Knowledgebase: Administration
MarkLogic Upgrade FAQ
01 April 2022 06:50 PM

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Further Reading

How can we download the latest version of MarkLogic server? 

The latest available versions are published on our Support portal, and they are available for download from Developer portal

Documentation:

How can we download older versions of MarkLogic Server in case it's required?

Please request the specific version you need in a support ticket and we’ll try to provide it to you

Where can we find the EOL (end of life) information for a MarkLogic version? 

You can visit MarkLogic Support page for the updates on end of life for different versions

Note: we typically give our customers 12 months notice before the EOL date

Where can I see the list of bug fixes between two versions or MarkLogic Server?

You can view all of the bug fixes between MarkLogic Server versions by using our Fixed Bugs reporting tool, available on our Support site

Link:

What is MarkLogic's recommended procedure for performing major version upgrades (for instance, MarkLogic 9 to MarkLogic 10)?

It is good practice to upgrade to the latest release of whichever version you are currently running (e.g MarkLogic 9.x to 9.latest) and then to the desired major release version (e.g MarkLogic 10.x)

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What are the best practices to be followed while planning/performing upgrades? 

  • Refer to our Release Notes, New Features, Known Incompatibilities and Fixed Bugs report
  • Perform thorough testing of any operational procedures on non-production systems
  • Run application sanity checks in lower environments against the MarkLogic version to which you’re upgrading before upgrading your production environment. This may require making application code changes to resolve any unforeseen issues (see our documentation on “Known Incompatibilities”)
  • Ensure you have relevant backups in case you need to rebuild after a failed upgrade

Documentation:

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How do I upgrade from one version of MarkLogic Server to another? 

Please refer to our knowledge base article for details. You can check our documentation for additional details. 

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Can we downgrade or rollback upgrades to previously installed versions?

No, version downgrades are NOT supported. Ensure you have sufficient backups for your system’s  MarkLogic Configuration and Data in the event you need to rebuild your environment

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What is the recommended back out plan in case of emergency upgrade failure? 

Although it is not expected that you will ever need to back out a version upgrade of MarkLogic Server, it is always prudent to have contingency plans in place. This knowledgebase article includes the preparation steps needed to back out of an upgrade.

KB Articles:

Back-out Plan sections in

Is there a particular order we need to follow while upgrading a multi node cluster? 

The forests for the Security and Schemas databases must be on the same host, and that host must be the first host you upgrade when upgrading a cluster. 

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What is the difference between conventional and rolling upgrades? 

Conventional Upgrades:

A cluster can be upgraded with a minimal amount of transactional downtime.

Rolling Upgrades

The goal in performing a rolling upgrade is to have zero downtime of your server availability or transactional data. 

Note: if a cluster’s high availability (HA) scheme is designed to only allow for one host to fail, that cluster becomes vulnerable to failure when a host is taken offline for a rolling upgrade. To maintain HA while a host is offline for a rolling upgrade, your cluster’s HA scheme must be designed to allow two hosts to fail simultaneously

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What are the important points to note before performing rolling upgrades?

Please refer to our documentation for more details. 

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How do I roll back a partial upgrade while performing Rolling Upgrades

If the upgrade is not yet committed, you can reinstall the previously used version of MarkLogic on the affected nodes

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Are there API's available to perform and manage Rolling upgrades?

Yes, there are API's to perform and manage rolling upgrades. Please refer to our documentation. 

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How do I upgrade replicated environments? 

Replica first! If your Security database is replicated then your replica cluster must be upgraded before your primary cluster. This is also mentioned in our Database Replication FAQ.

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What is the procedure for performing OS patches/upgrades?

There are two choices, each with their own advantages and disadvantages:

  • Creating brand new nodes with desired OS version and setting them up from scratch (Steps are listed in this KB)
    • Advantage: Your can switch back to your existing cluster if there’s something wrong with your new cluster
    • Disadvantage: You’ll need a backup cluster until you’re satisfied with the upgraded environment
  • Upgrading OS on the existing nodes
    • Advantage: You won’t need two environments as you’ll be upgrading in place
    • Disadvantage: Larger maintenance window, since your existing nodes will be unavailable during the upgrade/patching process

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What order should the client libraries (such as ODBC Driver, MLCP/XCC, Node.js Client API etc) be upgraded?

While the order of client library upgrades doesn't matter, it’s important that the client library versions you’re using are compatible with your MarkLogic Server installation

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Can we perform in-place upgrades or do we need to commission new servers? Which among the two is recommended?

Both approaches can work. However, it’s important to understand that in on-premise deployments, you’d generally stay on your same machines, then change/upgrade the MarkLogic binary. In contrast, in AWS and other virtualized environments, you’d generally keep your data/configuration, and instead attach them to a new machine instance, with itself is running the more recent binary 

When is the Security database updated?

Security database upgrades happen if the security-version in clusters.xml is different after the upgrade. In between minor release upgrades, there is typically no upgrade of the Security database. You can also check the status in the 'Upgrade' tab in the Admin UI. 

What is the procedure for transferring data between MarkLogic clusters?

There are multiple options - these include:

  • Database Backup and Restore
  • Database Replication
  • Tools like MLCP

Documentation:

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What is the procedure for copying configuration between clusters?

Configurations can be copied with Configuration Manager (deprecated in 10.0-3), or mlgradle/Configuration Management API (CMA) 

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How do I upgrade MarkLogic on AWS?

Please refer to our MarkLogic on AWS FAQ for more details

What are the best practices for performing Data Hub upgrades?

Please refer to our Data Hub Framework FAQ for more details

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