Upgrading

Upgrade your Event Streams installation as follows. The Event Streams operator handles the upgrade of your Event Streams instance.

Before you begin, review the upgrade procedure and determine the appropriate steps for your deployment based on your platform, current version, and target version.

Planning your upgrade

Event Streams 12.1.0 includes Apicurio Registry server 3.1.x. The Apicurio Registry server is automatically migrated to 3.1.x as part of the Event Streams 12.1.0 upgrade.

Important:

Ensure that client applications use version 2 or later of the Apicurio Registry Core REST API and client libraries before starting the upgrade. Apicurio Registry server 3.1.x does not support version 1 APIs.
After migration, client applications can continue to use version 2 APIs and libraries. However, version 2 APIs are deprecated. To use the new features, update the client applications to use version 3 APIs and libraries.
During the upgrade, the Event Streams schema registry is set to read-only mode. Client applications that perform write operations, such as adding or updating schemas, will be unable to make changes during this time. Applications that only read schema information will continue to function normally.

Apicurio Registry server 3.1.x. introduces new features and breaking changes that can impact applications using the schema registry in Event Streams. Review the following changes to understand the impact on your applications:

New v3 REST API: Apicurio Registry server 3.1.x. introduces a new Core REST API with additional capabilities such as empty artifacts, artifact branching, group-level rules, and enhanced search. For more information about the version 3 REST API, see the Apicurio REST API documentation.
Refactored serdes libraries: The Kafka serializer and deserializer (serdes) libraries have been renamed and refactored in Apicurio Registry server 3.1.x. If your Java producer or consumer applications use serdes, you must update your dependencies to the new artifact names and review configuration properties for compatibility.

For detailed client migration guidance and configuration examples, see the Apicurio Registry migration documentation.

Upgrade paths

You can upgrade Event Streams to the latest 12.1.x version directly from any 12.0.x version by using the latest 12.1.x operator. The upgrade procedure depends on whether you are upgrading to a major, minor, or patch level version, and what your catalog source is.

If you are upgrading from Event Streams version 11.8.x or earlier, you must first upgrade your installation to 12.0.x and then follow these instructions to upgrade from 12.0.x to 12.1.x.

On OpenShift, you can upgrade to the latest version by using operator channel v12.1. Review the general upgrade prerequisites before following the instructions to upgrade on OpenShift.

Note: If your operator upgrades are set to automatic, patch level upgrades are completed automatically. This means that the Event Streams operator is upgraded to the latest 12.1.x version when it is available in the catalog, and your Event Streams instance is then also automatically upgraded, unless you set a schedule for the upgrade by pausing the reconciliation.
On other Kubernetes platforms, you must update the Helm repository for any level version update (any digit update: major, minor, or patch), and then upgrade by using the Helm chart. Review the general upgrade prerequisites before following the instructions to upgrade on other Kubernetes platforms.

Prerequisites

The images for Event Streams release 12.1.x are available in the IBM Cloud Container Registry. Ensure you redirect your catalog source to use icr.io/cpopen as described in Implementing ImageContentSourcePolicy to redirect to the IBM Container Registry.
Ensure that you have installed a supported container platform and system. For supported container platform versions and systems, see the support matrix.

To upgrade successfully, your Event Streams instance must include a node pool with the controller role and persistent storage enabled. A minimum of three controller nodes is recommended to maintain quorum. If your instance is not configured with a controller node pool that uses persistent storage, the upgrade will fail, and data loss might occur.

For example:

 apiVersion: eventstreams.ibm.com/v1beta2
 kind: EventStreams
 metadata:
   name: example-pre-upgrade
   namespace: myproject
 spec:
   # ...
   strimziOverrides:
   #...
    kafka:
    #...
    nodePools:
    - name: kafka
       replicas: 3
       storage:
          type: persistent-claim
          #...
       roles:
          - broker
    - name: controller
       replicas: 3
       storage:
          type: persistent-claim
          #...
       roles:
          - controller

If you installed the Event Streams operator to manage instances of Event Streams in any namespace (one per namespace), then you might need to control when each of these instances is upgraded to the latest version. You can control the updates by pausing the reconciliation of the instance configuration as described in the following sections.
If you are running Event Streams as part of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, ensure you meet the following requirements:
- Follow the upgrade steps for IBM Cloud Pak for Integration before upgrading Event Streams.
- If you are planning to configure Event Streams with Keycloak, ensure you have the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration 2023.4.1 (operator version 7.2.0) or later installed, including the required dependencies.
Ensure all applications connecting to your instance of Event Streams that use the schema registry are using Apicurio client libraries version 2.5.0 or later.

