# Is there a faster way to upgrade ES?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 23, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195 "2015-07-23T22:08:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Daaku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Daaku](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Daaku)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195/1 "2015-07-23T22:08:59Z")

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I have a few clusters with 150-200+ nodes (EC2 instances) running ES 1.3.2. Looking for a 'faster' way to upgrade these clusters to ES 1.5.2. Following [recommendations for rolling upgrades](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/1.6/setup-upgrade.html) may take me a few days. Can not take downtime.  
Any recommendations?

Thanks  
d/

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**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:** [July 23, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195/2 "2015-07-23T22:27:23Z")

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Not until you get to \>1.6 unfortunately.

Would strongly recommend you go to 1.7 though, there are some really good things that build on 1.6 to improve this.

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**Author:** ![theuntergeek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/theuntergeek/32/44961_2.png) [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195/3 "2015-07-23T22:30:53Z")

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You will possibly get faster results by spinning up one or more extra nodes with the new version. You effectively pop out the old nodes as data is migrated to the new ones, then upgrade and re-add the "old" nodes back into the cluster.

Other than that, there is no substitute for rolling restarts of which I am familiar.

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**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:** [July 23, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195/4 "2015-07-23T22:56:49Z")

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Good point!

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**Author:** ![gndcshv](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/gndcshv/32/3837_2.png) [@gndcshv](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gndcshv)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195/5 "2015-07-24T15:29:04Z")

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This is a great question - I was looking into this issue too.

@warkolm - and rolling upgrades on 1.6.X or 1.7 are faster mainly because of the synced flush?

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**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:** [July 24, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195/6 "2015-07-24T23:26:42Z")

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Exactly!

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-there-a-faster-way-to-upgrade-es/26195/7 "2017-07-05T23:59:06Z")

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