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Percona Operators Documentation

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Upgrade Database and Operator

You can upgrade Percona Operator for MySQL based on Percona XtraDB Cluster starting from the version 1.1.0.

The upgrade process consists of these steps:

Note

If you run the Operator on Red Hat Marketplace or you run Red Hat certified Operators on OpenShift , you need to do additional steps during the upgrade. See this HOWTO for details.

The list of recommended upgrade scenarios includes two variants:

  • Upgrade to the new versions of the Operator and Percona XtraDB Cluster,
  • Minor Percona XtraDB Cluster version upgrade without the Operator upgrade.

Upgrade the Operator and CRD

Considerations

  1. The Operator version has three digits separated by a dot (.) in the format major.minor.patch. Here’s how you can understand the version 1.16.1:

    • 1 is the major version
    • 16 is the minor version
    • 1 is the patch version.

    You can only upgrade the Operator to the nearest major.minor version (for example, from 1.15.1 to 1.16.1).

    If the your current Operator version and the version you want to upgrade to differ by more than one minor version, you need to upgrade step by step. For example, if your current version is 1.14.x and you want to move to 1.16.x, first upgrade to 1.15.x, then to 1.16.x.

    Patch versions don’t influence the upgrade, so you can safely move from 1.15.1 to 1.16.1.

    Check the Release notes index for the list of the Operator versions.

  2. CRD supports the last 3 minor versions of the Operator. This means it is compatible with the newest Operator version and the two older minor versions. If the Operator is older than the CRD by no more than two versions, you should be able to continue using the old Operator version. But updating the CRD and Operator is the recommended path.

  3. Starting with version 1.12.0, the Operator no longer has a separate API version for each release in CRD. Instead, the CRD has the API version v1. Therefore, if you installed the CRD when the Operator version was older than 1.12.0, you must update the API version in the CRD manually to run the upgrade. To check your CRD version, use the following command:

    $ kubectl get crd perconaxtradbclusters.pxc.percona.com -o yaml | yq .status.storedVersions
    Sample output 
    - v1-11-0
- v1

    If the CRD version is other than v1 or has multiple entries, run the manual update.

  4. The Operator versions 1.14.0 and 1.15.0 should be excluded from the incremental upgrades sequence in favor of 1.14.1 and 1.15.1 releases.

    • The upgrade path from the version 1.14.1 should be 1.14.1 -> 1.15.1.
    • Direct upgrades from 1.13.0 to 1.14.1 and from 1.14.0 to 1.15.1 are supported.

  5. To upgrade multiple single-namespace Operator deployments in one Kubernetes cluster, where each Operator controls a database cluster in its own namespace, do the following:

    • upgrade the CRD (not 3 minor versions far from the oldest Operator installation in the Kubernetes cluster) first
    • upgrade the Operators in each namespace incrementally to the latest minor version (e.g. from 1.15.1 to 1.16.1, then to 1.17.0)

Manual upgrade

The upgrade includes the following steps.

  1. For Operators older than v1.12.0: Update the API version in the Custom Resource Definition :

    $ kubectl proxy &  \
$ curl \
       --header "Content-Type: application/json-patch+json" \
       --request PATCH \
       --data '[{"op": "replace", "path": "/status/storedVersions", "value":["v1"]}]' \
       --url "http://localhost:8001/apis/apiextensions.k8s.io/v1/customresourcedefinitions/perconaxtradbclusters.pxc.percona.com/status"
    Expected output 
    {
 {...},
  "status": {
    "storedVersions": [
      "v1"
    ]
  }
}

    $ kubectl patch customresourcedefinitions perconaxtradbclusters.pxc.percona.com --subresource='status' --type='merge' -p '{"status":{"storedVersions":["v1"]}}'
    Expected output 
    customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/perconaxtradbclusters.pxc.percona.com patched

  2. Update the Custom Resource Definition for the Operator, taking it from the official repository on Github, and do the same for the Role-based access control:

    $ kubectl apply --server-side -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator/v1.17.0/deploy/crd.yaml
$ kubectl apply --server-side -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator/v1.17.0/deploy/rbac.yaml

  3. Now you should apply a patch to your deployment, supplying necessary image name with a newer version tag. You can find the proper image name for the current Operator release in the list of certified images (for older releases, please refer to the old releases documentation archive )). For example, updating to the 1.17.0 version should look as follows.

    $ kubectl patch deployment percona-xtradb-cluster-operator \
  -p'{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"percona-xtradb-cluster-operator","image":"percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0"}]}}}}'

  4. The deployment rollout will be automatically triggered by the applied patch. The update process is successfully finished when all Pods have been restarted.

    Note

    Labels set on the Operator Pod will not be updated during upgrade.

Upgrade via helm

If you have installed the Operator using Helm, you can upgrade the Operator with the helm upgrade command.

Note

You can use helm upgrade to upgrade the Operator only. The Database Management System (Percona XtraDB Cluster) should be upgraded in the same way whether you used helm to install it or not.