Important: Support for Apicurio Registry Core REST API version 2 is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. To ensure continued compatibility, update all Apicurio client libraries to use API version 3. For more information, see prerequisites.

Note: There is no downtime during the Event Streams upgrade. The Kafka pods are rolled one at a time, so a Kafka instance will always be present to serve traffic. However, if the number of brokers you have matches the min.insync.replicas value set for any of your topics, then that topic will be unavailable to write to while the Kafka pods are rolling.

Scheduling the upgrade of an instance

In 11.1.x and later, the Event Streams operator handles the upgrade of your Event Streams instance automatically after the operator is upgraded. No additional step is required to change the instance (product) version.

If your operator manages more than one instance of Event Streams, you can control when each instance is upgraded by pausing the reconciliation of the configuration settings for each instance, running the upgrade, and then unpausing the reconciliation when ready to proceed with the upgrade for a selected instance.

Pausing reconciliation by using the CLI

Log in to your Kubernetes cluster as a cluster administrator by setting your kubectl context.
To apply the annotation first to the EventStreams and then to the Kafka custom resource, run the following command, where <type> is either EventStreams or Kafka:
```
kubectl annotate <type> <instance-name> -n <instance-namespace> eventstreams.ibm.com/pause-reconciliation='true'
```
Follow the steps to upgrade on OpenShift.

Unpausing reconciliation by using the CLI

To unpause the reconciliation and continue with the upgrade of an Event Streams instance, run the following command to first remove the annotations from the Kafka custom resource, and then from the EventStreams custom resource, where <type> is either Kafka or EventStreams:

kubectl annotate <type> <instance-name> -n <instance-namespace> eventstreams.ibm.com/pause-reconciliation-

When the annotations are removed, the configuration of your instance is updated, and the upgrade to the latest version of Event Streams completes.

Pausing reconciliation by using the OpenShift web console

Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console using your login credentials.
Expand Operators in the navigation on the left, and click Installed Operators.
From the Project list, select the namespace (project) the instance is installed in.
Locate the operator that manages your Event Streams instance in the namespace. It is called Event Streams in the Name column. Click the Event Streams link in the row.
Select the instance you want to pause and click the YAML tab.

In the YAML for the custom resource, add eventstreams.ibm.com/pause-reconciliation: 'true' to the metadata.annotations field as follows:

apiVersion: eventstreams.ibm.com/v1beta2
kind: EventStreams
metadata:
  name: <instance-name>
  namespace: <instance-namespace>
  annotations:
    eventstreams.ibm.com/pause-reconciliation: 'true'
spec:
  # ...

This annotation also needs to be applied to the corresponding Kafka custom resource. Expand Home in the navigation on the left, click API Explorer, and type Kafka in the Filter by kind... field. Select Kafka.
From the Project list, select the namespace (project) the instance is installed in and click the Instances tab.
Select the instance with the name <instance-name> (the same as the Event Streams instance).

In the YAML for the custom resource, add eventstreams.ibm.com/pause-reconciliation: 'true' to the metadata.annotations field as follows:

apiVersion: eventstreams.ibm.com/v1beta2
kind: Kafka
metadata:
name: <instance-name>
namespace: <instance-namespace>
annotations:
   eventstreams.ibm.com/pause-reconciliation: 'true'

Follow the steps to upgrade on OpenShift.

Unpausing reconciliation by using the OpenShift web console

To unpause the reconciliation and continue with the upgrade of an Event Streams instance, first remove the annotations from the Kafka custom resource, and then from the EventStreams custom resource. When the annotations are removed, the configuration of your instance is updated, and the upgrade to the latest version of Event Streams completes.

Upgrading on the OpenShift Container Platform

Upgrade your Event Streams instance running on the OpenShift Container Platform by using the CLI or web console as follows.

Pre-upgrade checks and preparation

Complete the following steps to plan your upgrade on OpenShift.

Determine which Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) channel is used by your existing Subscription. You can check the channel you are subscribed to in the web console (see Update channel section), or by using the CLI as follows (this is the subscription created during installation):
1. Run the following command to check your subscription details:
```
oc get subscription
```
2. Check the CHANNEL column for the channel you are subscribed to, for example, v12.0 in the following snippet:
```
NAME                        PACKAGE                     SOURCE                      CHANNEL
ibm-eventstreams            ibm-eventstreams            ibm-eventstreams-catalog    v12.0
```
If your existing Subscription does not use the v12.1 channel, your upgrade is a change in a major version. Complete the following steps to upgrade:
1. Ensure the catalog source for new version is available.
2. Change your Subscription to the v12.1 channel by using the CLI or the web console. The channel change will upgrade your operator, and then the operator will upgrade your Event Streams instance automatically.
If your existing Subscription is already on the v12.1 channel, your upgrade is a change to the patch level (third digit) only. Make the catalog source for your new version available to upgrade to the latest level. If you installed by using the IBM Operator Catalog with the latest label, new versions are automatically available. The operator will upgrade your Event Streams instance automatically.

