Upgrade Portworx (or Kubernetes) on an air-gapped cluster

During installation on an internet-connected Kubernetes cluster, Portworx fetches the resources necessary for installation from the internet automatically. However, while installing Portworx on an air-gapped cluster, you would have to perform an extra step to pre-stage these resources within the air-gapped environment.

Similarly, to upgrade your Portwiorx installation on an air-gapped cluster, you will fetch updated container images, and then pre-stage them within the air-gapped cluster.

Since, Portworx leverages a component of the Kubernetes control plane to make enhanced Kubernetes scheduling decisions based on storage layout. Therefore, these steps are also required if your cluster’s Kubernetes/control plane is updated as well.

WARNING: If you do not perform these pre-staging steps before upgrading either Portworx or Kubernetes on an air-gapped cluster, your pods can enter crash loops and cause service disruptions.

Follow the instructions on this page to get the updated container images, pre-stage them within the air-gapped cluster, and then proceed to upgrade your Portworx installation.

Prerequisites

You must have an existing Portworx Kubernetes cluster that is healthy and operational.
You should be using the same internal or private container registry as used during the installation.

NOTE: To check what registry you’re currently using, query your existing StorageCluster by running the following command:

STORAGECLUSTER_NAME=$(kubectl -n kube-system get storagecluster -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
kubectl get stc -n kube-system $STORAGECLUSTER_NAME -o jsonpath='{.spec.image}{"\n"}'

Get the updated container images

Set an environment variable for the Kubernetes version that you are using:

KBVER=$(kubectl version --short 2>/dev/null | awk -F'[v+_-]' '/Server Version: / {print $3}')

Set an environment variable to the latest major version of Portworx:
```
PXVER=<portworx-version>
```
NOTE: For the latest Portworx version, see Portworx Release Notes.
On an internet-connected host, fetch the same air-gapped-install bootstrap script used during installation, for the Kubernetes and Portworx versions that you specified:
```
curl -o px-ag-install.sh -L "https://install.portworx.com/$PXVER/air-gapped?kbver=$KBVER"
```
Pull the container images required for the specified versions:
```
sh px-ag-install.sh pull
```
Log in to the container registry using the docker command:
```
docker login <your-private-registry>
```
Push the container images to the same private container registry that is accessible to your air-gapped nodes. Do not include http:// in your private registry path:
```
sh px-ag-install.sh push <your-registry-path>
```
For example:
```
sh px-ag-install.sh push myregistry.net:5443
```
For example, to push the new images to a specific repo (consult your StorageCluster definition as per the note in the Prerequisites):
```
sh px-ag-install.sh push myregistry.net:5443/px-images
```

Create a version manifest configmap for Portworx Operator

Download the Portworx version manifest:

curl -o versions "https://install.portworx.com/$PXVER/version?kbver=$KBVER"

Update (deleting/recreating) the px-versions configmap from the downloaded version manifest:

kubectl -n kube-system delete configmap px-versions
kubectl -n kube-system create configmap px-versions --from-file=versions

Upgrade Portworx installation

NOTE: Skip this section if you are upgrading only the Kubernetes control plane version.

Follow the steps in the Upgrade Portworx section to upgrade the Portworx StorageCluster spec.

Upgrade Portworx on IBM Cloud via Helm