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Upgrade

Upgrade minor and patch versions of Gloo Mesh Core.

During the upgrade, the data plane continues to run, but you might not be able to modify the configurations through the management plane. Because zero downtime is not guaranteed, try testing the upgrade in a staging environment before upgrading your production environment.

Considerations

Consider the following rules before you plan your Gloo Mesh Core upgrade.

Patch and minor versions

Patch version upgrades:
You can skip patch versions within the same minor release. For example, you can upgrade from version 2.5.0 to 2.5.0-beta2 directly, and skip the patch versions in between.

Minor version upgrades:

Always upgrade to the latest patch version of the target minor release. For example, if you want to upgrade from version 2.4.3 to 2.5.x, and 2.5.0-beta2 is the latest patch version, upgrade to that version and skip any previous patch versions for that minor release. Do not upgrade to a lower patch version, such as 2.5.0, 2.5.1, and so on.
Do not skip minor versions during your upgrade. Upgrade minor release versions one at a time. For example, if you want to upgrade from 2.3.x to 2.5.x, you must first upgrade to the latest patch version of the 2.4 minor release. After you upgrade to 2.4.x, you can then plan your upgrade to the latest patch version of the 2.5.x release.

Multicluster only: Version skew policy for management and remote clusters

Plan to always upgrade your Gloo management server and agents to the same target version. Always upgrade the Gloo management server first. Then, roll out the upgrade to the Gloo agents in your workload clusters. During this upgrade process, your management server and agents can be one minor version apart.

For example, let’s say you want to upgrade from 2.4.3 to 2.5.x. Start by upgrading your management server to the latest patch version of the 2.5 minor release. Your management server and agent are still compliant as they are one minor version apart. Then, roll out the 2.5 minor release upgrade to the agents in your workload clusters.

If you plan to upgrade more than one minor releases, you must perform one minor release upgrade at a time. For example, to upgrade your management server and agent from 2.3.x to 2.5.x, you upgrade your management server to the latest patch version of the 2.4 minor release first. Your management server and agent are compliant because they are one minor version apart. Then, you upgrade your agents to the 2.4 minor release. After you verify the 2.4 upgrade, use the same approach to upgrade the management server and agents from 2.4 to the target 2.5 minor release.

If both your management server and agent run the same minor version, the agent can run any patch version that is equal or lower than the management server’s patch version.

Consider the following example version skew scenarios:

Supported?	Management server version	Agent version	Requirement
✅	2.4.4	2.4.2	The management server and agents run the same minor version. The agent patch version is equal to or lower than the management server.
❌	2.4.4	2.4.5	The agent runs the same minor version as the server, but has a patch version greater than the server.
✅	2.4.4	2.3.4	The agent runs a minor version no greater than n-1 behind the server.
❌	2.4.4	2.2.9	The agent runs a minor version that is greater than n-1 behind the server.

Step 1: Prepare to upgrade

Check that your underlying Kubernetes platform and Istio service mesh run supported versions for the Gloo Mesh Core version that you want to upgrade to.
1. Review the supported versions.
2. Compare the supported version against the versions of Kubernetes and Istio that you run in your clusters.
3. If necessary, upgrade Istio or Kubernetes to a version that is supported by the Gloo Mesh Core version that you want to upgrade to.
  - For managed Istio installations, see Upgrade Gloo-managed service meshes, or for manually installed Istio, see the Istio documentation.
  - For Kubernetes steps, consult your cluster infrastructure provider.
Set the Gloo Mesh Core version that you want to upgrade to as an environment variable. The latest version is used as an example. Append -fips for a FIPS-compliant image, such as 2.5.0-beta2-fips. Do not include v before the version number.
```
  export UPGRADE_VERSION=2.5.0-beta2
  
```

Step 2: Upgrade the `meshctl` CLI

Upgrade the meshctl CLI to the version of Gloo Mesh Core you want to upgrade to.

Re-install meshctl to the upgrade version.

  curl -sL https://run.solo.io/meshctl/install | GLOO_MESH_VERSION=v$UPGRADE_VERSION sh -

Verify that the client version matches the version you installed.

  meshctl version

Example output:

  {
"client": {
  "version": "2.5.0-beta2"
},

Step 3: Upgrade Gloo Mesh Core

Upgrade your Gloo Mesh Core installation. The steps differ based on whether you run Gloo Mesh Core in a single-cluster or multicluster environment.

