Upgrade Kibana

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Depending on the Kibana version you’re upgrading from, the upgrade process to 7.12.1 varies. The following upgrades are supported:

  • Between minor versions
  • From 5.6 to 6.8
  • From 6.8 to 7.12.1
  • From any version since 7.12.0 to 7.12.1

The following table shows the recommended upgrade paths to 7.12.1.

Upgrade from Recommended upgrade path to 7.12.1

A previous 7.12 version (e.g., 7.12.0)

Upgrade to 7.12.1

7.0–7.11

Upgrade to 7.12.1

6.8

Upgrade to 7.12.1

6.0–6.7

  1. Upgrade to 6.8
  2. Upgrade to 7.12.1

5.6

  1. Upgrade to 6.8
  2. Upgrade to 7.12.1

5.0–5.5

  1. Upgrade to 5.6
  2. Upgrade to 6.8
  3. Upgrade to 7.12.1

Upgrading from 6.8 to 7.0 is not supported. Upgrade directly to 7.12.1 instead.

Before you begin

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Kibana automatically runs upgrade migrations when required. To roll back to an earlier version in case of an upgrade failure, you must have a backup snapshot available. Use Snapshot and Restore to back up Kibana data by targeting the .kibana* indices. For more information see upgrade migrations.

Before you upgrade Kibana:

  • Consult the breaking changes.
  • Back up your data with Snapshot and Restore. To roll back to an earlier version, you must have a snapshot of the .kibana* indices.
  • Although not a requirement for rollbacks, we recommend taking a snapshot of all Kibana indices created by the plugins you use such as the .reporting* indices created by the reporting plugin.
  • Before you upgrade production servers, test the upgrades in a dev environment.
  • See preventing migration failures for common reasons upgrades fail and how to prevent these.
  • If you are using custom plugins, check that a compatible version is available.
  • Shut down all Kibana instances. Running more than one Kibana version against the same Elasticseach index is unsupported. Upgrading while older Kibana instances are running can cause data loss or upgrade failures.

For a comprehensive overview of the upgrade process, refer to Upgrading the Elastic Stack.

Upgrade from 5.6 or earlier

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To identify the changes you need to make to upgrade, and to enable you to perform an Elasticsearch rolling upgrade with no downtime, you must upgrade to 6.8 before you upgrade to 7.12.1.

Elasticsearch 7.12.1 can’t read indices created in 5.6 or earlier versions. Before you upgrade from 6.8 to 7.12.1, you must reindex or delete these indices. For more information, refer to Upgrading the Elastic Stack.

When your reindex is complete, follow the Standard upgrade instructions.

Upgrade from 6.7 or earlier

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The recommended path is to upgrade to 6.8 before upgrading to 7.12.1. This makes it easier to identify the required changes and enables you to use the Upgrade Assistant to prepare for your upgrade.

Upgrading from 6.8 to 7.0 is not supported. Upgrade directly to 7.12.1 instead.

You can import Kibana 6.x saved searches, visualizations, and dashboards in 7.12.1.

Upgrade from 6.8

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To help you prepare for your upgrade to 7.12.1, 6.8 includes an Upgrade Assistant. To access the assistant, go to Management > 7.0 Upgrade Assistant.

Upgrading from 6.8 to 7.0 is not supported. Upgrade directly to 7.12.1 instead.

After you have addressed any issues that were identified by the Upgrade Assistant, upgrade to 7.12.1.

Known issues

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"shard failed" error when viewing Beats dashboards in Kibana

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After upgrading to Elasticsearch 7.12.1, any indices created by Beats 6.6 or older will not work in Kibana dashboards until the index.query.default_field setting is added to each index. Indices created in Beats 6.7 or later are unaffected. To add the setting to the index, you can use the 7.0 Upgrade Assistant before upgrading, or add the setting manually .