Upgrade a single instance to 4.1
This section describes how to upgrade a single Neo4j instance.
Prerequisites
-
Ensure that you have completed all tasks on the Upgrade checklist.
Prepare for the upgrade
-
Install the Neo4j version that you want to upgrade to. For more information on how to install the distribution that you are using, see Operations Manual → Installation.
-
Replace the neo4j.conf file with the one that you have prepared in section Prepare a new neo4j.conf file to be used by the new installation.
-
Set
dbms.allow_upgrade=true
to allow automatic store upgrade. -
Set
dbms.mode=SINGLE
. This enables the automatic upgrade of thesystem
database schema, as the settingdbms.allow_single_automatic_upgrade
istrue
by default whendbms.mode=SINGLE
. -
Copy all the files used for encryption, such as private key, public certificate, and the contents of the trusted and revoked directories (located in <neo4j-home>/certificates/).
-
Restore each of your databases and transactions in the new installation, including the
system
database, by either usingneo4j-admin restore
(online) orneo4j-admin load
(offline), depending on your backup approach. If you are running a Debian/RPM distribution, you can skip this step.If your old installation has modified configurations starting with
dbms.directories.*
or the settingdbms.default_database
, verify that the newneo4j.conf
file is configured properly to find these directories. -
If you are using custom plugins, make sure they are updated and compatible with the new version, and place them in the /plugins directory.
Upgrade your instance
-
Start the instance by running the following command from
<neo4j-home>
:bin/neo4j start
The upgrade takes place during startup.
-
Monitor the neo4j.log file for information on how many steps the upgrade involves and how far it has progressed.
Post-upgrade tasks
-
When the upgrade finishes, open the neo4j.conf file and set
dbms.allow_upgrade=false
. If, for some reason, you have forgotten to enable the automatic upgrade of thesystem
database schema, use the following commands to manually upgrade it:-
CALL dbms.upgradeStatus()
to determine whether an upgrade is necessary or not. -
CALL dbms.upgrade()
on thesystem
database to perform the upgrade of the system schema. For more details, see Operations Manual 4.1 → Procedures.
-
-
Restart the instance by running the following command from
<neo4j-home>
:bin/neo4j restart
-
It is good practice to make a full backup immediately after the upgrade.