Now that CockroachDB v23.2 is available, an Org Administrator can upgrade your CockroachDB Dedicated cluster from the CockroachDB Cloud Console. This page guides you through the process for an Admin.
Upgrading a CockroachDB Dedicated cluster to a new major version is opt-in. Before proceeding, review the CockroachDB Cloud CockroachDB Cloud Upgrade Policy.
Step 1. Verify that you can upgrade
To upgrade to CockroachDB v23.2, you must be running v23.1. If you are not running v23.1, first upgrade to v23.1. 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.
Approximately 72 hours after all nodes are running v23.2, the upgrade will be automatically finalized. This enables certain features and performance improvements introduced in v23.2. Finalization also removes the ability to roll back to v23.1, so it's important to monitor your applications during this 72-hour window and, if you see unexpected behavior, roll back the upgrade from the CockroachDB Cloud Console.
When you start the upgrade, the cluster will be unavailable for a few minutes while the node is stopped and restarted with v23.2.
Approximately 72 hours after the node has been restarted, the upgrade will be automatically finalized. This enables certain features and performance improvements introduced in v23.2. Finalization also removes the ability to roll back to v23.1, so it's important to monitor your applications during this 72-hour window and, if you see unexpected behavior, roll back the upgrade from the CockroachDB Cloud Console.
If you choose to roll back a major version upgrade, your cluster will be rolled back to the latest patch release of v23.1, which may differ from the patch release you were running before you initiated the upgrade. To learn more, refer to CockroachDB Cloud Upgrade Policy.
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 v23.2. 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 v23.2 release notes
Reset SQL statistics
Before upgrading to CockroachDB v23.2, it is recommended to reset the cluster's SQL statistics. Otherwise, it may take longer for the upgrade to complete on a cluster with large statement or transaction statistics tables. This is due to the addition of a new column and a new index to these tables. To reset SQL statistics, issue the following SQL command:
SELECT crdb_internal.reset_sql_stats();
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 v23.2.
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 v23.2, 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 v23.1 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 v23.1 during the 72-hour window.
Expect temporary limitations
Most v23.2 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:
- The coalescing of storage ranges for each table, index, or partition (collectively referred to as "schema objects") into a single range when individual schema objects are smaller than the default configured maximum range size (controlled using zone configs, specifically the
range_max_bytes parameter). This change improves scalability with respect to the number of schema objects, since the underlying range count is no longer a potential performance bottleneck. After finalizing the upgrade to v23.2, you may observe a round of range merges and snapshot transfers. To disable this optimization, before finalizing the upgrade, set thespanconfig.storage_coalesce_adjacent.enabledcluster setting tofalse. Refer to the v23.1 release notes forSHOW RANGESfor more details. #102961 - The new output log format, which allows configuration of a time zone in log output. Before configuring a time zone, the cluster must be finalized on v23.2. #104265
- Performance improvements when a node reclaims disk space. #106177
- The following admission control mechanisms, which help to maintain cluster performance and availability when some nodes experience high load:
- Delete operations
- Replication #98308
- Collecting a statement diagnostic bundle for a particular plan. The existing fingerprint-based matching has been extended to also include plan-gist-based matching and "anti-matching" (collecting a bundle for any plan other than the provided plan gist). #105477
- A new system table,
system.region_liveness, that tracks the availability and the timestamp of the latest unavailability for each cluster region. #107903 - The ability of a
WaitPolicy_Errorrequest to push the timestamp of a transaction with a lower priority. #108190 - Configuring a changefeed with the
lagging_ranges_thresholdorlagging_ranges_polling_intervalchangefeed options. #110649 - Removal of the upgrade step
grantExecuteToPublicOnAllFunctions, which is no longer required because post-serialization changes now grantEXECUTEon functions to the public role. #114203 - A fix to a bug that could allow a user to execute a user-defined function without the
EXECUTEprivilege on the function. If a user does not have the privilege, the user-defined function does not run and an error is logged. #114203
For an expanded list of features included in v23.2, temporary limitations, backward-incompatible changes, and deprecated features, refer to the v23.2 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 v23.1, 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 v23.1 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 v23.1. 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 v23.2 features will be available for use. However, it will no longer be possible to roll back to v23.1. If you see unexpected behavior after the upgrade has been finalized, contact support.
See also
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