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Upgrade Guide: Ascender

Overview

Upgrading Ascender is a straightforward process that involves updating the container image version in your configuration and re-running the installation script. This guide walks you through the steps required to safely upgrade Ascender to a new release.

Prerequisites

  • You must already have a running Ascender deployment in a Kubernetes cluster.
  • You should have your original custom.config.yml (or equivalent) used during the initial installation.

⚠️ Important: Always back up your current configuration and verify the health of your Ascender deployment before performing an upgrade.

Steps to Upgrade

1. Modify Your Configuration File

Open your custom.config.yml file and verify or set the following values:

kube_install: false

Since your Kubernetes cluster is already set up, you do not want to reinstall it.

download_kubeconfig: false

You already have a working kubeconfig and don't need to re-download it.

ASCENDER_VERSION: 25.3.6

Replace 25.3.6 with the version you want to upgrade to. The list of available versions is here:

Ascender Releases

image_pull_policy: Always

This ensures the latest container image for the specified version is pulled from the registry, even if an older version is cached locally.

2. (Optional) Review for Breaking Changes

Check the release notes on the Ascender Releases page for any breaking changes, upgrade steps, or configuration differences required for the target version.

3. Re-run the Installer

Run the installation script again using your modified configuration file:

sudo ./setup.sh

This will apply your updated configuration, including the new container image version, while preserving the existing Kubernetes cluster and configuration.

✅ The upgrade process is idempotent — the installer detects the current state of the cluster and only applies the necessary updates.

Downtime during an upgrade is typically less than a few minutes, as the new containers are brought up and the old containers terminated.

Post-Upgrade Validation

After the upgrade:

  1. Confirm that the new pods are running:
kubectl get pods -n ascender

  1. Confirm the new version is deployed by accessing the Ascender web UI and checking the version string at the bottom of the login screen or in the About dialog.

  2. Optionally, verify the container image version directly:

kubectl describe pod <ascender-web-pod-name> -n ascender | grep Image

Other Methods

Utilizing the installer is the recommended method. It is also recommended that you always set your config to a specific version.

However, if your ASCENDER_VERSION is set to latest and your image_pull_policy is set to Always, you can do a Rollout Restart on each deployment to pull the new images.

kubectl rollout restart deployment/ascender-app-web -n ascender
kubectl rollout restart deployment/ascender-app-task -n ascender

Troubleshooting

  • If the image is not updating, double-check that image_pull_policy is set to Always and that your container runtime is not caching old versions.
  • Ensure your kubeconfig is valid and points to the correct cluster context.

Notes

  • Always validate the upgrade in a staging or test environment before applying it to production.
  • Additional steps may be required if a newer postgres is required by the new Ascender version.

Example Configuration Snippet

kube_install: false  
download_kubeconfig: false  
ASCENDER_VERSION: 25.3.6  
image_pull_policy: Always