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Version: v1.5 (dev)

Upgrading Harvester

Upgrade support matrix​

The following table shows the upgrade path of all supported versions.

Upgrade from versionSupported new version(s)
v1.4.1v1.4.2
v1.4.0v1.4.1
v1.3.2v1.4.0
v1.3.1v1.3.2
v1.2.2/v1.3.0v1.3.1
v1.2.1v1.2.2
v1.1.2/v1.1.3/v1.2.0v1.2.1

Rancher upgrade​

If you are using Rancher to manage your Harvester cluster, we recommend upgrading your Rancher server first. For more information, please refer to the Rancher upgrade guide.

For the Harvester & Rancher support matrix, please visit our website here.

note
  • Upgrading Rancher will not automatically upgrade your Harvester cluster. You still need to upgrade your Harvester cluster after upgrading Rancher.
  • Upgrading Rancher will not bring your Harvester cluster down. You can still access your Harvester cluster using its virtual IP.

Before starting an upgrade​

Check out the available upgrade-config setting to tweak the upgrade strategies and behaviors that best suit your cluster environment.

Start an upgrade​

caution
  • Before you upgrade your Harvester cluster, we highly recommend:
    • Back up your VMs if needed.
  • Do not operate the cluster during an upgrade. For example, creating new VMs, uploading new images, etc.
  • Make sure your hardware meets the preferred hardware requirements. This is due to there will be intermediate resources consumed by an upgrade.
  • Make sure each node has at least 30 GiB of free system partition space (df -h /usr/local/). If any node in the cluster has less than 30 GiB of free system partition space, the upgrade will be denied. Check free system partition space requirement for more information.
  • Run the pre-check script on a Harvester control-plane node. Please pick a script according to your cluster's version: https://github.com/harvester/upgrade-helpers/tree/main/pre-check.
  • A number of one-off privileged pods will be created in the harvester-system and cattle-system namespaces to perform host-level upgrade operations. If pod security admission is enabled, adjust these policies to allow these pods to run.
caution

  • Make sure all nodes' times are in sync. Using an NTP server to synchronize time is recommended. If an NTP server is not configured during the installation, you can manually add an NTP server on each node:

    $ sudo -i

    # Add time servers
    $ vim /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf
    [ntp]
    NTP=0.pool.ntp.org

    # Enable and start the systemd-timesyncd
    $ timedatectl set-ntp true

    # Check status
    $ sudo timedatectl status
caution
  • NICs that connect to a PCI bridge might be renamed after an upgrade. Please check the knowledge base article for further information.

  • Make sure to read the Warning paragraph at the top of this document first.

  • Harvester checks if there are new upgradable versions periodically. If there are new versions, an upgrade button shows up on the Dashboard page.

    • If the cluster is in an air-gapped environment, please see Prepare an air-gapped upgrade section first. You can also speed up the ISO download by using the approach in that section.

  • Navigate to Harvester GUI and click the upgrade button on the Dashboard page.

  • Select a version to start upgrading.

  • Click the circle on the top to display the upgrade progress.

Prepare an air-gapped upgrade​

caution

Make sure to check Upgrade support matrix section first about upgradable versions.

  • Download a Harvester ISO file from release pages.

  • Save the ISO to a local HTTP server. Assume the file is hosted at http://10.10.0.1/harvester.iso.

  • Download the version file from release pages, for example, https://releases.rancher.com/harvester/{version}/version.yaml

    • Replace isoURL value in the version.yaml file:

      apiVersion: harvesterhci.io/v1beta1
      kind: Version
      metadata:
        name: v1.0.2
        namespace: harvester-system
      spec:
        isoChecksum: <SHA-512 checksum of the ISO>
        isoURL: http://10.10.0.1/harvester.iso  # change to local ISO URL
        releaseDate: '20220512'

    • Assume the file is hosted at http://10.10.0.1/version.yaml.

  • Log in to one of your control plane nodes.

  • Become root and create a version:

    rancher@node1:~> sudo -i
    rancher@node1:~> kubectl create -f http://10.10.0.1/version.yaml

  • An upgrade button should show up on the Harvester GUI Dashboard page.

Free system partition space requirement​

Available as of v1.5.0

Harvester loads images on each node during upgrades. When disk usage exceeds the kubelet's garbage collection threshold, the kubelet deletes unused images to free up space. This may cause issues in airgapped environments because the images are not available on the node.

Harvester v1.5.0 includes checks that ensure nodes do not trigger garbage collection after loading new images.

If you want to try upgrading even if the free system partition space is insufficient on some nodes, you can update the harvesterhci.io/skipGarbageCollectionThresholdCheck: true annotation of the Version object.

apiVersion: harvesterhci.io/v1beta1
kind: Version
metadata:
  annotations:
    harvesterhci.io/skipGarbageCollectionThresholdCheck: true
  name: 1.5.0
  namespace: harvester-system
spec:
  isoChecksum: <SHA-512 checksum of the ISO>
  isoURL: http://192.168.0.181:8000/harvester-master-amd64.iso
  minUpgradableVersion: 1.4.1
  releaseDate: "20250630"
caution

Setting a smaller value than the pre-defined value may cause the upgrade to fail and is not recommended in a production environment.