About Upgrade¶

ScyllaDB upgrade is a rolling procedure - it does not require a full cluster shutdown and is performed without any downtime or disruption of service.

To ensure a successful upgrade, follow the documented upgrade procedures tested by ScyllaDB. This means that:

• You should follow the upgrade policy:

  • Starting with version 2025.4, upgrades can skip minor versions as long as they remain within the same major version (for example, upgrading directly from 2025.1 → 2025.4 is supported).

  • For versions prior to 2025.4, upgrades must be performed consecutively— each successive X.Y version must be installed in order, without skipping any major or minor version (for example, upgrading directly from 2025.1 → 2025.3 is not supported).

  • You cannot skip major versions. Upgrades must move from one major version to the next using the documented major-version upgrade path.

  • You should upgrade to a supported version of ScyllaDB. See ScyllaDB Version Support.

• Before you upgrade to the next version, the whole cluster (each node) must be upgraded to the previous version.

• You cannot perform an upgrade by replacing the nodes in the cluster with new nodes with a different ScyllaDB version. You should never add a new node with a different version to a cluster - if you add a node, it must have the same X.Y.Z (major.minor.patch) version as the other nodes in the cluster.

Upgrading to each patch version by following the Maintenance Release Upgrade Guide is optional. However, we recommend upgrading to the latest patch release for your version before upgrading to a new version.