Upgrade FusionAuth

Upgrading

In order to upgrade FusionAuth to a later version use the following guides. Below you will find steps to follow if you are using Debian or RPM packages on Linux, or the ZIP packages on macOS, Linux or Windows.

Topics covered in this document:

If you used the FastPath or other installation methods initially, you may prefer to use that same mode to download the latest version of FusionAuth. If you would like to continue by manually downloading the necessary packages, read on.

Readme

To upgrade to the latest version of FusionAuth using the FastPath installation go here.

To upgrade to the latest version of FusionAuth using Homebrew go here.

To upgrade to the latest version of FusionAuth using Docker go here.

If you want to use manual mode, download the latest version of FusionAuth and follow the instructions below. See Downloads.

ZIP Packages

FusionAuth is available in a zip package for macOS, Linux and Windows. If you are using the ZIP package, please use this guide to update an existing instance of FusionAuth.

macOS and Linux

In this example, we’ll assume you have previously installed FusionAuth in /usr/local/fusionauth and this directory will be referred to FUSIONAUTH_HOME. If you have used a different directory you can adjust the following example accordingly.

Example filesystem layout
/usr/local/fusionauth/bin
/usr/local/fusionauth/config
/usr/local/fusionauth/config/keystore
/usr/local/fusionauth/config/fusionauth.properties
/usr/local/fusionauth/data
/usr/local/fusionauth/fusionauth-app
/usr/local/fusionauth/fusionauth-search
/usr/local/fusionauth/java

The first step will be to shutdown the FusionAuth services.

Shutdown and Uninstall FusionAuth
# Stop Services
/usr/local/fusionauth/bin/shutdown.sh

# Delete or move existing installation
cd /usr/local/fusionauth
rm -rf ./fusionauth-app
rm -rf ./fusionauth-search
rm -rf ./bin

During an upgrade, most everything is saved in the database, so it is safe to delete these directories. To preserve your configuration and Elasticsearch index you want to be sure to preserve the following directories:

Preserve these directories
/usr/local/fusionauth/config
/usr/local/fusionauth/data
/usr/local/fusionauth/java
/usr/local/fusionauth/logs

Extract the new zips and place in FUSIONAUTH_HOME. In the following example, we are using the unzip command with the -n and the -q flags. The -q flag is optional, it causes the command to be run in quiet mode to reduce the amount of output to the console. The other flag -n is a no overwrite flag so that any configuration files are not overwritten.

Unzip the new packages with a no overwrite flag
unzip -nq new-fusionauth-app.zip
unzip -nq new-fusionauth-search.zip

Finally restart the FusionAuth services.

Startup FusionAuth
# Start Services
/usr/local/fusionauth/bin/startup.sh

Windows

In this example, we’ll assume you have previously installed FusionAuth in \fusionauth and this directory will be referred to FUSIONAUTH_HOME. If you have used a different directory you can adjust the following example accordingly.

Example filesystem layout
\fusionauth\bin
\fusionauth\config
\fusionauth\config\keystore
\fusionauth\config\fusionauth.properties
\fusionauth\data
\fusionauth\fusionauth-app
\fusionauth\fusionauth-search
\fusionauth\java

The first step will be to shutdown the FusionAuth services and delete the old installation.

Shutdown and Uninstall FusionAuth
# Stop Services
net stop FusionAuthApp
net stop FusionAuthSearch

# Uninstall Services
cd \fusionauth\fusionauth-app\apache-tomcat\bin
FusionAuthApp.exe /uninstall
cd \fusionauth\fusionauth-search\elasticsearch\bin
FusionAuthSearch.exe /uninstall

# Delete or move existing installation
cd \fusionauth
move fusionauth-app fusionauth-app-old
move fusionauth-search fusionauth-search-old

During an upgrade, most everything is saved in the database, so it is safe to delete these directories. To preserve your configuration and Elasticsearch index you want to be sure to preserve the following directories:

Preserve these directories
\fusionauth\config
\fusionauth\data
\fusionauth\java
\fusionauth\logs

Extract the new zips and place in FUSIONAUTH_HOME. You may do this using Windows File Explorer or other command line tools to unpack the zip archive. In this next step, ensure you delete or move the existing directories to ensure you do not unzip the new version on top of the existing version. If you do this, you will end up with duplicate libraries in the classpath that will lead to runtime errors.