Making new catalog source available

Before you can upgrade to the latest version, the catalog source for the new version must be available on your cluster. Whether you have to take action depends on how you set up the catalog sources for your deployment.

Latest versions: If your catalog source is the IBM Operator Catalog, latest versions are always available when published, and you do not have to make new catalog sources available.
Specific versions: If you used the CASE bundle to install catalog source for a specific previous version, you must download and use a new CASE bundle for the version you want to upgrade to.
- If you previously used the CASE bundle for an online install, apply the new catalog source to update the CatalogSource to the new version.
- If you used the CASE bundle for an offline install that uses a private registry, follow the instructions in installing offline to remirror images and update the CatalogSource for the new version.
In both cases, wait for the status.installedCSV field in the Subscription to update. It eventually reflects the latest version available in the new CatalogSource image for the currently selected channel in the Subscription:
- In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, the current version of the operator is displayed under Installed Operators.
- If you are using the CLI, check the status of the Subscription custom resource, the status.installedCSV field shows the current operator version.

Upgrading Subscription by using the CLI

If you are using the OpenShift command-line interface (CLI), the oc command, complete the steps in the following sections to upgrade your Event Streams installation.

Ensure the required Event Streams Operator Upgrade Channel is available:

oc get packagemanifest ibm-eventstreams -o=jsonpath='{.status.channels[*].name}'

Change the subscription to move to the required update channel, where vX.Y is the required update channel (for example, v12.1):
```
oc patch subscription -n <namespace> ibm-eventstreams --patch '{"spec":{"channel":"vX.Y"}}' --type=merge
```

Wait for the operator to reconcile the Event Streams instance and roll all the pods.

Note: During this reconciliation process, the Kafka controller pod might temporarily enter a CrashLoopBackOff state with the following error. This happens because the new operator has updated the ConfigMap, but the pod is still using the previous image. This is expected and resolves automatically within a few minutes after the new image is updated by the operator. No manual intervention is required, and the Kafka cluster remains operational throughout this period.

cat: /opt/kafka/custom-config/metadata.state: No such file or directory

Upgrading Subscription by using the web console

If you are using the web console, complete the steps in the following sections to upgrade your Event Streams installation.

Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console using your login credentials.
Expand Operators in the navigation on the left, and click Installed Operators.
From the Project list, select the namespace (project) the instance is installed in.
Locate the operator that manages your Event Streams instance in the namespace. It is called Event Streams in the Name column. Click the Event Streams link in the row.
Click the Subscription tab to display the Subscription details for the Event Streams operator.
Click the version number link in the Update channel section (for example, v12.0). The Change Subscription update channel dialog is displayed, showing the channels that are available to upgrade to.
Select v12.1 and click the Save button on the Change Subscription Update Channel dialog.

Wait for the operator to reconcile the Event Streams instance and roll all the pods.

cat: /opt/kafka/custom-config/metadata.state: No such file or directory

Note: The number of containers in each Kafka broker will reduce from 2 to 1 as the TLS-sidecar container will be removed from each broker during the upgrade process.

Upgrading on other Kubernetes platforms by using Helm

If you are running Event Streams on Kubernetes platforms that support the Red Hat Universal Base Images (UBI) containers, you can upgrade Event Streams by using the Helm chart.

Pre-upgrade checks and preparation on other Kubernetes platforms

Complete the following steps to plan your upgrade on other Kubernetes platforms.

Ensure the Kafka metadata version is updated.

Determine the chart version for your existing deployment:

Change to the namespace where your Event Streams instance is installed:
```
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=<namespace>
```
Run the following command to check what version is installed:
```
helm list
```

Check the version installed in the CHART column, for example, <chart-name>-12.0.2 in the following snippet:

NAME                      NAMESPACE  REVISION  UPDATED                                 STATUS   CHART                            APP VERSION    
ibm-eventstreams          es         1         2025-09-30 11:49:27.221411789 +0000 UTC deployed ibm-eventstreams-operator-12.0.2  12.0.2

