Plan your upgrade

Plan your OpenShift Dev Spaces upgrade by reviewing supported upgrade paths, choosing an update approval strategy, and completing the pre-upgrade checklist so that the upgrade proceeds without disruption.

Choose your upgrade method

OpenShift Dev Spaces supports three upgrade methods. Choose based on your cluster's network access and your preferred management workflow:

Web console
Approve the pending Operator update in the OpenShift web console. Use this method when your cluster has direct internet access and you manage Operators through the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog.
Command line (standard)
Run dsc server:update on a cluster with internet access. Use this method when you automate deployments through scripts or CI/CD pipelines, or need to pass custom configuration during the upgrade.
Command line (air-gapped)
Mirror container images to your private registry, then run dsc server:update with the --che-operator-image flag. Use this method when your cluster operates in a restricted network.

Impact on running workspaces

The upgrade replaces server component pods but does not automatically restart running workspaces. However, running workspaces can encounter errors during the rollout. To prevent data loss:

  1. Notify developers to save and push all uncommitted work.
  2. Stop all running workspaces before starting the upgrade.
  3. After the upgrade completes, developers start new workspaces with the updated components.