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Caution
You're viewing documentation for a previous version of ScyllaDB Open Source. Switch to the latest stable version.
This document describes a step-by-step procedure for upgrading from ScyllaDB 5.4 to ScyllaDB 6.0 and rollback to version 5.4 if necessary.
This guide covers upgrading ScyllaDB on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu. See OS Support by Platform and Version for information about supported versions.
It also applies when using ScyllaDB official image on EC2, GCP, or Azure.
Upgrade Your Driver
If you’re using a ScyllaDB driver, upgrade the driver before you upgrade ScyllaDB. The latest two versions of each driver are supported.
Upgrade ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack
If you’re using the ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack, verify that your Monitoring Stack version supports the ScyllaDB version to which you want to upgrade. See ScyllaDB Monitoring Stack Support Matrix.
We recommend upgrading the Monitoring Stack to the latest version.
Check Feature Updates
See the ScyllaDB Release Notes for the latest updates. The Release Notes are published at the ScyllaDB Community Forum.
Note
In ScyllaDB 6.0, Raft-based consistent schema management for new and existing deployments is enabled by default and cannot be disabled.
A ScyllaDB upgrade is a rolling procedure that 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 6.0 features.
Not to run administration functions, such as repairs, refresh, rebuild, or add or remove nodes.
Not to apply schema changes.
After the upgrade:
You may need to verify that Raft has been successfully initiated in your cluster.
You need to enable consistent topology updates.
See After Upgrading Every Node for details.
Make sure that all nodes have the schema synchronized before the 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 ScyllaDB, backup is performed 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 an external 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 scylla --version.
You should take note of the current version in case you want to rollback the upgrade.
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.
Update the ScyllaDB rpm repo to 6.0.
Install the new ScyllaDB version:
sudo yum clean all sudo yum update scylla\* -y
If you’re using the ScyllaDB official image (recommended), see the Debian/Ubuntu tab for upgrade instructions.
If you’re using your own image and installed ScyllaDB packages for Ubuntu or Debian, you need to apply an extended upgrade procedure:
Install the new ScyllaDB version with the additional scylla-machine-image package:
sudo apt-get clean all sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade scylla sudo apt-get dist-upgrade scylla-machine-image
Run scylla_setup without running io_setup.
Run sudo /opt/scylladb/scylla-machine-image/scylla_cloud_io_setup.
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.
After you have upgraded every node, perform the following procedures.
Validate Raft setup. This step only applies if you manually disabled
the consistent_cluster_management option before upgrading to version 5.4.
In ScyllaDB 6.0, Raft-based consistent schema management for new and existing deployments is enabled by default and cannot be disabled. You need to verify if Raft was successfully initiated in your cluster before you proceed to the next step. See Validate Raft Setup for instructions.
Enable the Raft-based consistent topology updates feature. See Enable Consistent Topology Updates for instructions.
Note
Skip this step if you upgraded from 5.2 to 5.4 with default settings. This
section only applies if you manually disabled the consistent_cluster_management
option before upgrading from version 5.2. to 5.4.
Enabling Raft causes the ScyllaDB cluster to start an internal Raft initialization procedure as soon as every node is upgraded to the new version. The goal of that procedure is to initialize data structures used by the Raft algorithm to consistently manage cluster-wide metadata, such as table schemas.
Assuming you performed the rolling upgrade procedure correctly (in particular, ensuring that the schema is synchronized on every step), and if there are no problems with cluster connectivity, that internal procedure should take a few seconds to finish. However, the procedure requires full cluster availability. If one of the nodes fails before the procedure finishes (for example, due to a hardware problem), the process may get stuck, which may prevent schema or topology changes in your cluster.
Therefore, following the rolling upgrade, you must verify that the internal Raft initialization procedure has finished successfully by checking the logs of every ScyllaDB node. If the process gets stuck, manual intervention is required.
Refer to the Verifying that the internal Raft upgrade procedure finished successfully section for instructions on verifying that the procedure was successful and proceeding if it gets stuck.
Warning
The rollback procedure can be applied only if some nodes have not been upgraded to 6.0 yet.As soon as the last node in the rolling upgrade procedure is started with 6.0, rollback becomes impossible. At that point, the only way to restore a cluster to 5.4 is by restoring it from backup.
The following procedure describes a rollback from ScyllaDB 6.0.x to 5.4.y. Apply this procedure if an upgrade from 5.4 to 6.0 fails before completing on all nodes.
Use this procedure only on the nodes you upgraded to 6.0.
Execute the following commands one node at a time, moving to the next node only after the rollback procedure is completed successfully.
ScyllaDB rollback is a rolling procedure that does not require full cluster shutdown. For each of the nodes you rollback to 5.4, 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 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 5.4 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 5.4 packages backed up during the upgrade procedure.
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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