open-vault/website/content/docs/upgrading/vault-ha-upgrade.mdx

---
layout: docs
page_title: Vault HA upgrades without Autopilot Upgrade Automation (Pre 1.11)
description: |-
  Upgrade instructions for Vault HA Pre 1.11 or Vault without autopilot upgrade automation being enabled. Be sure to read the Upgrading-Vault Guides as well.
---

# Vault HA upgrades without autopilot upgrade automation (Pre 1.11)

This is our recommended upgrade procedure if **one** of the following applies:

- Running Vault version earlier than 1.11
- Opt-out the [Autopilot automated upgrade](/vault/docs/concepts/integrated-storage/autopilot#automated-upgrade) features with Vault 1.11 or later
- Running Vault with external storage backend such as Consul

You should consider how to apply the steps described in this document to your
particular setup since HA setups can differ on whether a load balancer is in
use, what addresses clients are being given to connect to Vault (standby +
leader, leader-only, or discovered via service discovery), etc.

If you are running on Vault 1.11+ with Integrated Storage and wish to enable the
Autopilot upgrade automation features, read to the [automated
upgrades](/vault/docs/concepts/integrated-storage/autopilot#automated-upgrades)
documentation for details and the [Automate Upgrades with Vault
Enterprise](/vault/tutorials/raft/raft-upgrade-automation) tutorial for
additional guidance.


## HA installations

Regardless of the method you use, do not fail over from a newer version of Vault
to an older version. Our suggested procedure is designed to prevent this.

Please note that Vault does not support true zero-downtime upgrades, but with
proper upgrade procedure the downtime should be very short (a few hundred
milliseconds to a second depending on how the speed of access to the storage
backend).

<Warning title="Important">

If you are currently running on Vault 1.11+ with Integrated Storage and have
chosen to opt-out the Autopilot automated upgrade features, please disable the
default automated upgrade migrations feature of the Vault. To disable this
feature, follow the [Automate Upgrades with Vault Enterprise Autopilot
configuration](/vault/tutorials/raft/raft-upgrade-automation#autopilot-configuration)
tutorial for more details. Without disabling this feature, you may run into Lost
Quorum issue as described in the [Quorum lost while upgrading the vault from
1.11.0 to later version of
it](https://support.hashicorp.com/hc/en-us/articles/7122445204755-Quorum-lost-while-upgrading-the-vault-from-1-11-0-to-later-version-of-it)
article.

</Warning>

Perform these steps on each standby:

1. Properly shut down Vault on the standby node via `SIGINT` or `SIGTERM`
2. Replace the Vault binary with the new version; ensure that `mlock()`
   capability is added to the new binary with
   [setcap](/vault/docs/configuration#disable_mlock)
3. Start the standby node
4. Unseal the standby node
5. Verify `vault status` shows correct Version and HA Mode is `standby`
6. Review the node's logs to ensure successful startup and unseal

At this point all standby nodes are upgraded and ready to take over. The
upgrade will not complete until one of the upgraded standby nodes takes over
active duty.

To complete the cluster upgrade:

1. Properly shut down the remaining (active) node

   <Note>

   It is important that you shut the node down properly.
   This will perform a step-down and release the HA lock, allowing a standby
   node to take over with a very short delay.
   If you kill Vault without letting it release the lock, a standby node will
   not be able to take over until the lock's timeout period has expired. This
   is backend-specific but could be ten seconds or more.

   </Note>

2. Replace the Vault binary with the new version; ensure that `mlock()`
   capability is added to the new binary with
   [setcap](/vault/docs/configuration#disable_mlock)
3. Start the node
4. Unseal the node
5. Verify `vault status` shows correct Version and HA Mode is `standby`
6. Review the node's logs to ensure successful startup and unseal

Internal upgrade tasks will happen after one of the upgraded standby nodes
takes over active duty.

Be sure to also read and follow any instructions in the version-specific
upgrade notes.

## Enterprise replication installations

See the main [upgrading](/vault/docs/upgrading#enterprise-replication-installations) page.