After you have extracted the new packages, re-install the Windows services and start them.

Install and Start FusionAuth
# Install Windows Services
cd \fusionauth\fusionauth-app\apache-tomcat\bin
FusionAuthApp.exe /install
cd \fusionauth\fusionauth-search\elasticsearch\bin
FusionAuthSearch.exe /install

# Startup Services
net start FusionAuthSearch
net start FusionAuthApp

That is it, you’re done!

Linux Packages

Updating your application is easy if you installed using the RPM or Debian packages. All you need to do is to issue an update command to the dpkg or rpm program and specify the new package file. Here is an example:

Running the update script will shut down the FusionAuth service if they have not yet been stopped The service will need to be restarted after the update is finished.

Shutdown FusionAuth
sudo service fusionauth-app stop
sudo service fusionauth-search stop
Upgrade FusionAuth using Debian bundles
sudo dpkg -i fusionauth-search-<version>.deb
sudo dpkg -i fusionauth-app-<version>.deb
Upgrade FusionAuth using RPM bundles
sudo rpm -U fusionauth-search-<version>.rpm
sudo rpm -U fusionauth-app-<version>.rpm
Start FusionAuth
sudo service fusionauth-search start
sudo service fusionauth-app start

Troubleshooting Uninstall-Upgrade-Reinstall with RPMs

This will completely remove FusionAuth App and FusionAuth Search from your server.
Proceed with caution. It is recommended you back up the database before performing any troubleshooting steps listed here.

A Final Option

Please review the procedure outlined below if attempting set up a clean install or upgrade using RPM’s. However, this is an option of final recourse and only necessary if unexpected upgrade or installation issues arise.

The following steps will produce a clean installation preserving:

  • The FusionAuth config file found in /usr/local/fusionauth/config/fusionauth.properties

  • The Elasticsearch index found in /usr/local/fusionauth/data

Below assumes both FusionAuth App and FusionAuth Search will be uninstalled and reinstalled together (your setup may vary).

Manual Removal Steps

  1. Remove the RPM package for fusionauth-search and fusionauth-app

    • sudo rpm -e fusionauth-search

    • sudo rpm -e fusionauth-app

  2. Manually delete anything leftover from RPM

    • sudo rm -rf /usr/local/fusionauth/fusionauth-search/

    • sudo rm -rf /usr/local/fusionauth/fusionauth-app/

    • sudo rm -rf /usr/local/fusionauth/bin/

  3. After removal, the following directories will remain:

    • /usr/local/fusionauth/config/

    • /usr/local/fusionauth/data/

      • (if it exists)

    • /usr/local/fusionauth/java/

      • (is also safe to delete, but is not necessary)

  4. Reinstall FusionAuth App and FusionAuth Search

It is recommended users not use our FastPath install scripts in a Production Environment.

These scripts are wrappers for our direct download packages. When installed directly, there is:

  • Greater control over how FusionAuth is installed.

  • Greater control over the roles/users/permissions assigned to FusionAuth folders and files.

  • Greater likelihood of a 'clean' uninstall/upgrade with a package manager (rpm) in the future.

Database

If you want FusionAuth to upgrade the database automatically, use the Silent Mode process, which will perform an automated upgrade.

If you want to use Maintenance Mode, ensure your runtime mode is set to development and silent mode is set to false.

If you want to upgrade the database manually, follow the instructions below.

For more on runtime modes, see the FusionAuth Installation Guide for reference.

For more information on the various configuration options, see the Configuration Reference.

You should always backup your database prior to using Maintenance Mode.

Depending on your current version and the new version you will be updating to you might need to execute one or more SQL scripts to update your database. These scripts are located in the migrations folder inside the Database Schema ZIP file. This file can be downloaded by finding the database zip on the Direct Downloads page.

