Updating Zammad¶

Tip

Are you tired of complex setup, configuration, backup and update tasks? Let us handle this stuff for you! 🚀

The easiest and often most cost-effective way to operate Zammad is our cloud service. Give it a try with a free trial instance!

Before updating Zammad, we strongly recommend to take a look at our release notes. You can find information about features and fixes as well as technical remarks and breaking changes.

Be aware that you should not skip major Zammad versions while updating. That means, for example, your upgrade path from version 2.4 to 5.1 (assuming this is the current stable) would be: 2.4 → 3.0 → 4.0 → 5.0 → latest stable (5.1)

If you don’t have time for updating all the time, please consider using Zammad hosting for your and your customers’ safety.

Hint

This page describes how to update Zammad only. In case you want to update your host operating system too, have a look at Host Upgrade and Repository Migration.

Step 1: Ensure dependencies

Before proceeding, double-check that your system environment matches Zammad’s requirements.

Step 2: Stop Zammad
$ sudo systemctl stop zammad
Step 3: Backup Zammad

See Backup & Restore (Package) for more information.

Step 4: Update Zammad

Note

If you update your complete system and there are updates for Zammad and your database server, this could lead to errors because your database may not be online again when Zammad is updated.

In such a case, you might want to exclude Zammad from updating temporarily as you can see in the commands below.

Update package index:

$ sudo apt update

Disable updates for Zammad:

$ sudo apt-mark hold zammad

Update all packages except Zammad:

$ sudo apt upgrade

Re-enable updates for Zammad:

$ sudo apt-mark unhold zammad

Update Zammad:

$ sudo apt upgrade

The package comes with maintenance scripts that will run regular tasks during updates for you. However, you should always have a look at the outputs these helper scripts generate. Ignoring said output may lead to incomplete updates that may corrupt data or lead to issues.

Step 5: Additional steps
Check release notes

If not already done, check our release notes if extra steps are necessary and perform them, if applicable.

Updating Elasticsearch

Updating Elasticsearch may be relevant, too. Make sure to have a supported version of Elasticsearch installed (see software prerequisites for supported versions).

If you have to update Elasticsearch, please have a look at their documentation and follow the instructions.

In case your are using plugins for Elasticsearch, make sure they are updated as well (note: starting with Elasticsearch 8, the ingest-attachment is no longer a plugin, it’s now included in Elasticsearch).

Step 6: Rebuild Elasticsearch index (optional)

Only needed if the release note tells you to rebuild the Elasticsearch index.

Without specifying CPU cores:

$ zammad run rake zammad:searchindex:rebuild

With specifying the number of CPU cores to use (example: 8):

$ zammad run rake zammad:searchindex:rebuild[8]
Step 7: Log into Zammad

Yes, that’s it!