Elasticsearch:Upgrade the version of a cluster

Limits on cluster versions

Cluster restart modes

Precautions

1. Breaking changes, minor changes, and deprecations may be involved after the upgrade. For more information, see Migration guide.

   Note

   If you upgrade your cluster to V8.9 or V8.15, breaking changes are involved. If you upgrade your cluster to an 8.X version other than V8.9 and V8.15, only minor changes are involved. For more information, see Migrating to 8.15 and Migrating to 8.9.

2. If you use Elasticsearch plug-ins, you must make sure that the version of each plug-in is compatible with the destination version. Otherwise, the plug-ins cannot work as expected.

3. If you use features such as Logstash, APM, Beats, Fleet/Elastic Agent, Elastic Security, and Enterprise Search, you must make sure that the features are compatible with the destination version.

4. Before you upgrade the version of your cluster, you must create a snapshot for the cluster to back up all data in the cluster. Once an upgrade failure occurs, you need to restore data from the snapshot.

5. Before you upgrade the version of your production cluster, we recommend that you perform such an upgrade in the test environment or on a test cluster.

6. We recommend that you upgrade the version of your production cluster during off-peak hours and do not create indexes during the upgrade.

7. A version upgrade involves a Kibana version change. Therefore, Kibana may be unavailable during the upgrade.

Upgrade an earlier version or the kernel

1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch console.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Elasticsearch Clusters.
3. Navigate to the desired cluster.
   1. In the top navigation bar, select the resource group to which the cluster belongs and the region where the cluster resides.
   2. On the Elasticsearch Clusters page, find the cluster and click its ID.

4. On the Basic Information page, click Update and Upgrade on the right side.

5. In the Update and Upgrade dialog box, configure the Operation Type and Destination Version parameters.

   Valid values for the Operation Type parameter:

   • Kernel Patch Update: The system upgrades the kernel of the cluster but does not upgrade the version of the cluster. Only Kernel-enhanced Edition clusters support this operation type. For information about the features in each kernel version, see AliES release notes.

     Note

     If the system detects that new kernel features are released, the A new kernel patch is available message appears on the right side of the Version parameter on the Basic Information page of a cluster. You can also click the message to upgrade the kernel of the cluster.

   • Elasticsearch Version Upgrade: The system upgrades the version of the cluster but does not upgrade the kernel of the cluster.

6. Click Upgrade Check. Then, the system checks the configuration compatibility, status, snapshots, and basic resources of the cluster.

   If exceptions are detected, handle the exceptions as prompted after the check is complete. Then, click Re-check. For more information, see Perform a check before a version upgrade.

   The following descriptions provide details of the upgrade check:

   • Configuration compatibility check

     The system checks whether the later version is compatible with all configurations in the earlier version, especially for major version upgrades, such as upgrades from V5.X to V6.X. If the cluster fails the check, the upgrade is terminated. In this case, modify the incompatible configurations based on the related instructions and perform the upgrade again. For more information, see Configuration compatibility check and Modify incompatible configurations.

   • Cluster status check

     The system checks whether the cluster is in the Normal state (indicated by the color green) and whether its load is normal. Before the check is performed or if the cluster fails the check, you can check whether the cluster load is normal based on the instructions provided in Cluster status check.

   • Snapshot check

     The system checks whether a snapshot is created for the cluster within the previous hour. If the upgrade fails, you can restore data from the snapshot.

     Note

     • If no snapshot is created for the cluster within the previous hour, you can click Manual Snapshot in the Update and Upgrade dialog box to trigger snapshot creation. For more information about snapshots, see Data backup overview.

     • The time that is required to create a snapshot depends on the volume of data stored on the cluster. If the Auto Snapshot feature is disabled for the cluster and the data volume is large, the time that is required to create the first snapshot is long.

7. After the cluster passes the check, click Upgrade.

   During the upgrade, you can view the upgrade progress in the Tasks dialog box. After the upgrade, you can view the cluster or kernel version on the Basic Information page.

Upgrade V8.X to the latest version

1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch console.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Elasticsearch Clusters.
3. Navigate to the desired cluster.
   1. In the top navigation bar, select the resource group to which the cluster belongs and the region where the cluster resides.
   2. On the Elasticsearch Clusters page, find the cluster and click its ID.

4. On the Basic Information page, click Update and Upgrade on the right side.

5. In the Version Selection step of the Update and Upgrade panel, configure the parameters.

   1. Select Elasticsearch Version Upgrade for Operation Type.

   2. Select the latest version for Destination Version. Only the latest version is available for Destination Version.

   3. Read the risk warning and select the I Have Read and Understand Preceding Risks check box.

   4. Click Next.

6. In the Upgrade Check step, perform the related operations.

   1. If no snapshot is created for the cluster within the previous hour, click Manual Backup to create a snapshot for the cluster.

   2. If the health status and basic resources of the cluster fail the check, perform a manual check based on the instructions in Perform a check before a version upgrade.

   3. Click Re-check. After all check items pass the check, click Next.

7. In the Plug-in Configuration step, configure plug-ins based on your business requirements and on-screen instructions.

   If Check Passed is displayed in the Plug-in Configuration section, plug-ins are configured.

8. Click Upgrade. In the message that appears, click OK.

   During the upgrade, a business jitter may occur due to node updates. Make sure that you perform a version upgrade during off-peak hours. A version upgrade includes the following stages:

   1. Phased change: After the phased change, confirm the cluster stability and check your business at the earliest opportunity. If an exception occurs, submit a ticket to contact Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch technical support to perform a rollback.

   2. Full change: If you confirm that the cluster is normal after the phased change, click Full Change to initiate a full change.

      After you initiate a full change, rollback is no longer supported.

FAQ

• How long is required to upgrade the version of an Elasticsearch cluster?

• Can I upgrade or downgrade the version of an Elasticsearch cluster?

• Are services affected when I upgrade the version of an Elasticsearch cluster?

• When I upgrade the configuration of an Elasticsearch cluster, the "UpgradeVersionMustFromConsole" error message is reported. What do I do?