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Upgrading Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL from 16 to 17

This document describes the in-place upgrade of Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL using the pg_upgrade tool.

To ensure a smooth upgrade path, follow these steps:

  • Upgrade to the latest minor version within your current major version (e.g., from 16.6 to 16.9).
  • Then, perform the major upgrade to your desired version (e.g., from 16.9 to 17.5).

Note

When running a major upgrade on RHEL 8 and compatible derivatives, consider the following:

Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 16.3, 15.7, 14.12, 13.15 and 12.18 include llvm packages 16.0.6, while its previous versions 16.2, 15.6, 14.11, 13.14, and 12.17 include llvm 12.0.1. Since llvm libraries differ and are not compatible, the direct major version upgrade from 15.6 to 16.3 may cause issues.

The in-place upgrade means installing a new version without removing the old version and keeping the data files on the server.

See also

pg_upgrade Documentation

Similar to installing, we recommend you to upgrade Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL from Percona repositories.

Important

A major upgrade is a risky process because of many changes between versions and issues that might occur during or after the upgrade. Therefore, make sure to back up your data first. The backup tools are out of scope of this document. Use the backup tool of your choice.

The general in-place upgrade flow for Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL is the following:

  1. Install new version of Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL packages.

  2. Stop the PostgreSQL service.

  3. Check the upgrade without modifying the data.

  4. Upgrade Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL.

  5. Start PostgreSQL service.

  6. Execute the analyze_new_cluster.sh script to generate statistics so the system is usable.

  7. Delete old packages and configuration files.

The exact steps may differ depending on the package manager of your operating system.

On Debian and Ubuntu using apt

Run all commands as root or via sudo:

  1. Install Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 17 packages.

    Note

    When installing version 17, if prompted via a pop-up to upgrade to the latest available version, select No.

    $ sudo percona-release setup ppg-17
    • Install Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 17 package
    $ sudo apt install percona-postgresql-17

  2. Stop the postgresql service.

    $ sudo systemctl stop postgresql.service

    This stops both Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 16 and 17.

  3. Run the database upgrade.

    • Log in as the postgres user
    $ sudo su postgres
    • Check if you can upgrade Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL from 16 to 17
    $ pg_upgradecluster 16 main --check
# Sample output: pg_upgradecluster pre-upgrade checks ok

    The --check flag here instructs pg_upgrade to only check the upgrade without changing any data.

    • Upgrade the Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL
    $ pg_upgradecluster 16 main

    Sample output (click to expand) 
    Upgrading cluster 16/main to 17/main ...
Stopping old cluster...
Restarting old cluster with restricted connections...
...
Success. Please check that the upgraded cluster works. If it does,
you can remove the old cluster with:
    pg_dropcluster 16 main

Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory              Log file
17  main    5432 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log

Sample output:
Upgrading cluster 16/main to 17/main ...
Stopping old cluster...
Restarting old cluster with restricted connections...
Notice: extra pg_ctl/postgres options given, bypassing systemctl for start operation
Creating new PostgreSQL cluster 17/main ...
/usr/lib/postgresql/17/bin/initdb -D /var/lib/postgresql/17/main --auth-local peer --auth-host scram-sha-256 --no-instructions --encoding UTF8 --lc-collate C.UTF-8 --lc-ctype C.UTF-8 --locale-provider libc
The files belonging to this database system will be owned by user "postgres".
This user must also own the server process.

The database cluster will be initialized with locale "C.UTF-8".
The default text search configuration will be set to "english".

Data page checksums are disabled.

fixing permissions on existing directory /var/lib/postgresql/17/main ... ok
creating subdirectories ... ok
selecting dynamic shared memory implementation ... posix
selecting default max_connections ... 100
selecting default shared_buffers ... 128MB
selecting default time zone ... Etc/UTC
creating configuration files ... ok
running bootstrap script ... ok
performing post-bootstrap initialization ... ok
syncing data to disk ... ok

Copying old configuration files...
Copying old start.conf...
Copying old pg_ctl.conf...
Starting new cluster...
Notice: extra pg_ctl/postgres options given, bypassing systemctl for start operation
Running init phase upgrade hook scripts ...

