Now that CockroachDB v24.1 is available, an Org Administrator can upgrade your CockroachDB Advanced cluster from the CockroachDB Cloud Console. This page guides you through the process for an Admin.
Upgrading a CockroachDB Advanced cluster to a new major version is opt-in. Before proceeding, review the CockroachDB Cloud CockroachDB Cloud Upgrade Policy.
If you upgrade to a Pre-Production Preview of v24.1, your cluster will be automatically upgraded to v24.1.0 upon its GA release.
Step 1. Verify that you can upgrade
To upgrade to CockroachDB v24.1, you must be running v23.2. If you are not running v23.2, first upgrade to v23.2. Then return to this page and continue to Step 2.
Step 2. Select your cluster size
The upgrade process depends on the number of nodes in your cluster. Select whether your cluster has multiple nodes or a single node:
Step 3. Understand the upgrade process
In a multi-node cluster, the upgrade does not interrupt the cluster's overall health and availability. CockroachDB Cloud stops one node at a time and restarts it with the new version, waits a few minutes to observe the upgraded node's behavior, then moves on to the next node. This "rolling upgrade" takes approximately 4-5 minutes per node and is enabled by CockroachDB's multi-active availability design.
When you start the upgrade, the cluster will be unavailable for a few minutes while the node is stopped and restarted with v24.1.
If you are upgrading from v23.2 to v24.1, the upgrade must be finalized. This is not required for subsequent patch upgrades. Approximately 72 hours after all nodes are running v24.1, the upgrade will be automatically finalized. It's important to monitor your cluster and applications during this 72-hour window, so that you can roll back the upgrade from the CockroachDB Cloud Console if you see unexpected behavior according to key metrics or if you experience application or database issues. Finalization enables certain features and performance improvements introduced in v24.1. When finalization is complete, it is no longer possible to roll back to v23.2.
If you choose to roll back a major version upgrade, your cluster will be rolled back to the latest patch release of v23.2, which may differ from the patch release you were running before you initiated the upgrade. To learn more, refer to CockroachDB Cloud Upgrade Policy.
When finalization begins, a series of migration jobs run to enable certain types of features and changes in the new major version that cannot be rolled back. These include changes to system schemas, indexes, and descriptors, and enabling certain types of improvements and new features. Until the upgrade is finalized, these features and functions will not be available and the command SHOW CLUSTER SETTING version will return 23.2.
You can monitor the process of the migration in the CockroachDB Cloud Jobs page. Migration jobs have names in the format 24.1-{migration-id}. If a migration job fails or stalls, Cockroach Labs can use the migration ID to help diagnose and troubleshoot the problem. Each major version has different migration jobs with different IDs.
Finalization is complete when all migration jobs have completed. After migration is complete, the command SHOW CLUSTER SETTING version will return 24.1.
Step 4. Prepare to upgrade
Before starting the upgrade, complete the following steps.
Prepare for brief unavailability
Your cluster will be unavailable while its single node is stopped and restarted with v23.1. Prepare your application for this brief downtime, typically a few minutes.
The SQL Users and Tools tabs in the CockroachDB Cloud Console will also be disabled during this time.
Review breaking changes
Review the backward-incompatible changes and deprecated features announced in the v24.1 release notes
Step 5. Start the upgrade
To start the upgrade process:
Sign in to your CockroachDB Cloud account.
In the Clusters list, select the cluster you want to upgrade.
Select Actions > Upgrade major version.
In the Upgrade your cluster dialog, review the pre-upgrade message and then click major version.
Your cluster will be upgraded one node at a time without interrupting the cluster's overall health and availability. This "rolling upgrade" will take approximately 4-5 minutes per node.
Your single-node cluster will be unavailable for a few minutes while the node is stopped and restarted with CockroachDB v24.1.
After it is started, an upgrade cannot be cancelled. Instead, you can wait for the upgrade to finish, then roll it back for up to 72 hours, after which time it will be finalized and cannot be rolled back.
Step 6. Monitor the upgrade
Once your cluster is running CockroachDB v24.1, you will have approximately 72 hours before the upgrade is automatically finalized. During this time, it is important to monitor your applications and expect temporary limitations.
If you see unexpected behavior, you can roll back to v23.2 during the 72-hour window.
Monitor your application
Use the DB Console or your own tooling to monitor your application for any unexpected behavior.
If everything looks good, you can wait for the upgrade to automatically finalize or you can manually trigger finalization.
If you see unexpected behavior, you can roll back to the latest patch release of v23.2 during the 72-hour window.
Expect temporary limitations
Most v24.1 features can be used right away, but some will be enabled only after the upgrade has been finalized. Attempting to use these features before finalization will result in errors.
- Splits no longer hold latches for time proportional to the range size while computing MVCC statistics. Instead, MVCC statistics are pre-computed before the critical section of the split. As a side effect, the resulting statistics are no longer 100% accurate because they may correctly distribute writes concurrent with the split. To mitigate against this potential inaccuracy, and to prevent the statistics from drifting after successive splits, the existing stored statistics are re-computed and corrected if needed during the non-critical section of the split. #119894
For an expanded list of features included in v24.1, temporary limitations, backward-incompatible changes, and deprecated features, refer to the v24.1 release notes.
Roll back the upgrade
If you see unexpected behavior, you can roll back the upgrade during the 72-hour window.
To stop the upgrade and roll back to v23.2, click Roll back in the banner at the top of the CockroachDB Cloud Console, and then click Roll back upgrade.
During rollback, nodes will be reverted to the latest production patch release of v23.2 one at a time without interrupting the cluster's health and availability.
Because your cluster contains a single node, the cluster will be briefly unavailable while the node is stopped and restarted with the latest production patch release of v23.2. Be sure to prepare for this brief unavailability before starting the rollback.
Step 7. Complete the upgrade
If everything looks good, you can wait for the upgrade to automatically finalize, or you can manually finalize the upgrade to lift the temporary limitations on the cluster more quickly.
Finalize the upgrade
The upgrade is automatically finalized after 72 hours.
To manually finalize the upgrade, click Finalize in the banner at the top of the CockroachDB Cloud Console, and then click Finalize upgrade.
After finalization, all temporary limitations will be lifted and all v24.1 features will be available for use. However, it will no longer be possible to roll back to v23.2. If you see unexpected behavior after the upgrade has been finalized, contact support.
See also
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