Kong Konnect

Upgrade a Runtime Instance to a New Version

You can upgrade runtimes to a new Kong Gateway version by bringing up new runtime instances, and then shutting down the old ones. This is the best method for high availability, as the new node starts processing data before the old node is removed. It is the cleanest and safest way to upgrade with no proxy downtime.

We recommend running one major version (2.x or 3.x) of a runtime instance per runtime group, unless you are in the middle of version upgrades to the data plane. Mixing versions may cause compatibility issues.

Important: Upgrading a runtime instance version isn’t supported for runtime instances created in cloud providers, such as AWS and Azure.

Prerequisites

Read through the Kong Gateway upgrade considerations for the version that you’re upgrading to.

Upgrade a runtime instance

To upgrade a runtime instance to a new version, follow these steps:

Provision a new runtime instance through the Runtime Manager:
Open Runtime Manager, then choose a runtime group.

Make sure that your new runtime instance appears in the list of runtime instances, displays a Connected status, and that it was last seen Just Now.
Once the new runtime instance is connected and functioning, disconnect and shut down the instances you are replacing.

You can’t shut down runtime instances from within Runtime Manager. Old instances will also remain listed as Connected in Runtime Manager for a few hours after they have been removed or shut down.
Test passing data through your new runtime instance by accessing your proxy URL.

For example, with the hostname localhost and the route path /mock:
```
 http://localhost:8000/mock
```