Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch allows you to upgrade the version or kernel of your Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch cluster. This ensures that your business is up-to-date. This topic describes how to upgrade the version of an Elasticsearch cluster. This topic also describes the limits on versions that can be upgraded and the supported cluster restart modes.

Limits on cluster versions

The following table lists limits on the cluster versions that can be upgraded.
Source version Destination version
V5.5.3 V5.6.16
V5.6.16 V6.3.2
V6.3.2 V6.7.0
Notice If the version of your Elasticsearch cluster does not meet the preceding requirements, you cannot directly upgrade the version. We recommend that you cancel the subscription of or release the cluster and purchase a cluster of the desired version.

Cluster restart modes

When you upgrade the version or kernel of your cluster, the system restarts the cluster. The following table describes the restart modes that are provided by Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch.
Restart mode Principle Risk and recommendation Scenario
Blue-green restart The system adds nodes of a later version to the cluster, migrates data stored on original nodes to the added nodes, and removes the original nodes from the cluster.
  • An ongoing upgrade cannot be canceled. During the upgrade, you can read data from or write data to your cluster, but other operations on the cluster are not supported. Therefore, we recommend that you perform an upgrade during off-peak hours.
  • After the upgrade, the IP addresses of the nodes in the cluster are changed. If you have specified the IP addresses in the configuration file of the cluster or in the code that enables clients to access the cluster, update the configuration file or code after the upgrade.
  • V5.5.3 to V5.6.16
  • V6.3.2 to V6.7.0
  • Kernel upgrades
Full restart The system disables all nodes in the cluster and restarts the cluster. During an upgrade, the system installs a TLS certificate on your cluster. This may interrupt your services but does not cause data loss. The upgrade duration depends on the specifications of the cluster and the volume of data stored on the cluster. We recommend that you plan the upgrade in advance.
Note A full restart does not change the IP addresses of the nodes in the cluster. Therefore, you do not need to update the IP addresses.
V5.6.16 to V6.3.2

Procedure

  1. Perform a check before an upgrade.
    Before you upgrade the version or kernel of your cluster, complete the required manual checks. In addition, check the cluster status and configuration compatibility. For more information, see Perform a check before a version upgrade.
    Note
    • Before you upgrade the version or kernel of your cluster, you must complete the required manual checks. We recommend that you also check the cluster status and configuration compatibility in advance. You can also trigger the system to check cluster status and configuration compatibility during the upgrade process. In this case, if an exception is detected, you must handle the exception as prompted and perform the check again.
    • Configuration compatibility checks are required for clusters whose major versions need to be upgraded. For example, if you want to upgrade the version of a cluster from V5.X to V6.X, you need to perform a configuration compatibility check.
  2. Create a snapshot to back up data stored on the cluster.
    You must create a snapshot to back up data during the last hour before you upgrade the version or kernel of your cluster. For more information about data backup by using a snapshot, see Data backup overview. If no snapshots are created during the last hour before you upgrade the version or kernel of your cluster, you must manually create a snapshot to back up data during the upgrade.
  3. Upgrade the version or kernel of the cluster.
    After you upgrade the version or kernel of the cluster, the system restarts the cluster. The time that is required for the restart depends on the specifications of the cluster, the volume of data stored on the cluster, and the data structure. In most cases, the restart requires about 1 hour.
    Notice The system selects an appropriate restart mode based on the scenario in which you upgrade the version or kernel of your cluster. The restart may affect the services of your cluster. For more information, see Cluster restart modes.

Upgrade the version or kernel of a cluster

  1. Log on to the 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. In the left-side navigation pane, click Elasticsearch Clusters. 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 Upgrade dialog box, select the desired version.
    Notice A kernel upgrade does not change the version of the cluster. The entry point of a kernel upgrade is displayed only after the system detects a new kernel version. After the kernel is upgraded, the entry point is no longer displayed. For more information about the new features that are provided by the upgraded kernel, see AliES release notes.
  6. Click Precheck.
    Then, the system checks the configuration compatibility, status, snapshots, and basic resources of the cluster. Upgrade precheck
    If exceptions are detected, handle the exceptions as prompted after the check is complete.
    • 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 Active 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 the cluster has created snapshots during the last hour before the upgrade. If the cluster has not created snapshots during the last hour, you can click Create Snapshots in the Upgrade dialog box to trigger snapshot creation.
      Notice If the upgrade fails, you can restore data from the snapshots. The time that is required to create snapshots 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 precheck, 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.

FAQ