  1. Update the Custom Resource Definition for the Operator, taking it from the official repository on Github, and do the same for the Role-based access control:

    $ kubectl apply --server-side -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator/v1.17.0/deploy/crd.yaml
$ kubectl apply --server-side -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator/v1.17.0/deploy/rbac.yaml

  2. If you installed the Operator with no customized parameters , the upgrade can be done as follows: 

    $ helm upgrade my-op percona/pxc-operator --version 1.17.0

    The my-op parameter in the above example is the name of a release object which which you have chosen for the Operator when installing its Helm chart.

    If the Operator was installed with some customized parameters , you should list these options in the upgrade command.

    Note

    You can get list of used options in YAML format with the helm get values my-op -a > my-values.yaml command, and this file can be directly passed to the upgrade command as follows:

    $ helm upgrade my-op percona/pxc-operator --version 1.17.0 -f my-values.yaml

Upgrade via Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM)

If you have installed the Operator on the OpenShift platform using OLM, you can upgrade the Operator within it.

  1. List installed Operators for your Namespace to see if there are upgradable items.

    image

  2. Click the “Upgrade available” link to see upgrade details, then click “Preview InstallPlan” button, and finally “Approve” to upgrade the Operator.

Upgrading Percona XtraDB Cluster

The following section presumes that you are upgrading your cluster within the Smart Update strategy, when the Operator controls how the objects are updated. Smart Update strategy is on when the updateStrategy key in the Custom Resource configuration file is set to SmartUpdate (this is the default value and the recommended way for upgrades).

As an alternative, the updateStrategy key can be set to RollingUpdate and OnDelete. You can find out more about it in the appropriate section.

Warning

The upgrade covers various components of the cluster including PMM Client and HA Proxy, which may need additional attention.

  • It is highly recommended to upgrade PMM Server before upgrading PMM Client.

  • If you are using custom configuration for HAProxy, before upgrading, check the HAProxy configuration file provided by the Operator (for example, haproxy-global.cfg for the Operator version 1.17.0 can be found here ). Make sure that your custom config is still compatible with the new variant, and make necessary additions, if needed.

Manual upgrade

Manual update of Percona XtraDB Cluster can be done as follows:

  1. Make sure that spec.updateStrategy option in the Custom Resource is set to SmartUpdate, spec.upgradeOptions.apply option is set to Never or Disabled (this means that the Operator will not carry on upgrades automatically).

    ...
spec:
  updateStrategy: SmartUpdate
  upgradeOptions:
    apply: Disabled
    ...

  2. Now apply a patch to your Custom Resource, setting necessary Custom Resource version and image names with a newer version tag.

    Note

    Check the version of the Operator you have in your Kubernetes environment. Please refer to the Operator upgrade guide to upgrade the Operator and CRD, if needed.

    Patching Custom Resource is done with the kubectl patch pxc command. Actual image names can be found in the list of certified images (for older releases, please refer to the old releases documentation archive ). For example, updating cluster1 cluster to the 1.17.0 version should look as follows:

    $ kubectl patch pxc cluster1 --type=merge --patch '{
   "spec": {
       "crVersion":"1.17.0",
       "pxc":{ "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster:8.0.41-32.1" },
       "proxysql": { "image": "percona/proxysql2:2.7.1-1" },
       "haproxy":  { "image": "percona/haproxy:2.8.14" },
       "backup":   { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-pxc8.0-backup-pxb8.0.35-32" },
       "logcollector": { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-logcollector-fluentbit4.0.0" },
       "pmm":      { "image": "percona/pmm-client:2.44.0" }
   }}'

    $ kubectl patch pxc cluster1 --type=merge --patch '{
   "spec": {
       "crVersion":"1.17.0",
       "pxc":{ "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster:5.7.44-31.65" },
       "proxysql": { "image": "percona/proxysql2:2.7.1-1" },
       "haproxy":  { "image": "percona/haproxy:2.8.14" },
       "backup":   { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-pxc5.7-backup-pxb2.4.29" },
       "logcollector": { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-logcollector-fluentbit4.0.0" },
       "pmm":      { "image": "percona/pmm-client:2.44.0" }
   }}'

    Warning

    The above command upgrades various components of the cluster including PMM Client. If you didn’t follow the official recommendation to upgrade PMM Server before upgrading PMM Client, you can avoid PMM Client upgrade by removing it from the list of images as follows:

    $ kubectl patch pxc cluster1 --type=merge --patch '{
   "spec": {
       "crVersion":"1.17.0",
       "pxc":{ "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster:8.0.41-32.1" },
       "proxysql": { "image": "percona/proxysql2:2.7.1-1" },
       "haproxy":  { "image": "percona/haproxy:2.8.14" },
       "backup":   { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-pxc8.0-backup-pxb8.0.35-32" },
       "logcollector": { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-logcollector-fluentbit4.0.0" }
   }}'