Check the latest chart version that you can upgrade to:
1. Log in to your Kubernetes cluster as a cluster administrator by setting your kubectl context.
2. Add the IBM Helm repository:
```
helm repo add ibm-helm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IBM/charts/master/repo/ibm-helm
```
3. Update the Helm repository:
```
helm repo update ibm-helm
```
4. Check the version of the chart you will be upgrading to is the intended version:
```
helm show chart ibm-helm/ibm-eventstreams-operator
```
  Check the version: value in the output, for example: version: 12.1.0
If the chart version for your existing deployment is earlier than 12.0.x, you must first upgrade your installation to 12.0.x and then follow these instructions to upgrade to chart version 12.1.x.
If your existing installation is in an offline environment, you must carry out the steps in the offline installation instructions to download the CASE bundle and mirror the images for the new version you want to upgrade to, before running any helm commands.
Complete the steps in Helm upgrade to update your Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) and operator charts to the latest version. The operator will then upgrade your Event Streams instance automatically.

Upgrading by using Helm

You can upgrade your Event Streams on other Kubernetes platforms by using Helm.

To upgrade Event Streams to the latest version, run the following command:

helm upgrade \
<release-name> ibm-helm/ibm-eventstreams-operator \
-n <namespace> \
--set watchAnyNamespace=<true/false> \
--set previousVersion=<previous-version>

Where:

<release-name> is the name you provide to identify your operator.
<namespace> is the name of the namespace where you want to install the operator.
watchAnyNamespace=<true/false> determines whether the operator manages instances of Event Streams in any namespace or only a single namespace (default is false if not specified). For more information, see choosing operator installation mode.
<previous-version> is the version of the Helm chart being upgraded from. For example, if your Helm chart version is 12.0.2, set the field as: --set previousVersion=12.0.2. You can retrieve the version of your existing Helm chart by running the following command:
```
helm list --filter <release-name> -n <namespace> -o json | jq '.[0].app_version'
```

Wait for the operator to reconcile the Event Streams instance and roll all the pods.

cat: /opt/kafka/custom-config/metadata.state: No such file or directory

Verifying the upgrade

After the upgrade, verify the version and status of Event Streams by using the CLI or the UI.

To verify that the Event Streams upgrade migrated the Apicurio Registry server to 3.1.x:

Ensure that your Event Streams instance status is Ready. You can check the status through the CLI by running the following command:
```
 kubectl get eventstreams
```
In the Event Streams UI, go to Schema registry and verify that your schemas are visible and accessible.

Post-upgrade tasks

Optional: Update Apicurio client applications to version 3

After upgrading, you can update your client applications that use the Apicurio Registry to use the version 3 API.

Update your applications as follows:

If your application uses the Kafka serdes libraries, update the Maven dependencies in your applications pom.xml file to use the renamed Kafka serdes artifacts introduced in version 3.x. For example:

  <dependency>
     <groupId>io.apicurio</groupId>
     <artifactId>apicurio-registry-avro-serde-kafka</artifactId>
     <version>3.1.2</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
     <groupId>io.apicurio</groupId>
     <artifactId>apicurio-registry-jsonschema-serde-kafka</artifactId>
     <version>3.1.2</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
     <groupId>io.apicurio</groupId>
     <artifactId>apicurio-registry-protobuf-serde-kafka</artifactId>
     <version>3.1.2</version>
  </dependency>

For more information about the renamed and refactored serdes libraries in version 3.x, see the post about evolving serialization and deserialization.

Change the registry URL configuration in your application to point to the v3 API path. For example:
```
props.putIfAbsent(SerdeConfig.REGISTRY_URL, "<Schema-registry-url>/apis/registry/v3");
```

Update the import statement for the SerdeConfig class to use the new package location of the class. For example:

Existing package or class	New package or class
`io.apicurio.registry.serde.SerdeConfig`	`io.apicurio.registry.serde.config.SerdeConfig`

Configure SSL truststore certificates in your application for secure connections to the registry by using the following Java system properties:
```
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", TRUSTSTORE_LOCATION);
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword", TRUSTSTORE_PASSWORD);
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStoreType", "PKCS12");
```
For additional property configuration changes, see setting Java applications to use schemas.

For more information about migrating client applications from version 2 to version 3, see the Apicurio documentation.

Optional: Remove existing schema topic

After the migration to Apicurio Registry server 3.x, the Kafka cluster contains:

An existing topic that stores schema data from Apicurio Registry server 2.x.
New schema topics created for Apicurio Registry server 3.x.

The existing 2.x schema topic is not removed automatically during the upgrade. After verifying the migration is complete, you can remove the topic by using the Event Streams CLI:

Initialize the Event Streams CLI by following the instructions in logging in.

Run the following command to delete the existing 2.x schema topic:

kubectl es topic-delete --name eventstreams-apicurio-registry-kafkasql-topic