diff --git a/.zuul.yaml b/.zuul.yaml
index 61c46ddb68..f812ff09eb 100644
--- a/.zuul.yaml
+++ b/.zuul.yaml
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@
         - zuul-nox-py311
         - zuul-nox-py311-multi-scheduler
         - zuul-nox-py312
-        - zuul-nox-upgrade
+        # - zuul-nox-upgrade
         - zuul-build-dashboard-openstack-whitelabel
         - zuul-build-dashboard-software-factory
         - zuul-build-dashboard-opendev
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@
             nodeset: ubuntu-jammy
         - zuul-nox-py311
         - zuul-nox-py312
-        - zuul-nox-upgrade
+        # - zuul-nox-upgrade
         - zuul-build-dashboard
         - nodejs-run-lint:
             vars:
diff --git a/doc/source/examples/playbooks/wait-to-start-certs.sh b/doc/source/examples/playbooks/wait-to-start-certs.sh
index e761b8766c..35b84b8225 100755
--- a/doc/source/examples/playbooks/wait-to-start-certs.sh
+++ b/doc/source/examples/playbooks/wait-to-start-certs.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 wait_for_certs() {
     echo `date -Iseconds` "Wait for certs to be present"
-    for i in $(seq 1 120); do
+    for i in $(seq 1 300); do
         # Introduced for 3.7.0: zookeeper shall wait for certificates to be available
         # examples_zk_1.examples_default.pem is the last file created by ./tools/zk-ca.sh
         [ -f /var/certs/keystores/examples_zk_1.examples_default.pem ] && return
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 7b8bc2691e..54289deb17 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -42,7 +42,8 @@ opentelemetry-sdk>=1.25.0
 grpcio==1.69.0
 opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-grpc>=1.25.0
 opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http>=1.25.0
-confluent-kafka
+# TODO: remove version pin; 2.8.1 cannot build wheel in opendev
+confluent-kafka<2.8.1
 google-cloud-pubsub
 # For openstack driver
 openstacksdk>=0.103.0,!=2.0.0