Single cluster

Update the gloo-platform Helm repo.

  helm repo add gloo-platform https://storage.googleapis.com/gloo-platform/helm-charts
helm repo update

Apply the Gloo custom resource definitions (CRDs) for the upgrade version.

  helm upgrade -i gloo-platform-crds gloo-platform/gloo-platform-crds \
    --namespace gloo-mesh \
    --version $UPGRADE_VERSION \
    --set installEnterpriseCrds=false

Get the Helm values files for your current version.
1. Get your current values.
```
  helm get values gloo-mesh-core -n gloo-mesh > gloo-core-single-cluster.yaml
open gloo-core-single-cluster.yaml
  
```
2. Delete the first line that contains USER-SUPPLIED VALUES:, and save the file.
Compare your current Helm chart values with the version that you want to upgrade to. You can get a values file for the upgrade version with the helm show values command.
```
  helm show values gloo-platform/gloo-platform --version $UPGRADE_VERSION > all-values.yaml
  
```
Make any changes that you want by editing your gloo-core-single-cluster.yaml Helm values files or preparing the --set flags. If you do not want to use certain settings, comment them out.
Upgrade the Gloo Mesh Core Helm installation.
warning
Make sure to include your Helm values when you upgrade either as a configuration file in the --values flag or with --set flags. Otherwise, any previous custom values that you set might be overwritten.
```
  helm upgrade gloo-mesh-core gloo-platform/gloo-platform \
    --kube-context $MGMT_CONTEXT \
    --namespace gloo-mesh \
    -f control-plane.yaml \
    --version $UPGRADE_VERSION
  
```

Confirm that Gloo components, such as the gloo-mesh-mgmt-server, run the version that you upgraded to.

  meshctl version

Example output:

"server": [
{
  "Namespace": "gloo-mesh",
  "components": [
    {
      "componentName": "gloo-mesh-mgmt-server",
      "images": [
         {
          "name": "gloo-mesh-mgmt-server",
          "domain": "gcr.io",
          "path": "gloo-mesh-mgmt-server",
          "version": "2.5.0-beta2"
        }
      ]
    },

Multicluster

Update the gloo-platform Helm repo.

  helm repo add gloo-platform https://storage.googleapis.com/gloo-platform/helm-charts
helm repo update

Get the Helm values files for your current version.
1. Get your current values for the management cluster.
```
  helm get values gloo-mesh-core -n gloo-mesh --kube-context $MGMT_CONTEXT > control-plane.yaml
open control-plane.yaml
  
```
2. Delete the first line that contains USER-SUPPLIED VALUES:, and save the file.
3. Get your current values for the workload clusters.
```
  helm get values gloo-mesh-core -n gloo-mesh --kube-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT > data-plane.yaml
open data-plane.yaml
  
```
4. Delete the first line that contains USER-SUPPLIED VALUES:, and save the file.
Compare your current Helm chart values with the version that you want to upgrade to. You can get a values file for the upgrade version with the helm show values command.
```
  helm show values gloo-platform/gloo-platform --version $UPGRADE_VERSION > all-values.yaml
  
```
Make any changes that you want by editing your control-plane.yaml and data-plane.yaml Helm values files or preparing the --set flags. If you do not want to use certain settings, comment them out.

Upgrade the Gloo Mesh Core Helm releases in your management cluster.

warning

You must always upgrade the Gloo control plane before upgrading the Gloo data plane to avoid unexpected behavior. Note that only n-1 minor version skew is supported between the Gloo management server and the agent. For more information, see the skew policy.

Apply the Gloo custom resource definitions (CRDs) for the upgrade version in the management cluster.

  helm upgrade -i gloo-platform-crds gloo-platform/gloo-platform-crds \
    --kube-context $MGMT_CONTEXT \
    --namespace gloo-mesh \
    --version $UPGRADE_VERSION \
    --set installEnterpriseCrds=false

Upgrade your Helm release in the management cluster. Make sure to include your Helm values when you upgrade either as a configuration file in the --values flag or with --set flags. Otherwise, any previous custom values that you set might be overwritten.
```
  helm upgrade gloo-mesh-core gloo-platform/gloo-platform \
    --kube-context $MGMT_CONTEXT \
    --namespace gloo-mesh \
    -f control-plane.yaml \
    --version $UPGRADE_VERSION
  
```

Confirm that the control plane components, such as the gloo-mesh-mgmt-server, run the version that you upgraded to.

  meshctl version --kubecontext $MGMT_CONTEXT

Example output:

"server": [
{
  "Namespace": "gloo-mesh",
  "components": [
    {
      "componentName": "gloo-mesh-mgmt-server",
      "images": [
         {
          "name": "gloo-mesh-mgmt-server",
          "domain": "gcr.io",
          "path": "gloo-mesh-mgmt-server",
          "version": "2.5.0-beta2"
        }
      ]
    },

Upgrade the Gloo Mesh Core Helm releases in your workload clusters. Repeat these steps for each workload cluster, and be sure to update the cluster context each time.

