Forbidden: updates to statefulset spec for fields other than 'replicas', 'template', and 'updateStrategy' are forbidden

I use io.fabric8.kubernetes-client, version 3.1.8 to do RollingUpdate of kubernetes resource. It is fine for Deployment. But I meet an exception for StatefulSet. But it is also fine if I use 'kubectl apply -f ***.yaml' for the StatefulSet.

Code to RollingUpdate Deployment:

public void createOrReplaceResourceByYaml(String namespace, KubernetesResource resource) {
  KubernetesClient client = k8sRestClient.newKubeClient();
  Deployment deployment = (Deployment) resource;
  logger.info(String.format("Create/Replace Deployment [%s] in namespace [%s].", ((Deployment) resource).getMetadata().getName(), namespace));
  NonNamespaceOperation<Deployment, DeploymentList, DoneableDeployment, ScalableResource<Deployment, DoneableDeployment>> deployments = client.extensions().deployments().inNamespace(namespace);
  Deployment result = deployments.createOrReplace(deployment);
  logger.info(String.format("Created/Replaced Deployment [%s].", result.getMetadata().getName()));
}

Code to RollingUpdate StatefulSet

public void createOrReplaceResourceByYaml(String namespace, KubernetesResource resource) {
  KubernetesClient client = k8sRestClient.newKubeClient();
  StatefulSet statefulSet = (StatefulSet) resource;
  logger.info(String.format("Create/Replace StatefulSet [%s] in namespace [%s].", statefulSet.getMetadata().getName(), namespace));
  NonNamespaceOperation<StatefulSet, StatefulSetList, DoneableStatefulSet, RollableScalableResource<StatefulSet, DoneableStatefulSet>> statefulSets = client.apps().statefulSets().inNamespace(namespace);
  StatefulSet result = statefulSets.createOrReplace(statefulSet);
  logger.info(String.format("Created/Replaced StatefulSet [%s].", result.getMetadata().getName()));
}

Exception when do RollingUpdate of StatefulSet

Failure executing: PUT at: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/apps/v1beta1/namespaces/itsma1/statefulsets/pro-rabbitmq. Message: StatefulSet.apps "pro-rabbitmq" is invalid: spec: Forbidden: updates to statefulset spec for fields other than 'replicas', 'template', and 'updateStrategy' are forbidden.. Received status: Status(apiVersion=v1, code=422, details=StatusDetails(causes=[StatusCause(field=spec, message=Forbidden: updates to statefulset spec for fields other than 'replicas', 'template', and 'updateStrategy' are forbidden., reason=FieldValueForbidden, additionalProperties={})], group=apps, kind=StatefulSet, name=pro-rabbitmq, retryAfterSeconds=null, uid=null, additionalProperties={}), kind=Status, message=StatefulSet.apps "pro-rabbitmq" is invalid: spec: Forbidden: updates to statefulset spec for fields other than 'replicas', 'template', and 'updateStrategy' are forbidden., metadata=ListMeta(resourceVersion=null, selfLink=null, additionalProperties={}), reason=Invalid, status=Failure, additionalProperties={}).

I am curious why the error happened and how to fix it.

You can try this to update the StatefulSet

client.apps().statefulSets().withName("repl1").rolling().withTimeout(5, TimeUnit.MINUTES).updateImage("");

If you want to only scale, you can try this

client.apps().statefulSets().withName("repl1").scale(5, true);