Upgrading Cloudera AI Workbenches

This topic describes how to upgrade existing Cloudera AI Workbenches. Currently, only Cloudera Data Platform users with both the MLAdmin role and the EnvironmentAdmin account role can create, upgrade, or remove workbenches.

Existing Cloudera AI Workbenches periodically should be upgraded. Upgrading the workbench upgrades the Cloudera AI software version to the current version, and may also upgrade cluster software. In case the underlying Kubernetes software must be upgraded, a warning banner displays, notifying you that you shall upgrade the workbench promptly.

During an upgrade, any running models and applications shut down, but they automatically restart after the upgrade is complete.
To upgrade Kubernetes, only use the upgrade method provided in Cloudera AI. Do not upgrade Kubernetes directly in the cloud console or through the CLI. Follow the instructions here to upgrade Kubernetes. If there is some error, then repeat the instructions. This applies to both Microsoft Azure and AWS.
You should back up your workbench before starting the upgrade. For more information, see Backing up Cloudera AI Workbenches.

When is an upgrade necessary?

Cloud service providers define their generally available version of Kubernetes based on their Kubernetes version support policies. For AKS refer to Supported Kubernetes versions in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and for EKS refer to Amazon EKS Kubernetes release calendar.

Cloud service providers may have different deprecation policies for Kubernetes versions:

For AWS deprecation policy, refer their FAQ section in Amazon EKS version support and FAQ.
For Azure, refer to the Azure Kubernetes FAQ.

If any Kubernetes version used in your Cloudera AI Workbenches is deprecated by the cloud providers and Cloudera AI upgrades are enabled, the warning banner displays.

ACTION REQUIRED: A new Cloudera AI version is available and it is highly recommended to upgrade
    to the latest version as soon as possible. To perform an upgrade, select Upgrade
    Workbench from the Actions menu.

In order to avoid unplanned service interruption caused by the automatic Kubernetes upgrade by EKS and continue to receive support from AKS for your Cloudera AI Workbenches on Azure, it is important to make sure that your Cloudera AI Workbenches are using supported Kubernetes versions. Upgrading a Cloudera AI Workbench will automatically upgrade the Kubernetes to a supported version. We recommend our users to upgrade the Cloudera AI Workbenches promptly when the warning banner appears.

What type of upgrades does Cloudera AI Support?

In-place Cloudera AI upgrades

Upgrades are done in-place on the existing Cloudera AI Workbenches. This may involve a Kubernetes upgrade (if there is an upgrade available) followed by upgrading the Cloudera AI software.

Log in to the Cloudera Data Platform web interface.
Click Cloudera AI Workbenches.
For a given workbench, click on the Actions icon and select Upgrade Workbench.
Click OK to confirm.

The upgrade process may take anywhere between two to four hours, approximately.

Upgrades through Cloudera AI backup & restore

If a Cloudera AI Workbench upgrade from a specific version could not be validated due to Kubernetes version deprecations on cloud providers or is deemed risky, in-place upgrades will be disabled for these versions.

In such cases, depending on the version of Cloudera AI either the upgrade button is disabled or the in-place upgrade pre-flight check will fail, with a failure message pops up that says:

In-place upgrades from <existing_version> are not supported. Follow the documentation for the backup based upgrade steps.

Here, <existing_version> is the version number of your workbench.

In this case, it is recommended to go with Backup/Restore to upgrade to the latest Cloudera AI version, essentially performing a workbench upgrade with all your previous data in place. Refer to Cloudera AI Upgrades using Backup/Restore for more information.