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Upgrade Policy¶
ScyllaDB upgrade is a rolling procedure - it does not require a full cluster shutdown and is performed without any downtime or disruption of service.
Rules and Guidelines¶
To ensure a successful upgrade, follow the documented upgrade procedures tested by ScyllaDB.
You should upgrade to a supported version of ScyllaDB. See ScyllaDB Version Support.
All nodes in the cluster must be on the same version before advancing to the next 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.
Upgrade Paths¶
Major Releases (LTS)¶
You can upgrade from the a major version to the next major version, skipping intermediate minor releases.
You cannot skip major versions. Upgrades must proceed from one major version to the next.
Example: 2025.1 → 2026.1
Minor Releases (Feature Releases)¶
In version 2025.4, we updated the upgrade policy to allow non-consecutive minor upgrades. You can upgrade to:
Any minor version within the same major release. Examples: 2025.1 → 2025.4, 2026.x → 2026.y
The next major (LTS) version. Example: 2025.x → 2026.1
For versions earlier than 2025.4, minor upgrades must be performed consecutively — each successive X.Y version must be installed in order, without skipping any major or minor version.
Patch Releases¶
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.
Downgrade¶
Downgrade is not available as a standard operation. Reverting to a previous version is only possible during the rolling upgrade process, where it is referred to as a rollback.
Rollback is possible only while some nodes in the cluster have not yet been upgraded. Once the final node is started with the new version, rollback is no longer possible. After that, the only way to return to a previous version is to restore the cluster from backup.
In cases where a downgrade is necessary, please contact ScyllaDB support for assistance.