| --- |
| layout: docs |
| page_title: Vault HA upgrades without Autopilot Upgrade Automation (Pre 1.11) |
| description: |- |
| Upgrade instructions for Vault HA Pre 1.11 or Vault without autopilot upgrade automation being enabled. Be sure to read the Upgrading-Vault Guides as well. |
| --- |
| |
| # Vault HA upgrades without autopilot upgrade automation (Pre 1.11) |
| |
| This is our recommended upgrade procedure if **one** of the following applies: |
| |
| - Running Vault version earlier than 1.11 |
| - Opt-out the [Autopilot automated upgrade](/vault/docs/concepts/integrated-storage/autopilot#automated-upgrade) features with Vault 1.11 or later |
| - Running Vault with external storage backend such as Consul |
| |
| You should consider how to apply the steps described in this document to your |
| particular setup since HA setups can differ on whether a load balancer is in |
| use, what addresses clients are being given to connect to Vault (standby + |
| leader, leader-only, or discovered via service discovery), etc. |
| |
| If you are running on Vault 1.11+ with Integrated Storage and wish to enable the |
| Autopilot upgrade automation features, read to the [automated |
| upgrades](/vault/docs/concepts/integrated-storage/autopilot#automated-upgrades) |
| documentation for details and the [Automate Upgrades with Vault |
| Enterprise](/vault/tutorials/raft/raft-upgrade-automation) tutorial for |
| additional guidance. |
| |
| |
| ## HA installations |
| |
| Regardless of the method you use, do not fail over from a newer version of Vault |
| to an older version. Our suggested procedure is designed to prevent this. |
| |
| Please note that Vault does not support true zero-downtime upgrades, but with |
| proper upgrade procedure the downtime should be very short (a few hundred |
| milliseconds to a second depending on how the speed of access to the storage |
| backend). |
| |
| <Warning title="Important"> |
| |
| If you are currently running on Vault 1.11+ with Integrated Storage and have |
| chosen to opt-out the Autopilot automated upgrade features, please disable the |
| default automated upgrade migrations feature of the Vault. To disable this |
| feature, follow the [Automate Upgrades with Vault Enterprise Autopilot |
| configuration](/vault/tutorials/raft/raft-upgrade-automation#autopilot-configuration) |
| tutorial for more details. Without disabling this feature, you may run into Lost |
| Quorum issue as described in the [Quorum lost while upgrading the vault from |
| 1.11.0 to later version of |
| it](https://support.hashicorp.com/hc/en-us/articles/7122445204755-Quorum-lost-while-upgrading-the-vault-from-1-11-0-to-later-version-of-it) |
| article. |
| |
| </Warning> |
| |
| Perform these steps on each standby: |
| |
| 1. Properly shut down Vault on the standby node via `SIGINT` or `SIGTERM` |
| 2. Replace the Vault binary with the new version; ensure that `mlock()` |
| capability is added to the new binary with |
| [setcap](/vault/docs/configuration#disable_mlock) |
| 3. Start the standby node |
| 4. Unseal the standby node |
| 5. Verify `vault status` shows correct Version and HA Mode is `standby` |
| 6. Review the node's logs to ensure successful startup and unseal |
| |
| At this point all standby nodes are upgraded and ready to take over. The |
| upgrade will not complete until one of the upgraded standby nodes takes over |
| active duty. |
| |
| To complete the cluster upgrade: |
| |
| 1. Properly shut down the remaining (active) node |
| |
| <Note> |
| |
| It is important that you shut the node down properly. |
| This will perform a step-down and release the HA lock, allowing a standby |
| node to take over with a very short delay. |
| If you kill Vault without letting it release the lock, a standby node will |
| not be able to take over until the lock's timeout period has expired. This |
| is backend-specific but could be ten seconds or more. |
| |
| </Note> |
| |
| 2. Replace the Vault binary with the new version; ensure that `mlock()` |
| capability is added to the new binary with |
| [setcap](/vault/docs/configuration#disable_mlock) |
| 3. Start the node |
| 4. Unseal the node |
| 5. Verify `vault status` shows correct Version and HA Mode is `standby` |
| 6. Review the node's logs to ensure successful startup and unseal |
| |
| Internal upgrade tasks will happen after one of the upgraded standby nodes |
| takes over active duty. |
| |
| Be sure to also read and follow any instructions in the version-specific |
| upgrade notes. |
| |
| ## Enterprise replication installations |
| |
| See the main [upgrading](/vault/docs/upgrading#enterprise-replication-installations) page. |
