Upgrade a Redis Enterprise cluster (REC) on Kubernetes

Redis implements rolling updates for software upgrades in Kubernetes deployments. The upgrade process consists of two steps: upgrading the Redis Enterprise operator, and upgrading the Redis Enterprise cluster version.

1- Upgrade Redis Enterprise

Download the bundle

You need to ensure that you pull the correct version of the bundle. You can find the version tags by checking the operator releases on GitHub or by using the GitHub API.

You can download the bundle for the latest release by issuing the following curl command:

VERSION=`curl --silent https://api.github.com/repos/RedisLabs/redis-enterprise-k8s-docs/releases/latest | grep tag_name | awk -F'"' '{print $4}'`
curl --silent -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RedisLabs/redis-enterprise-k8s-docs/$VERSION/bundle.yaml

For openshift environments, the name of the bundle is openshift.bundle.yaml, and so the curl command to run is:

curl --silent -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RedisLabs/redis-enterprise-k8s-docs/$VERSION/openshift.bundle.yaml

If you need a different release, replace VERSION in the above with a specific release tag.

Apply the bundle

Applying the bundle applies the changes made in the new release to custom resource definitions, roles, role binding, operator service account and deploys a new operator binary.

You can upgrade the bundle and operator with a single apply command, passing in the bundle YAML file:

kubectl apply -f bundle.yaml

If you are using openshift, run this instead:

kubectl apply -f openshift.bundle.yaml

After running this command, you should see a result similar to this:

role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/redis-enterprise-operator configured
serviceaccount/redis-enterprise-operator configured
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/redis-enterprise-operator configured
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/redisenterpriseclusters.app.redislabs.com configured
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/redisenterprisedatabases.app.redislabs.com configured
deployment.apps/redis-enterprise-operator configured

Verify that the operator is running

You can verify the operator is running in your namespace by checking the deployment as follows:

kubectl get deployment/redis-enterprise-operator

You should see a result similar to this:

NAME                        READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
redis-enterprise-operator   1/1     1            1           0m36s

2- Upgrade the Redis Enterprise cluster version

Before beginning the upgrade of the Redis Enterprise cluster version, check the K8s operator release notes to find the Redis Enterprise image tag. For example, in Redis Enterprise K8s operator release 6.0.12-5, the Images section shows the Redis Enterprise tag is 6.0.12-57.

After the Operator upgrade is complete, you can upgrade Redis Enterprise cluster version using the following steps.

1. Run kubectl edit rec in the namespace your Redis Enterprise cluster is deployed in.
2. Replace the image: declaration under redisEnterpriseImageSpec with the new version tag you found in the operator release notes.
3. Save the changes to apply

The rolling upgrade of the cluster nodes’ statefulSet starts.

To see the status of the current rolling upgrade, run:

kubectl rollout status sts <REC_name>

How does the upgrade work?

Rolling updates allow you to update deployments with zero downtime by incrementally updating Redis Enterprise Cluster instances in the pods with new instances.

These diagrams show how a rolling update works:

• Each hexagon represents a node
• Each box represents a pod

The pods are updated one by one in the diagram, starting from left to right. Each pod is updated after the last one completes successfully.

The pods in the StatefulSet are updated in reverse ordinal order. The Kubernetes controller terminates each pod and waits for it to transition to Running and then to Ready.

After a pod is updated, the next pod is terminated and updated. After all of the pods are updated, the upgrade process is complete.