Apply the Gloo custom resource definitions (CRDs) for the upgrade version in each workload cluster.

  helm upgrade -i gloo-platform-crds gloo-platform/gloo-platform-crds \
    --kube-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT \
    --namespace=gloo-mesh \
    --version=$UPGRADE_VERSION \
    --set installEnterpriseCrds=false

Upgrade your Helm release in each workload cluster. Make sure to include your Helm values when you upgrade either as a configuration file in the --values flag or with --set flags. Otherwise, any previous custom values that you set might be overwritten.
```
  helm upgrade gloo-mesh-core gloo-platform/gloo-platform \
    --kube-context $REMOTE_CONTEXT \
    --namespace gloo-mesh \
    -f data-plane.yaml \
    --version $UPGRADE_VERSION
  
```

Confirm that the data plane components, such as the gloo-mesh-agent, run the version that you upgraded to.

  meshctl version --kubecontext $REMOTE_CONTEXT

Example output:

{
      "componentName": "gloo-mesh-agent",
      "images": [
        {
          "name": "gloo-mesh-agent",
          "domain": "gcr.io",
          "path": "gloo-mesh/gloo-mesh-agent",
          "version": "2.5.0-beta2"
        }
      ]
    },

Check that the Gloo management and agent components are connected.
```
  meshctl check --kubecontext $MGMT_CONTEXT
  
```

Upgrade Gloo-managed Istio

To upgrade your Gloo-managed Istio installations by using the Istio lifecyle manager, see Upgrade Gloo-managed service meshes.

Update your Gloo license

Before your Gloo license expires, you can update the license by patching the license key secret.

For example, if you notice that your Gloo control plane deployments are in a crash loop, your Gloo license might be expired. You can check the status of your license with the following command:

  meshctl check

Example output for an expired license:

  🔴 License status

ERROR A license is expired. To update, see https://docs.solo.io/gloo-mesh-enterprise/main/setup/prepare/licensing/#update-licenses
INFO  gloo-mesh-core license expiration is 06 Feb 23 13:05 CDT

To update your license key in your Gloo installation:

Get a new Gloo license key by contacting your account representative.

Save the new license key as an environment variable.

  export GLOO_MESH_CORE_LICENSE_KEY=<new-key-string>

Update the license secret to use the new Gloo Mesh Core license key.

  kubectl -n gloo-mesh patch secret license-keys -p "stringData: { gloo-mesh-core-license-key: $GLOO_MESH_CORE_LICENSE_KEY }"

Optional: If your license expired and the management server pods are in a crash loop, restart the management server pods. If you updated the license before expiration, skip this step.
```
  kubectl rollout restart -n gloo-mesh deployment/gloo-mesh-mgmt-server --context ${MGMT_CONTEXT}
  
```

Verify that your license check is now valid, and no errors are reported.

  meshctl check --kubecontext ${MGMT_CONTEXT}

Example output:

  🟢 License status

INFO  gloo-mesh-core enterprise license expiration is 25 Aug 24 10:38 CDT

Install with Helm

Use Helm to customize the settings of …

Uninstall

Uninstall Gloo Mesh Core or deregister …

Upgrade

Considerations link

Patch and minor versions link

Multicluster only: Version skew policy for management and remote clusters link

Step 1: Prepare to upgrade link

Step 2: Upgrade the meshctl CLI link

Step 3: Upgrade Gloo Mesh Core link

Single cluster link

Multicluster link

Upgrade Gloo-managed Istio link

Update your Gloo license link

Considerations

Patch and minor versions

Multicluster only: Version skew policy for management and remote clusters

Step 1: Prepare to upgrade

Step 2: Upgrade the `meshctl` CLI

Step 3: Upgrade Gloo Mesh Core

Single cluster

Multicluster

Upgrade Gloo-managed Istio

Update your Gloo license