Elasticsearch can usually be upgraded using a Rolling upgrade process so upgrading does not interrupt service. Rolling upgrades are supported:
- Between minor versions
- From 5.6 to 6.7
- From 6.7 to 7.0.1
Elasticsearch can read indices created in the previous major version. If you have indices created in 5.x or before, you must reindex or delete them before upgrading to 7.0.1. Elasticsearch nodes will fail to start if incompatible indices are present. Snapshots of 5.x or earlier indices cannot be restored to a 7.x cluster even if they were created by a 6.x cluster. For information about upgrading old indices, see Reindex to upgrade.
When upgrading to a new version of Elasticsearch, you need to upgrade each of the products in your Elastic Stack. For more information, see the Elastic Stack Installation and Upgrade Guide.
To upgrade directly to 7.0.1 from 6.6 or earlier, you must shut down the cluster, install 7.0.1, and restart. For more information, see Full cluster restart upgrade.
Preparing to upgrade
Before upgrading Elasticsearch:
-
Check the deprecation log to see if you are using
any deprecated features and update your code accordingly. By default,
deprecation warnings are logged when the log level is set to
WARN. - Review the breaking changes and make any necessary changes to your code and configuration for 7.0.1.
- If you use custom plugins, make sure compatible versions are available.
- Test upgrades in a dev environment before upgrading your production cluster.
- Back up your data! You must have a snapshot of your data to roll back to an earlier version.