Upgrading a Postgres Installation

You can use the pgedge repository to upgrade an existing pgEdge Enterprise Postgres installation to a newer minor or major version of Postgres:

A minor version upgrade (for example, from 18.0 to 18.1) replaces the packages in place.
A major version upgrade (for example, from 17 to 18) installs the new version beside the old one and migrates your data with pg_upgrade.

Before you start an upgrade, take a recent backup so that you can revert to your previous version if needed.

Hint

The host must have the current repository package and an installed repository certificate before you upgrade. If you installed the pgedge repository before March 1, 2026, first follow the steps in Updating an Existing Repository. If you're moving from community Postgres, see Migrating to pgEdge Enterprise Postgres instead.

The examples on this page upgrade Postgres 18 to a newer minor version, and Postgres 17 to Postgres 18; replace the versions in the sample commands with the correct versions for your host.

Performing a Minor Version Upgrade

Minor versions of Postgres share the same data directory format, so a minor version upgrade installs the newer packages and restarts the server.

Note

If the host is a node in a Spock cluster, upgrade Spock first with the steps in Upgrading Spock. Those steps disable Auto-DDL across the cluster before you upgrade the extension.

The following commands upgrade every installed pgEdge package to the newest version in the repository, and restart the Postgres 18 server:

sudo dnf upgrade 'pgedge-*'
sudo systemctl restart postgresql-18

To confirm the new version, use the command:

sudo -u postgres psql -c "SELECT version();"

Performing a Major Version Upgrade

A new major version of Postgres uses a different data directory format, so you install the new version beside the old one and use pg_upgrade to migrate your data.

Hint

The steps on this page upgrade a single server. If your server is a node in a Spock cluster, reach out to pgEdge support for assistance if needed.

Install the same extensions for the new version that your databases use on the old version; pg_upgrade fails its compatibility check if an extension's library is missing. To install the complete set of pgEdge packages for the new version, use the pgedge-enterprise-all_18 package.

Use the following steps to upgrade from Postgres 17 to Postgres 18:

Install the Postgres 18 packages with the command:

sudo dnf install -y pgedge-enterprise-postgres_18

Check whether the old cluster uses data checksums. The initdb command in Postgres 18 enables data checksums by default, and pg_upgrade requires both clusters to use the same setting. The following command reports the setting on the old server:
```
sudo -u postgres psql -c "SHOW data_checksums;"
```
Initialize the Postgres 18 data directory, but don't start the server yet. If the old cluster reports off for data checksums, use the following command to initialize the new cluster without them:
```
sudo PGSETUP_INITDB_OPTIONS="--no-data-checksums" \
    /usr/pgsql-18/bin/postgresql-18-setup initdb
```
If the old cluster reports on, use the command:
```
sudo /usr/pgsql-18/bin/postgresql-18-setup initdb
```
Stop the Postgres 17 server with the command:
```
sudo systemctl stop postgresql-17
```

Test the upgrade as the postgres user. The --check option compares the two clusters and reports problems without changing any data:

sudo -iu postgres /usr/pgsql-18/bin/pg_upgrade \
    --old-datadir=/var/lib/pgsql/17/data \
    --new-datadir=/var/lib/pgsql/18/data \
    --old-bindir=/usr/pgsql-17/bin \
    --new-bindir=/usr/pgsql-18/bin \
    --check

Resolve any problems the check reports, then run the command again without the --check option to perform the upgrade.

Copy your configuration changes to the new cluster; pg_upgrade does not migrate configuration files. Review the postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf files in /var/lib/pgsql/17/data, and apply your custom settings to the matching files in /var/lib/pgsql/18/data.
Start the Postgres 18 server, and stop the Postgres 17 server from starting at boot, with the commands:
```
sudo systemctl disable postgresql-17
sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql-18
```
Run the follow-up commands that pg_upgrade printed when the upgrade finished, as the postgres user. These commands include a vacuumdb command that updates the optimizer statistics for the new cluster.

Update your PATH to use the Postgres 18 binaries; for example:

echo 'export PATH=/usr/pgsql-18/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

When you have confirmed that the new cluster works, you can remove the old cluster. The pg_upgrade command creates a delete_old_cluster.sh script in the postgres user's home directory that removes the Postgres 17 data directory. To find the Postgres 17 packages to remove with dnf remove, use the command:

dnf list installed 'pgedge-*'