Upgrade Confluence without downtime
Can I upgrade without downtime?
Whether you can upgrade your Confluence Data Center cluster without downtime depends on the version you are upgrading from, and the version you are upgrading to. Learn more about the different types of releases.
| Upgrading from | Upgrading to | ||
| Bugfix | Feature | Platform | |
| Confluence 7.8 and earlier |  Requires downtime | Requires downtime | Requires downtime |
| Confluence 7.8 to 7.13 |  No downtime(for example, from 7.12.0 to 7.12.2) | Requires downtime | Requires downtime |
| Confluence 7.14 and later | No downtime (for example, from 7.14.0 to 7.14.2) | No downtime when upgrading to the next feature version (for example, from 7.14.x to 7.15.x) Requires downtime if the upgrade spans more than one feature version (for example, from 7.14.x to 7.17.x) | Requires downtime |
Before you begin
Before you start planning a rolling upgrade, there’s a few questions you need to answer.
| Does my Confluence deployment support rolling upgrades? | You can only perform a rolling upgrade with no downtime on a multi-node Confluence cluster. Clustering is only supported on a Confluence Data Center license. In addition, a rolling upgrade involves enabling upgrade mode, which is only available in Confluence Data Center. |
| Do I have enough nodes to support user requests during the rolling upgrade? | You need to take a node offline to upgrade it. During this time, other active nodes will take over the offline node’s workload. Make sure you have enough active nodes to handle user traffic at any given time. If possible, add a node temporarily to your cluster to compensate for offline nodes. |
| Is the version compatible with rolling upgrades? | Whether you can upgrade without downtime depends on the version you are upgrading from, and the version you are upgrading to. The pre-upgrade check will confirm whether you can upgrade without downtime. |
Prepare for the rolling upgrade
1. Complete pre-upgrade checks
Check the Upgrade Notes for the version you plan to upgrade to (and any in between).
Go to Administration
> General Configuration > Plan your upgrade then select the version you want to upgrade to. This will run some pre-upgrade checks.
Go to Administration
> General Configuration > Troubleshooting and support tools to run the health check. License expired?If the software maintenance period included in your license has expired you can keep using Confluence, but you'll need to renew before you can upgrade.
Go to Administration
> General Configuration > License Details and follow the prompts to renew your license.Go to Administration
> Manage apps and scroll down to the Confluence Update Check to check the compatibility of your Marketplace apps.
Choose the version you plan to upgrade to then hit Check.
2. Prevent the installation or upgrade of apps during the upgrade period
If you manage Confluence with a team of admins, schedule the rolling upgrade with them. Notify them to postpone any app installs or upgrades until after the rolling upgrade. Installing or upgrading apps during a rolling upgrade could result in unexpected errors.
3. Back up Confluence Data Center
Backup and Restore provides an overview of manual and scheduled backup methods in Confluence. For larger sites, we recommend having a robust production backup strategy.
If your deployment is hosted on AWS, we recommend that you use the AWS native backup facility, which utilizes snapshots to back up your site. For more information, see AWS Backup.
During a rolling upgrade, backup and restore tasks are placed in a queue unless they were started before the rolling upgrade. Canceling a restore task during a rolling upgrade isn't supported and isn't recommended.
4. Set up a staging environment to test the rolling upgrade
We strongly recommend that you perform the rolling upgrade on a staging or test environment first.
- Create a staging copy of your current production environment.
See Create a staging environment for upgrading Confluence for help creating an environment to test your upgrade in.
Follow the steps below to upgrade your test environment.
Test any unsupported user-installed apps, customizations (such as custom theme or layouts) and proxy configuration (if possible) before upgrading your production environment.
Perform the rolling upgrade
There are three methods for performing a rolling upgrade, depending on what orchestration tools your deployment uses.
| Method | Description | Instructions |
|---|---|---|
| Manual upgrade | A manual upgrade is suitable for deployments that feature minimal orchestration, particularly in node upgrades. If your deployment is based on our Azure templates, you'll also need to perform a manual upgrade. | Upgrade a Confluence cluster manually without downtime |
| AWS CloudFormation | If your deployment is defined by an AWS CloudFormation template (like our AWS Quick Start), then you can use the same template to orchestrate your upgrade. | Upgrade a Confluence cluster on AWS without downtime |
| API-driven | You can orchestrate the entire rolling upgrade process through API calls. | Upgrade a Confluence cluster through the API without downtime |