# ES full cluster restart requirement for major upgrade **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [February 5, 2018, 10:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-full-cluster-restart-requirement-for-major-upgrade/118424 "2018-02-05T10:29:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![laurentiusoica](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/laurentiusoica/32/27342_2.png) [@laurentiusoica](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/laurentiusoica)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 10:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-full-cluster-restart-requirement-for-major-upgrade/118424/1 "2018-02-05T10:29:00Z")
Hello, I plan an ES cluster that should not have downtime. I read that for major version upgrades there is a requirement to do a full cluster restart [https://www.elastic.co/blog/multiple-elasticsearch-clusters](https://www.elastic.co/blog/multiple-elasticsearch-clusters). I see that ES 6.x doesn't require Full cluster restart anymore, but it is not clear for me if this is only specific to 6.x or it is planned for all major releases that follows 6.x [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/setup-upgrade.html#upgrade-paths](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/setup-upgrade.html#upgrade-paths) What would be the best approach in order to support major upgrades without downtime at cluster level ? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 10:31am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-full-cluster-restart-requirement-for-major-upgrade/118424/2 "2018-02-05T10:31:20Z")
You need to be in 5.6.X to be able to do a rolling restart to 6.0. ---
**Author:** ![laurentiusoica](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/laurentiusoica/32/27342_2.png) [@laurentiusoica](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/laurentiusoica)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 10:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-full-cluster-restart-requirement-for-major-upgrade/118424/3 "2018-02-05T10:50:51Z")
The cluster is not deployed yet so I could go directly with latest. My concern is how will I handle an upgrade to 7.x let's say, without downtime. ---
**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-full-cluster-restart-requirement-for-major-upgrade/118424/4 "2018-02-05T20:00:37Z")
Once you are on 5.6.X, you can then go to 6.X via rolling, and then continue that through to 7/8/9/whatever. ---
**Author:** ![rjernst](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rjernst/32/6363_2.png) [@rjernst](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rjernst)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-full-cluster-restart-requirement-for-major-upgrade/118424/5 "2018-02-05T20:27:42Z")
To clarify, the current plan going forward is to allow rolling upgrades from the _last_ minor version of the previous major. So, say that when 7.0 is released, 6.4 is the last release in 6.x. Then any 6.4 release should allow doing a rolling upgrade to any 7.x release. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-full-cluster-restart-requirement-for-major-upgrade/118424/6 "2018-03-05T20:27:57Z")
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