Update to Version 3.6

Prerequisites

CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.6.x has the following pre-requisites.

CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.5.x

Complete the upgrade to CloudOps for Kubernetes release 3.5.x before upgrading to release 3.6.x. For instructions on upgrading to release 3.5.x, see Update to Version 3.5.

What Has Changed

For a list of the changes in the release, see Release Notes.

MySQL 8.4 Support

If you want to use MySQL 8.4 container images you must also upgrade your Elastic Path docker release to 4.8.x or higher.

important

Elastic Path docker release 4.8.x introduces support for MySQL 8.4 container images and is only supported by CloudOps for Kubernetes 3.6.x or newer. Note that only Self-Managed Commerce releases 8.4.x and higher are compatible with MySQL 8.4.

Changes that impact the upgrade process

CloudOps for Kubernetes release 3.6.x contains the following changes that impact the upgrade process.

1. The Kubernetes version is updated from 1.32 to 1.34. Additional upgrade steps due to this change are noted in the section Additional Upgrade Steps below.

Additional Upgrade Steps

1. Review any additional tools that you may have installed in the Kubernetes cluster, such as monitoring or security tools, and ensure that they are compatible with Kubernetes 1.34. If they are not compatible then plan to update them as part of the upgrade process.

2. Rebuild the Kubernetes nodegroups, as documented in Upgrading CloudOps for Kubernetes, as part of the upgrade process. This is required for the Kubernetes 1.34 upgrade.

3. If you have been using a custom Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for your Kubernetes nodes, ensure it is compatible with Kubernetes 1.34. One way to determine if you have been using a custom AMI is to view your docker-compose.override.yml file and see if a value was specified for parameter aws_eks_ami.

4. If you plan to use the new MySQL 8.4 container images, ensure your Elastic Path docker project is upgraded to 4.8.x or later and that your Commerce release is 8.4.x or newer.

Preparation

1. Review all upgrade steps and requirements described in Upgrading CloudOps for Kubernetes.

2. Document an upgrade plan with all steps that you will need to perform to complete the upgrade. Include validation steps in the upgrade plan. Validation should include the functionality of Jenkins jobs, Commerce services, and any custom tools.

3. Suggested: practice and refine the upgrade plan in an AWS account that is not used by other members of your team or by the business. For example, obtain an empty AWS account, setup CloudOps for Kubernetes release 3.5.x and Commerce services in that account, then follow your upgrade plan to apply the CloudOps for Kubernetes update.

4. Identify a time to apply the CloudOps for Kubernetes update to your production cluster. As part of the upgrade process you will need to rebuild the nodegroups because of the Kubernetes version change. There will likely be a Self-Managed Commerce service outage while the EKS node groups are rebuilt. A Self Managed Commerce service outage duration of up to 15 minutes has been observed in our testing.

Perform the Update

Follow the general instructions on updating the cluster in the Upgrading CloudOps for Kubernetes documentation.