Plan your DataStax Enterprise upgrade
The upgrade process for DataStax Enterprise (DSE) provides minimal downtime (ideally zero). During this process, you upgrade and restart one node at a time while other nodes continue to operate online. With a few exceptions, the cluster continues to work as though it were on the earlier version of DSE until all of the nodes in the cluster are upgraded.
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Review this planning guide and all instructions for your target upgrade path before you begin the upgrade process. This helps you understand the entire upgrade process, all preparatory steps, and reduces the chance of errors and data loss. Upgrading is a complex process, particularly when upgrading from a significantly earlier version. As an alternative to an in-place upgrade, you can set up a new cluster with the new version, use the zero-downtime migration tools to migrate your data to the new cluster, and then decommission the old cluster. |
Consider the following factors when planning an upgrade.
Reduce risks
You can reduce risks and effort by employing a continual upgrade strategy to provide access to product improvements and new features and reduce version impacts. Ensure that you repair your nodes regularly. Node repair ensures that data on a replica is consistent with data on other nodes.
Repair service
You can repair nodes with the OpsCenter repair service or nodetool repair.
Version disparity and compatibility
Upgrades are impacted by your current and target versions. The greater the gap between the current version and the target version, the more complex the upgrade. Some upgrade paths require intermediate upgrades to specific versions before you can upgrade to the target version. See the instructions for your target upgrade path for details.
Particularly for major version upgrades, make sure your infrastructure, environment, and tools are compatible with the new version:
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If you upgrade your driver version, you might need to edit or recompile your client application code. See your driver’s documentation for information about changes between driver versions.
DataStax Installer end-of-life (EOL)
The DataStax Installer support ended with DSE 6.0.
If you are upgrading from DSE 5.1 and you installed DSE 5.1 with the DataStax Installer, you must first migrate your clusters to a tarball or a package installation of the same version before you upgrade to DSE 6.0 or later. For more information, see Convert DataStax Installer installations.
Upgrade to the latest patch release on your current version
When upgrading to a major version, first upgrade to the latest patch release on your current version. Fixes included in the latest patch release can better prepare your clusters for upgrades to the next major version.
Backup data
DataStax recommends backing up your data prior to any version upgrade, including logs and custom configurations. A backup provides the ability to revert and restore all the data used in the previous version, if necessary.
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OpsCenter provides a Backup Service that manages enterprise-wide backup and restore operations for DataStax Enterprise clusters. |
Cluster and node upgrade order
It is important to upgrade nodes in the correct order to maintain cluster stability and availability:
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In multiple datacenter clusters, upgrade every node in one datacenter before upgrading another datacenter.
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Within a datacenter, upgrade the seed nodes first.
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Upgrade DSE Analytics datacenters.
If you are upgrading to a version earlier than DSE 5.1, and your DSE Analytics nodes use DSE Hadoop, then upgrade the Job Tracker node first, followed by Hadoop nodes, and finally Spark nodes.
If you are upgrading from an earlier version to DSE 5.1 or later, be aware that DSE Hadoop was removed in DSE 5.1.
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Upgrade transactional (DSE Graph) datacenters, if applicable to your version of DSE.
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Upgrade DSE Search nodes or datacenters.
Location of DSE configuration files
Use these tables if you need to locate a specific configuration file during your upgrade:
| Configuration file | Package installation path | Tarball installation path |
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No path. Node type is set with command line flags. |
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DSE 5.1 and later: Earlier versions: |
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DSE 5.1 and later: Earlier versions: |
DSE 5.1 and later: Earlier versions: |
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For DSE versions earlier than 6.0 that were installed with the DataStax installer, the package installation paths are equivalent to Installer-Services installation paths, and the tarball installation paths are equivalent to Installer-No Services installation paths. |
