs.docs_only != 'true' }}
+        run: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
 
       - name: Set up chart-testing
         if: ${{ steps.check_changes.outputs.docs_only != 'true' }}
@@ -176,19 +180,20 @@ jobs:
 
   install-chart-tests:
     name: ${{ matrix.testScenario.name }} - k8s ${{ matrix.k8sVersion.version }} - ${{ matrix.testScenario.type || 'install' }}
-    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     timeout-minutes: ${{ matrix.testScenario.timeout || 45 }}
     needs: ['preconditions', 'ct-lint']
     if: ${{ needs.preconditions.outputs.docs_only != 'true' }}
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        # see https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.22.0 for the list of supported k8s versions for kind 0.22.0
+        # see https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/tag/v0.27.0 for the list of supported k8s versions for kind 0.27.0
+        # docker images are available at https://hub.docker.com/r/kindest/node/tags
         k8sVersion:
           - version: "1.23.17"
             kind_image_tag: v1.23.17@sha256:14d0a9a892b943866d7e6be119a06871291c517d279aedb816a4b4bc0ec0a5b3
-          - version: "1.29.2"
-            kind_image_tag: v1.29.2@sha256:51a1434a5397193442f0be2a297b488b6c919ce8a3931be0ce822606ea5ca245
+          - version: "1.32.2"
+            kind_image_tag: v1.32.2@sha256:f226345927d7e348497136874b6d207e0b32cc52154ad8323129352923a3142f
         testScenario:
           - name: Upgrade latest released version
             values_file: .ci/clusters/values-upgrade.yaml
@@ -333,7 +338,7 @@ jobs:
   pulsar-helm-chart-ci-checks-completed:
     name: "CI checks completed"
     if: ${{ always() && ((github.event_name != 'schedule') || (github.repository == 'apache/pulsar-helm-chart')) }}
-    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
     timeout-minutes: 10
     needs: [
       'preconditions',
diff --git a/hack/common.sh b/hack/common.sh
index 5f6d6e4..d6c0f11 100755
--- a/hack/common.sh
+++ b/hack/common.sh
@@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ fi
 
 OUTPUT=${PULSAR_CHART_HOME}/output
 OUTPUT_BIN=${OUTPUT}/bin
-: "${KUBECTL_VERSION:=1.23.17}"
+: "${KUBECTL_VERSION:=1.28.15}"
 KUBECTL_BIN=$OUTPUT_BIN/kubectl
 HELM_BIN=$OUTPUT_BIN/helm
-: "${HELM_VERSION:=3.14.4}"
-: "${KIND_VERSION:=0.22.0}"
+: "${HELM_VERSION:=3.16.4}"
+: "${KIND_VERSION:=0.27.0}"
 KIND_BIN=$OUTPUT_BIN/kind
 CR_BIN=$OUTPUT_BIN/cr
-: "${CR_VERSION:=1.6.0}"
+: "${CR_VERSION:=1.7.0}"
 KUBECONFORM_BIN=$OUTPUT_BIN/kubeconform
 : "${KUBECONFORM_VERSION:=0.6.7}"
 export PATH="$OUTPUT_BIN:$PATH"