---
title: Upgrade guide common tasks
---

We recommend that you upgrade Grafana often to stay current with the latest fixes and enhancements.
Because Grafana upgrades are backward compatible, the upgrade process is straightforward, and dashboards and graphs will not change.

In addition to common tasks you should complete for all versions of Grafana, there might be additional upgrade tasks to complete for a version.

> **Note:** There might be minor breaking changes in some releases. We outline these changes in the [What's New ]({{< relref "../../whatsnew/" >}}) document for each release.

For versions of Grafana prior to v9.2, we published additional information in the [Release Notes]({{< relref "../../release-notes/" >}}).

When available, we list all changes with links to pull requests or issues in the [Changelog](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md).

> **Note:** When possible, we recommend that you test the Grafana upgrade process in a test or development environment.

## Back up the Grafana database

Although Grafana automatically upgrades the database on startup, we recommend that you back up your Grafana database so that you can roll back to a previous version, if required.

### SQLite

If you use SQLite, you only need to back up the `grafana.db` file. On Unix systems, the database file is usually located in `/var/lib/grafana/`.

If you are unsure which database you use and where it is stored, check the Grafana configuration file. If you
installed Grafana to a custom location using a binary tar/zip, the database is usually located in `<grafana_install_dir>/data`.

### MySQL

To back up or restore a MySQL Grafana database, run the following commands:

```bash
backup:
> mysqldump -u root -p[root_password] [grafana] > grafana_backup.sql

restore:
> mysql -u root -p grafana < grafana_backup.sql
```

### Postgres

To back up or restore a Postgres Grafana database, run the following commands:

```bash
backup:
> pg_dump grafana > grafana_backup

restore:
> psql grafana < grafana_backup
```

## Backup plugins

We recommend that you back up installed plugins before you upgrade Grafana so that you can roll back to a previous version of Grafana, if necessary.

## Upgrade Grafana

The following sections provide instructions for how to upgrade Grafana based on your installation method.

### Debian

To upgrade Grafana installed from a Debian package (`.deb`), complete the following steps:

1. In your current installation of Grafana, save your custom configuration changes to a file named `<grafana_install_dir>/conf/custom.ini`.

   This enables you to upgrade Grafana without the risk of losing your configuration changes.

1. [Download](https://grafana.com/grafana/download?platform=linux) the latest version of Grafana.

1. Run the following `dpkg -i` command.

   ```bash
   wget <debian package url>
   sudo apt-get install -y adduser
   sudo dpkg -i grafana_<version>_amd64.deb
   ```

### APT repository

To upgrade Grafana installed from the Grafana Labs APT repository, complete the following steps:

1. In your current installation of Grafana, save your custom configuration changes to a file named `<grafana_install_dir>/conf/custom.ini`.

   This enables you to upgrade Grafana without the risk of losing your configuration changes.

1. Run the following commands:

   ```bash
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade
   ```

Grafana automatically updates when you run `apt-get upgrade`.

### Binary .tar file

To upgrade Grafana installed from the binary `.tar.gz` package, complete the following steps:

1. In your current installation of Grafana, save your custom configuration changes to a file named `<grafana_install_dir>/conf/custom.ini`.

   This enables you to upgrade Grafana without the risk of losing your configuration changes.

1. [Download](https://grafana.com/grafana/download) the binary `.tar.gz` package.

1. Extract the downloaded package and overwrite the existing files.

### RPM or YUM

To upgrade Grafana installed using RPM or YUM complete the following steps:

1. In your current installation of Grafana, save your custom configuration changes to a file named `<grafana_install_dir>/conf/custom.ini`.

   This enables you to upgrade Grafana without the risk of losing your configuration changes.

1. Perform one of the following steps based on your installation.

   - If you [downloaded an RPM package](https://grafana.com/grafana/download) to install Grafana, then complete the steps documented in [Install Grafana on Red Hat, RHEL, or Fedora]({{< relref "../../setup-grafana/installation/redhat-rhel-fedora/" >}}) or [Install Grafana on SUSE or OpenSUSE]({{< relref "../../setup-grafana/installation/suse-opensuse/" >}}) to upgrade Grafana.
   - If you used the Grafana YUM repository, run the following command:

     ```bash
     sudo yum update grafana
     ```

   - If you installed Grafana on OpenSUSE or SUSE, run the following command:

     ```bash
     sudo zypper update
     ```

### Docker

To upgrade Grafana running in a Docker container, complete the following steps:

1. In your current installation of Grafana, save your custom configuration changes to a file named `<grafana_install_dir>/conf/custom.ini`.

   This enables you to upgrade Grafana without the risk of losing your configuration changes.

1. Run a commands similar to the following commands.

   > **Note:** This is an example. The parameters you enter depend on how you configured your Grafana container.

   ```bash
   docker pull grafana/grafana
   docker stop my-grafana-container
   docker rm my-grafana-container
   docker run -d --name=my-grafana-container --restart=always -v /var/lib/grafana:/var/lib/grafana grafana/grafana
   ```

### Windows

To upgrade Grafana installed on Windows, complete the following steps:

1. In your current installation of Grafana, save your custom configuration changes to a file named `<grafana_install_dir>/conf/custom.ini`.

   This enables you to upgrade Grafana without the risk of losing your configuration changes.

1. [Download](https://grafana.com/grafana/download) the Windows binary package.

1. Extract the contents of the package to the location in which you installed Grafana.

   You can overwrite existing files and folders, when prompted.

### Mac

To upgrade Grafana installed on Mac, complete the following steps:

1. In your current installation of Grafana, save your custom configuration changes to a file named `<grafana_install_dir>/conf/custom.ini`.

   This enables you to upgrade Grafana without the risk of losing your configuration changes.

1. [Download](https://grafana.com/grafana/download) the Mac binary package.

1. Extract the contents of the package to the location in which you installed Grafana.

   You can overwrite existing files and folders, when prompted.

## Update Grafana plugins

After you upgrade Grafana, we recommend that you update all plugins because a new version of Grafana
can make older plugins stop working properly.

Run the following command to update plugins:

```bash
grafana-cli plugins update-all
```