Upgrading using the Knative Operator

This topic describes how to upgrade Knative if you installed using the Operator. If you installed using YAML, see Upgrading with kubectl.

The attribute spec.version is the only field you need to change in the Serving or Eventing custom resource to perform an upgrade. You do not need to specify the version for the patch number, because the Knative Operator matches the latest available patch number, as long as you specify major.minor for the version. For example, you only need to specify "1.1" to upgrade to the 1.1 release, you do not need to specify the exact patch number.

The Knative Operator supports up to the last three major releases. For example, if the current version of the Operator is 1.5, it bundles and supports the installation of Knative versions 1.5, 1.4, 1.3 and 1.2.

Note

In the following examples, Knative Serving custom resources are installed in the knative-serving namespace, and Knative Eventing custom resources are installed in the knative-eventing namespace.

Performing the upgrade

To upgrade, apply the Operator custom resources, adding the spec.version for the Knative version that you want to upgrade to:

  1. Create a YAML file containing the following:

    1. apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1alpha1
    2. kind: KnativeServing
    3. metadata:
    4. name: knative-serving
    5. namespace: knative-serving
    6. spec:
    7. version: "<new-version>"

    Where <new-version> is the Knative version that you want to upgrade to.

  2. Apply the YAML file by running the command:

    1. kubectl apply -f <filename>.yaml

    Where <filename> is the name of the file you created in the previous step.

Verifying an upgrade by viewing pods

You can confirm that your Knative components have upgraded successfully, by viewing the status of the pods for the components in the relevant namespace.

Note

All pods will restart during the upgrade and their age will reset.

Knative ServingKnative Eventing

Enter the following command to view information about pods in the knative-serving namespace:

  1. kubectl get pods -n knative-serving

The command returns an output similar to the following:

  1. NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
  2. activator-6875896748-gdjgs 1/1 Running 0 58s
  3. autoscaler-6bbc885cfd-vkrgg 1/1 Running 0 57s
  4. autoscaler-hpa-5cdd7c6b69-hxzv4 1/1 Running 0 55s
  5. controller-64dd4bd56-wzb2k 1/1 Running 0 57s
  6. net-istio-webhook-75cc84fbd4-dkcgt 1/1 Running 0 50s
  7. net-istio-controller-6dcbd4b5f4-mxm8q 1/1 Running 0 51s
  8. storage-version-migration-serving-serving-0.20.0-82hjt 0/1 Completed 0 50s
  9. webhook-75f5d4845d-zkrdt 1/1 Running 0 56s

Enter the following command to view information about pods in the knative-eventing namespace:

  1. kubectl get pods -n knative-eventing

The command returns an output similar to the following:

  1. NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
  2. eventing-controller-6bc59c9fd7-6svbm 1/1 Running 0 38s
  3. eventing-webhook-85cd479f87-4dwxh 1/1 Running 0 38s
  4. imc-controller-97c4fd87c-t9mnm 1/1 Running 0 33s
  5. imc-dispatcher-c6db95ffd-ln4mc 1/1 Running 0 33s
  6. mt-broker-controller-5f87fbd5d9-m69cd 1/1 Running 0 32s
  7. mt-broker-filter-5b9c64cbd5-d27p4 1/1 Running 0 32s
  8. mt-broker-ingress-55c66fdfdf-gn56g 1/1 Running 0 32s
  9. storage-version-migration-eventing-0.20.0-fvgqf 0/1 Completed 0 31s
  10. sugar-controller-684d5cfdbb-67vsv 1/1 Running 0 31s

Verifying an upgrade by viewing custom resources

You can verify the status of a Knative component by checking that the custom resource READY status is True.

Knative ServingKnative Eventing

  1. kubectl get KnativeServing knative-serving -n knative-serving

This command returns an output similar to the following:

  1. NAME VERSION READY REASON
  2. knative-serving 1.1.0 True
  1. kubectl get KnativeEventing knative-eventing -n knative-eventing

This command returns an output similar to the following:

  1. NAME VERSION READY REASON
  2. knative-eventing 1.1.0 True

Rollback to an earlier version

If the upgrade fails, you can rollback to restore your Knative to the previous version. For example, if something goes wrong with an upgrade to 1.2, and your previous version is 1.1, you can apply the following custom resources to restore Knative Serving and Knative Eventing to version 1.1.

Knative ServingKnative Eventing

To rollback to a previous version of Knative Serving:

  1. Create a YAML file containing the following:

    1. apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1alpha1
    2. kind: KnativeServing
    3. metadata:
    4. name: knative-serving
    5. namespace: knative-serving
    6. spec:
    7. version: "<previous-version>"

    Where <previous-version> is the Knative version that you want to downgrade to.

  2. Apply the YAML file by running the command:

    1. kubectl apply -f <filename>.yaml

    Where <filename> is the name of the file you created in the previous step.

To rollback to a previous version of Knative Eventing:

  1. Create a YAML file containing the following:

    1. apiVersion: operator.knative.dev/v1alpha1
    2. kind: KnativeEventing
    3. metadata:
    4. name: knative-eventing
    5. namespace: knative-eventing
    6. spec:
    7. version: "<previous-version>"

    Where <previous-version> is the Knative version that you want to downgrade to.

  2. Apply the YAML file by running the command:

    1. kubectl apply -f <filename>.yaml

    Where <filename> is the name of the file you created in the previous step.