Upgrade Che

Upgrade your Che deployment to the latest version to receive bug fixes, security patches, and new capabilities with minimal disruption.

How the upgrade works

When you upgrade Che, the Operator handles the server component upgrade automatically. You do not need to manually update individual pods or configurations. The Operator:

  • Replaces the Che server, dashboard, gateway, and plug-in registry pods with the new version.

  • Upgrades the DevWorkspace Operator to the version bundled with the new release.

  • Preserves the existing CheCluster custom resource configuration.

Running workspaces are not automatically restarted during the upgrade. Developers must stop their workspaces before the upgrade and restart them after the upgrade completes.

Supported upgrade path

Che supports upgrading from the previous minor version to the current version.

Direct upgrades that skip minor versions are not supported. If your deployment is more than one minor version behind, upgrade one minor version at a time.

Pre-upgrade checklist

Complete the following steps before upgrading:

  1. Review the release notes for breaking changes and new features.

  2. Notify developers to save and push all uncommitted work in their running workspaces.

  3. Stop all running workspaces. The upgrade does not automatically stop workspaces, and running workspaces might encounter errors during the upgrade.

  4. Choose an update approval strategy. See Choose how updates are applied.

  5. If you plan to upgrade from the command line, update chectl to the latest version. See Update the chectl management tool.