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Percona Software for MongoDB Documentation

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Upgrade Percona Backup for MongoDB

The recommended and most convenient way to upgrade PBM is from Percona repositories.

Important notes

  1. Backward compatibility between data backup and restore is supported for upgrades within one major version only (for example, from 1.1.x to 1.2.y). When you upgrade Percona Backup for MongoDB over several major versions (for example, from 1.0.x to 1.2.y), we recommend to make a backup right after the upgrade.

  2. Percona Backup for MongoDB v1.5.0 and later is incompatible with Percona Backup for MongoDB v1.4.1 and earlier due to different processing of system collections Users and Roles during backup / restore operations. After the upgrade to Percona Backup for MongoDB v1.5.0 and later, make sure to make a fresh backup.

  3. Starting from v1.7.0, the user running the pbm-agent process is changed from pbm to mongod. This is done for the following reasons:

    • To make physical backups and restores, the user running the pbm-agent process must have the read / write permissions to the MongoDB dataDir.

    • To use the filesystem-based backup storage, the user running the pbm-agent process must also have the read / write permissions to the backup directory.

  4. Starting from version 1.3.0, Percona Backup for MongoDB packages are stored in the pbm repository and the tools repository for backward compatibility.

  5. Upgrade Percona Backup for MongoDB on all nodes where it is installed.

Prerequisites

  1. Install percona-release tool or update it to the latest version.

  2. Enable the repository

    $ sudo percona-release enable pbm release

Note: For apt-based systems, run sudo apt update to update the local cache.

Upgrade to the latest version

Run all commands as root or via sudo.

  1. Stop pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl stop pbm-agent

  2. Install new packages

    $ sudo apt install percona-backup-mongodb

  3. Reload the systemd process

    Starting from v1.7.0, reload the systemd process to update the unit file with the following command:

    $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

  4. Update permissions

    For a filesystem-based backup storage, grant read / write permissions to the backup directory to the mongod user.

  5. Start pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl start pbm-agent

Run all commands as root or via sudo.

  1. Stop pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl stop pbm-agent

  2. Install new packages

    $ sudo yum install percona-backup-mongodb

  3. Reload the systemd process

Starting from v1.7.0, reload the systemd process to update the unit file with the following command:

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

  1. Update permissions

    For a filesystem-based backup storage, grant read / write permissions to the backup directory to the mongod user.

  2. Start pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl start pbm-agent

Upgrade to a specific version

Run all commands as root or via sudo.

  1. List available versions

    $ sudo apt-cache madison percona-backup-mongodb
    Sample output 
    percona-backup-mongodb | 1.8.1-1.stretch | http://repo.percona.com/tools/apt stretch/main amd64 Packages
percona-backup-mongodb | 1.8.0-1.stretch | http://repo.percona.com/tools/apt stretch/main amd64 Packages
percona-backup-mongodb | 1.7.0-1.stretch | http://repo.percona.com/tools/apt stretch/main amd64 Packages
percona-backup-mongodb | 1.6.1-1.stretch | http://repo.percona.com/tools/apt stretch/main amd64 Packages
percona-backup-mongodb | 1.6.0-1.stretch | http://repo.percona.com/tools/apt stretch/main amd64 Packages
percona-backup-mongodb | 1.5.0-1.stretch | http://repo.percona.com/tools/apt stretch/main amd64 Packages

  2. Stop pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl stop pbm-agent

  3. Install packages

    Install a specific version packages. For example, to upgrade to Percona Backup for MongoDB 1.7.0, run the following command:

    $ sudo apt install percona-backup-mongodb=1.7.0-1.stretch

  4. Update permissions

For a filesystem-based backup storage, grant read / write permissions to the backup directory to the mongod user.

  1. Start pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl start pbm-agent

Run all commands as root or via sudo.

  1. List available versions

    $ sudo yum list percona-backup-mongodb --showduplicates
    Sample output 
    Available Packages
percona-backup-mongodb.x86_64    1.8-1.el7            pbm-release-x86_64
percona-backup-mongodb.x86_64    1.8.0-1.el7          pbm-release-x86_64
percona-backup-mongodb.x86_64    1.7.0-1.el7          pbm-release-x86_64
percona-backup-mongodb.x86_64    1.6.1-1.el7          pbm-release-x86_64
percona-backup-mongodb.x86_64    1.6.0-1.el7          pbm-release-x86_64
percona-backup-mongodb.x86_64    1.5.0-1.el7          pbm-release-x86_64

  2. Stop pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl stop pbm-agent

  3. Install packages

    Install a specific version packages. For example, to upgrade to Percona Backup for MongoDB 1.7.1, run the following command:

    $ sudo yum install percona-backup-mongodb-1.7.1-1.el7

  4. Update permissions

    For a filesystem-based backup storage, grant read / write permissions to the backup directory to the mongod user.

  5. Start pbm-agent

    $ sudo systemctl start pbm-agent

Note: If MongoDB runs under a different user than mongod (the default configuration for Percona Server for MongoDB), use the same user to run the pbm-agent. For filesystem-based storage, grant the read / write permissions to the backup directory for this user.

Last update: July 31, 2025
Created: July 31, 2025