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Juraj Kostolanský
Juraj Kostolanský

Posted on • Originally published at kostolansky.sk on

How to upgrade PostgreSQL from 11 to 12

The new PostgreSQL 12 has just been released. There are multiple ways to upgrade from the old version 11, and the easiest one is by using the pg_upgrade tool. Here is a quick tutorial for Ubuntu (or Debian) systems. And, please, do not forget to back up your data!

Update packages and install the new PostgreSQL 12.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install postgresql-12 postgresql-server-dev-12
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Check if there are any differences in the config files.

diff /etc/postgresql/11/main/postgresql.conf /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf
diff /etc/postgresql/11/main/pg_hba.conf /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf
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Stop the PostgreSQL service.

sudo systemctl stop postgresql.service
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Log in as the postgres user.

sudo su postgres
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Check clusters (notice the --check argument, this will not change any data).

/usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin/pg_upgrade \
  --old-datadir=/var/lib/postgresql/11/main \
  --new-datadir=/var/lib/postgresql/12/main \
  --old-bindir=/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin \
  --new-bindir=/usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin \
  --old-options '-c config_file=/etc/postgresql/11/main/postgresql.conf' \
  --new-options '-c config_file=/etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf' \
  --check
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Migrate the data (without the --check argument).

/usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin/pg_upgrade \
  --old-datadir=/var/lib/postgresql/11/main \
  --new-datadir=/var/lib/postgresql/12/main \
  --old-bindir=/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin \
  --new-bindir=/usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin \
  --old-options '-c config_file=/etc/postgresql/11/main/postgresql.conf' \
  --new-options '-c config_file=/etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf'
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Go back to the regular user.

exit
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Swap the ports for the old and new PostgreSQL versions.

sudo vim /etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf
# ...and change "port = 5433" to "port = 5432"

sudo vim /etc/postgresql/11/main/postgresql.conf
# ...and change "port = 5432" to "port = 5433"
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Start the PostgreSQL service.

sudo systemctl start postgresql.service
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Log in as the postgres user again.

sudo su postgres
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Check the new PostgreSQL version.

psql -c "SELECT version();"
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Run the generated analyze_new_cluster script.

./analyze_new_cluster.sh
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Back to normal user.

exit
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Check which old PostgreSQL packages are installed.

apt list --installed | grep postgresql
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Remove the old PostgreSQL packages (from the listing above).

sudo apt-get remove postgresql-11 postgresql-server-dev-11
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Remove the old configuration.

sudo rm -rf /etc/postgresql/11/
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Log in as the postgres user once more.

sudo su postgres
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Finally, drop the old cluster data.

./delete_old_cluster.sh
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Done!


Original article: How to upgrade PostgreSQL from 11 to 12

Top comments (5)

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raidus profile image
Willy Raider • Edited

Thanks for the clear instructions! It's actually pretty straight forward.

Except in my case I had to

cd /tmp

before running

sudo su postgres

Just in case others run into the same issue :)

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abysso2 profile image
Andreas Mueller • Edited

su - postgres also works :-)

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abysso2 profile image
Andreas Mueller • Edited

What a great walkthrough - thank you very much! Works like a charm!

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joshukraine profile image
Joshua Steele

Awesome walk-through, super helpful. Just did this on a production server — worked like a charm! Thanks! 😃 🎉

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