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This document is a step by step procedure for upgrading from ScyllaDB 5.0 to ScyllaDB 5.1, and rollback to version 5.0 if required.
This guide covers upgrading Scylla on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7/8, CentOS 7/8, Debian 10 and Ubuntu 20.04. It also applies when using ScyllaDB official image on EC2, GCP, or Azure; the image is based on Ubuntu 20.04.
See OS Support by Platform and Version for information about supported versions.
A ScyllaDB upgrade is a rolling procedure which does not require full cluster shutdown. For each of the nodes in the cluster, serially (i.e. one node at a time), you will:
Check that the cluster’s schema is synchronized
Drain the node and backup the data
Backup the configuration file
Stop ScyllaDB
Download and install new ScyllaDB packages
Start ScyllaDB
Validate that the upgrade was successful
Apply the following procedure serially on each node. Do not move to the next node before validating that the node you upgraded is up and running the new version.
During the rolling upgrade, it is highly recommended:
Not to use the new 5.1 features
Not to run administration functions, like repairs, refresh, rebuild or add or remove nodes. See sctool for suspending ScyllaDB Manager (only available for ScyllaDB Enterprise) scheduled or running repairs.
Not to apply schema changes
Note
Before upgrading, make sure to use the latest ScyllaDB Monitoring stack.
Make sure that all nodes have the schema synchronized before upgrade. The upgrade procedure will fail if there is a schema disagreement between nodes.
nodetool describecluster
Before any major procedure, like an upgrade, it is recommended to backup all the data to an external device. In Scylla, backup is done using the nodetool snapshot command. For each node in the cluster, run the following command:
nodetool drain
nodetool snapshot
Take note of the directory name that nodetool gives you, and copy all the directories having that name under /var/lib/scylla to a backup device.
When the upgrade is completed on all nodes, remove the snapshot with the nodetool clearsnapshot -t <snapshot> command to prevent running out of space.
Back up the scylla.yaml configuration file and the ScyllaDB packages
in case you need to rollback the upgrade.
sudo cp -a /etc/scylla/scylla.yaml /etc/scylla/scylla.yaml.backup
sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list.d/scylla.list ~/scylla.list-backup
sudo cp -a /etc/scylla/scylla.yaml /etc/scylla/scylla.yaml.backup
sudo cp /etc/yum.repos.d/scylla.repo ~/scylla.repo-backup
sudo service scylla-server stop
Before upgrading, check what version you are running now using dpkg -s scylla-server. You should use the same version as this version in case you want to rollback the upgrade. If you are not running a 5.0.x version, stop right here! This guide only covers 5.0.x to 5.1.y upgrades.
To upgrade ScyllaDB:
Install the new ScyllaDB version:
sudo apt-get clean all sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade scylla
Answer ‘y’ to the first two questions.
Before upgrading, check what version you are running now using rpm -qa | grep scylla-server. You should use the same version as this version in case you want to rollback the upgrade. If you are not running a 5.0.x version, stop right here! This guide only covers 5.0.x to 5.1.y upgrades.
To upgrade ScyllaDB:
Update the ScyllaDB rpm repo to 5.1.
Install the new ScyllaDB version:
sudo yum clean all sudo yum update scylla\* -y
Note
If you are running a ScyllaDB official image (for EC2 AMI, GCP, or Azure), you need to:
Download and install the new ScyllaDB release for Ubuntu; see the Debian/Ubuntu tab above for instructions.
Update underlying OS packages.
See Upgrade ScyllaDB Image for details.
sudo service scylla-server start
Check cluster status with nodetool status and make sure all nodes, including the one you just upgraded, are in UN status.
Use curl -X GET "http://localhost:10000/storage_service/scylla_release_version" to check the ScyllaDB version. Validate that the version matches the one you upgraded to.
Check scylla-server log (by journalctl _COMM=scylla) and /var/log/syslog to validate there are no new errors in the log.
Check again after two minutes, to validate no new issues are introduced.
Once you are sure the node upgrade was successful, move to the next node in the cluster.
See ScyllaDB Metrics Update - ScyllaDB 5.0 to 5.1 for more information.
Due to performance improvements in version 5.1, your cluster’s existing nodes may use a different mode than the nodes created after the upgrade. Using different modes across one cluster is not recommended, so you should ensure that the same mode is used on all nodes. See Updating the Mode in perftune.yaml After a ScyllaDB Upgrade for instructions.
Note
Execute the following commands one node at the time, moving to the next node only after the rollback procedure completed successfully.
The following procedure describes a rollback from ScyllaDB 5.1.x to 5.0.y. Apply this procedure if an upgrade from 5.0 to 5.1 failed before completing on all nodes. Use this procedure only for nodes you upgraded to 5.1.
ScyllaDB rollback is a rolling procedure which does not require full cluster shutdown. For each of the nodes you rollback to 5.0, serially (i.e. one node at a time), you will:
Drain the node and stop Scylla
Retrieve the old ScyllaDB packages
Restore the configuration file
Reload systemd configuration
Restart ScyllaDB
Validate the rollback success
Apply the following procedure serially on each node. Do not move to the next node before validating that the rollback was successful and the node is up and running the old version.
nodetool drain
nodetool snapshot
sudo service scylla-server stop
Restore the 5.0 packages backed up during the upgrade.
sudo cp ~/scylla.list-backup /etc/apt/sources.list.d/scylla.list sudo chown root.root /etc/apt/sources.list.d/scylla.list sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/scylla.list
Install:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get remove scylla\* -y sudo apt-get install scylla
Answer ‘y’ to the first two questions.
Restore the 5.0 packages backed up during the upgrade.
sudo cp ~/scylla.repo-backup /etc/yum.repos.d/scylla.repo sudo chown root.root /etc/yum.repos.d/scylla.repo sudo chmod 644 /etc/yum.repos.d/scylla.repo
Install:
sudo yum clean all sudo rm -rf /var/cache/yum sudo yum downgrade scylla-\*cqlsh -y sudo yum remove scylla-\*cqlsh -y sudo yum downgrade scylla\* -y sudo yum install scylla -y
sudo rm -rf /etc/scylla/scylla.yaml
sudo cp /etc/scylla/scylla.yaml-backup /etc/scylla/scylla.yaml
You must reload the unit file if the systemd unit file is changed.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo service scylla-server start
Check the upgrade instructions above for validation. Once you are sure the node rollback is successful, move to the next node in the cluster.
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