Roles, databases, schemas, ACLs...
set_config
------------

(1 row)

set_config
------------

(1 row)

Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures...
Upgrading database template1...
Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures...
Upgrading database postgres...
Stopping target cluster...
Stopping old cluster...
Disabling automatic startup of old cluster...
Starting upgraded cluster on port 5432...
Running finish phase upgrade hook scripts ...
vacuumdb: processing database "postgres": Generating minimal optimizer statistics (1 target)
vacuumdb: processing database "template1": Generating minimal optimizer statistics (1 target)
vacuumdb: processing database "postgres": Generating medium optimizer statistics (10 targets)
vacuumdb: processing database "template1": Generating medium optimizer statistics (10 targets)
vacuumdb: processing database "postgres": Generating default (full) optimizer statistics
vacuumdb: processing database "template1": Generating default (full) optimizer statistics

Success. Please check that the upgraded cluster works. If it does,
you can remove the old cluster with
    pg_dropcluster 16 main

Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory              Log file
16  main    5433 down   postgres /var/lib/postgresql/16/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log
Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory              Log file
17  main    5432 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log

  4. Start the postgreqsl service.

    $ sudo systemctl start postgresql.service

  5. Check the postgresql version.

    • Log in as a postgres user
    $ sudo su postgres
    • Check the database version
    $ psql -c "SELECT version();"

  6. Delete the old cluster’s data files.

    Note

    Before deleting the old cluster, verify that the newly upgraded cluster is fully operational. Keeping the old cluster does not negatively affect the functionality or performance of your upgraded cluster.

    $ pg_dropcluster 16 main

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS using yum

Run all commands as root or via sudo:

  1. Install Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 17 packages

    $ sudo percona-release setup ppg-17
    • Install Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 17:
    $ sudo yum install percona-postgresql17-server

  2. Set up Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 17 cluster

  3. Log is as the postgres user

    $ sudo su postgres

  4. Set up locale settings

    export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"

  5. Initialize cluster with the new data directory

    $ /usr/pgsql-17/bin/initdb -D /var/lib/pgsql/17/data

  6. Stop the postgresql 16 service

    $ systemctl stop postgresql-16

  7. Run the database upgrade.

    • Log in as the postgres user
    $ sudo su postgres
    • Check the ability to upgrade Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL from 16 to 17:
    $ /usr/pgsql-17/bin/pg_upgrade \
--old-bindir /usr/pgsql-16/bin \
--new-bindir /usr/pgsql-17/bin  \
--old-datadir /var/lib/pgsql/16/data \
--new-datadir /var/lib/pgsql/17/data \
--check

    The --check flag here instructs pg_upgrade to only check the upgrade without changing any data.

    Sample output

    Performing Consistency Checks
-----------------------------
Checking cluster versions                                   ok
Checking database user is the install user                  ok
Checking database connection settings                       ok
Checking for prepared transactions                          ok
Checking for reg* data types in user tables                 ok
Checking for contrib/isn with bigint-passing mismatch       ok
Checking for tables WITH OIDS                               ok
Checking for invalid "sql_identifier" user columns          ok
Checking for presence of required libraries                 ok
Checking database user is the install user                  ok
Checking for prepared transactions                          ok

*Clusters are compatible*
    • Upgrade the Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL
    $ /usr/pgsql-17/bin/pg_upgrade \
--old-bindir /usr/pgsql-16/bin \
--new-bindir /usr/pgsql-17/bin  \
--old-datadir /var/lib/pgsql/16/data \
--new-datadir /var/lib/pgsql/17/data \
--link

    The --link flag creates hard links to the files on the old version cluster so you don’t need to copy data. If you don’t wish to use the --link option, make sure that you have enough disk space to store 2 copies of files for both old version and new version clusters.

  8. Start the postgresql 17 service.

    $ systemctl start postgresql-17

  9. Check postgresql status

    $ systemctl status postgresql-17

  10. After the upgrade, the Optimizer statistics are not transferred to the new cluster. Run the vaccumdb command to analyze the new cluster:

    • Log in as the postgres user
    $ sudo su postgres
    • Run the script to analyze the new cluster:
    $ /usr/pgsql-17/bin/vacuumdb --all --analyze-in-stages

  11. Delete Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL 16 configuration files

    $ ./delete_old_cluster.sh

  12. Delete Percona Distribution old data files

    $ rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql/16/data