When upgrading your database from a previous version, be sure to only run the scripts located in the migrations folder, the base files mysql.sql and postgresql.sql should only be used during a clean installation when no database schema is present.

Inside of the database schema zip file, you will find the FusionAuth migrations. Run them in order, starting with the first migration greater than the version you are coming from, and ending with the version that is less than or equal to the target upgrade version.

For example, if upgrading from version 1.19.1 to 1.22.0, run the following SQL migrations in this order:

  • 1.20.0.sql

  • 1.21.0.sql

  • 1.22.0.sql

fusionauth-database-schema/
|-- migrations/
    |--  [mysql | postgresql]/
      |-- 1.1.0.sql
      |-- 1.2.0.sql
      |-- 1.3.0.sql
      |-- 1.3.1.sql
      |-- 1.5.0.sql
      |-- 1.6.0.sql
      |-- 1.7.0.sql
      |-- 1.7.1.sql
      |-- 1.8.0-RC.1.sql
      |-- 1.8.1-RC.1.sql
      |-- 1.11.0.sql
      |-- 1.12.0.sql
      |-- 1.13.0.sql
      |-- 1.14.0.sql
      |-- 1.15.0.sql
      |-- 1.15.3.sql
      |-- 1.16.0-RC.1.sql
      |-- 1.16.0.sql
      |-- 1.17.0.sql
      |-- 1.17.3.sql
      |-- 1.18.0.sql
      |-- 1.18.2.sql
      |-- 1.19.0.sql
      |-- 1.20.0.sql
      |-- 1.21.0.sql
      |-- 1.22.0.sql
      |-- 1.23.0.sql
      |-- 1.25.0.sql
      |-- 1.26.0.sql
      |-- 1.27.0.sql
      |-- 1.28.0.sql
      |-- 1.28.1.sql
      |-- 1.29.1.sql
      |-- 1.30.0.sql
      |-- 1.30.1.sql
      |-- 1.30.2.sql

Themes

Templates

When new functionality is introduced to the hosted login pages, new theme templates are occasionally added. They are added to the default theme by the upgrade process, but if you’ve customized your theme to fit your brand, you’ll need to modify the theme to have the new template.

In the version release notes, any new templates and macros are documented. If there are changes, you’ll want to take a closer look at the themes post upgrade.

As part of your upgrade testing, open the administrative user interface and navigate to Customizations > Themes.

If any themes are missing templates, they will show as "Upgrade Required". Port the new theme files over to your custom theme, modify them as needed, and save the theme.

Messages

When new functionality is introduced to the hosted login pages, new theme message keys are sometimes required. They are added to the default theme messages file by the upgrade process.

However, if you have customized your theme, the new keys are not added to that modified theme. The first time you try to modify your theme, you’ll receive an error message similar to the text below: 

Missing required keys. See text area below for default English translations. To continue, please copy the values from below into the Messages text area.

FusionAuth warns you about missing required keys in order to avoid an inadvertent bad user experience. The default display for keys with no valid values in theme Messages is the key text, such as [ExternalAuthenticationException]LinkedInToken, which can be confusing for end users.

During an upgrade, you can find these keys by testing the upgrade on a development instance or comparing releases in the fusionauth-localization repo. You can safely add these new key values to your theme prior to an upgrade. Any unused messages in a theme’s messages file are silently ignored (unless malformed).

The extra lines won’t do any harm, and will ensure an excellent end user experience if they stumble on new functionality right after an upgrade.

Downtime

System upgrades require downtime. This is typically on the order of seconds to minutes. In general, the process for upgrading is:

  • Take down all nodes

  • Upgrade the database schema by running the migrations

  • Upgrade the FusionAuth application and (if required) Elasticsearch packages

  • Start all FusionAuth nodes

The recommendation is that you automate the process and minimize downtime. For our FusionAuth cloud hosted solutions we use a configuration management tool and see downtime on the order of seconds.

There’s an open issue for zero downtime upgrades. Please vote that up if this is important to you.

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