    $ kubectl patch pxc cluster1 --type=merge --patch '{
   "spec": {
       "crVersion":"1.17.0",
       "pxc":{ "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster:5.7.44-31.65" },
       "proxysql": { "image": "percona/proxysql2:2.7.1-1" },
       "haproxy":  { "image": "percona/haproxy:2.8.14" },
       "backup":   { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-pxc5.7-backup-pxb2.4.29" },
       "logcollector": { "image": "percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:1.17.0-logcollector-fluentbit4.0.0" }
   }}'

  3. The deployment rollout will be automatically triggered by the applied patch. You can track the rollout process in real time with the kubectl rollout status command with the name of your cluster:

    $ kubectl rollout status sts cluster1-pxc

Automated upgrade

If you have Smart Update strategy turned on, you can automate upgrades even more with the upgradeOptions.apply option. In this case the Operator can either detect the availability of the new Percona XtraDB Cluster version, or rely on the your choice of the version. To check the availability of the new version, the Operator will query a special Version Service server at scheduled times to obtain fresh information about version numbers and valid image paths.

If the current version should be upgraded, the Operator updates the Custom Resource to reflect the new image paths and carries on sequential Pods deletion, allowing StatefulSet to redeploy the cluster Pods with the new image. You can configure Percona XtraDB Cluster upgrade via the deploy/cr.yaml configuration file as follows:

  1. Make sure that spec.updateStrategy option is set to SmartUpdate.

  2. Change spec.crVersion option to match the version of the Custom Resource Definition upgrade you have done while upgrading the Operator:

    ...
spec:
  crVersion: 1.17.0
  ...

    Note

    If you don’t update crVersion, minor version upgrade is the only one to occur. For example, the image percona-xtradb-cluster:8.0.25-15.1 can be upgraded to percona-xtradb-cluster:8.0.27-18.1.

  3. Change the upgradeOptions.apply option from Disabled to one of the following values:

    • Recommended - scheduled upgrades will choose the most recent version of software flagged as “Recommended” (for clusters created from scratch, the Percona XtraDB Cluster 8.0 version will be selected instead of the Percona XtraDB Cluster 5.7 one regardless of the image path; for already existing clusters, the 8.0 vs. 5.7 branch choice will be preserved),

    • 8.0-recommended, 5.7-recommended - same as above, but preserves specific major Percona XtraDB Cluster version for newly provisioned clusters (ex. 8.0 will not be automatically used instead of 5.7),

    • Latest - automatic upgrades will choose the most recent version of the software available,

    • 8.0-latest, 5.7-latest - same as above, but preserves specific major Percona XtraDB Cluster version for newly provisioned clusters (ex. 8.0 will not be automatically used instead of 5.7),

    • version number - specify the desired version explicitly (version numbers are specified as 8.0.41-32.1, 5.7.44-31.65, etc.). Actual versions can be found in the list of certified images (for older releases, please refer to the old releases documentation archive ).

  4. Make sure the upgradeOptions.versionServiceEndpoint key is set to a valid Version Server URL (otherwise upgrades will not occur).

    You can use the URL of the official Percona’s Version Service (default). Set upgradeOptions.versionServiceEndpoint to https://check.percona.com.

    Alternatively, you can run Version Service inside your cluster. This can be done with the kubectl command as follows:

    $ kubectl run version-service --image=perconalab/version-service --env="SERVE_HTTP=true" --port 11000 --expose

    Note

    Version Service is never checked if automatic updates are disabled in the upgradeOptions.apply option. If automatic updates are enabled, but the Version Service URL can not be reached, no updgrades will be performed.

  5. Use the upgradeOptions.schedule option to specify the update check time in CRON format.

    The following example sets the midnight update checks with the official Percona’s Version Service:

    spec:
  updateStrategy: SmartUpdate
  upgradeOptions:
    apply: Recommended
    versionServiceEndpoint: https://check.percona.com
    schedule: "0 0 * * *"
...

    Note

    You can force an immediate upgrade by changing the schedule to * * * * * (continuously check and upgrade) and changing it back to another more conservative schedule when the upgrade is complete.

  6. Don’t forget to apply your changes to the Custom Resource in the usual way:

    $ kubectl apply -f deploy/cr.yaml

More on upgrade strategies

The recommended way to upgrade your cluster is to use the Smart Update strategy, when the Operator controls how the objects are updated. Smart Update strategy is on when the updateStrategy key in the Custom Resource configuration file is set to SmartUpdate (this is the default value and the recommended way for upgrades).

Alternatively, you can set this key to RollingUpdate or OnDelete, which means that you will have to follow the low-level Kubernetes way of database upgrades. But take into account, that SmartUpdate strategy is not just for simplifying upgrades. Being turned on, it allows to disable automatic upgrades, and still controls restarting Pods in a proper order for changes triggered by other events, such as updating a ConfigMap, rotating a password, or changing resource values. That’s why SmartUpdate strategy is useful even when you have no plans to automate upgrades at all.

Last update: 2025-04-15