Upgrade strategy for self-hosted instance from 0.63.7

[mike1936]

I am currently at 0.63.7 with three machines: MacOS and Windows as clients, and ArchLinux as server using docker compose

Previously I used to follow the original Trilium releases and do as follows:

1. use one client as backup, not triggering the sync while doing the update
2. execute following in the server

docker-compose down
docker image ls
docker image rm zadam/trilium
docker-compose up -d

3. download binaries for the other client, and trigger the sync
4. after period of testing for stability, do the same as step 3 in the backup reserved client

From the readme it mentioned that the 0.90.4 is equivalent with 0.63.7, but then I figured out that the oldest docker image that is available is 0.96.0, considering the database integrity, is that safe to bump to 0.96.0 then to the latest one?

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @mike1936! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the Trilium team.

You can safely upgrade from 0.63.7 to 0.96.0 (and then to the latest) as long as you follow good backup practices. Trilium automatically creates a backup before any database migration, and you can restore from this if needed. The migration process is robust and applies all necessary steps sequentially, so skipping directly to 0.96.0 is supported and there’s no evidence of database integrity issues when doing so, provided migrations run uninterrupted and you have backups in place [source].

The original Docker image (zadam/trilium) is outdated; you should switch to the triliumnext/notes (or triliumnext/trilium) image for newer versions. Migrating is straightforward—just change the image/tag and start the container, and it will use your existing database without special steps [source].

Versions up to and including 0.90.4 of TriliumNext/Trilium are compatible with zadam/trilium 0.63.7. Any later versions increment the sync protocol, so after upgrading the server, make sure all clients are updated before syncing to avoid protocol mismatches [source].

Recommended steps:

1. Back up your data directory (especially the document.db and the backup folder).
2. Stop your server and switch your Docker image to triliumnext/notes:0.96.0 (or the latest).
3. Start the server and let migrations complete.
4. Update your clients to the matching version before syncing.
5. After confirming stability, update your backup client.

If anything goes wrong, you can restore from the backup-before-migration.db in your backup folder [source].

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[eliandoran]

I believe you can switch directly to the latest version since your version was not that old.

Start off with the desktop client, as it's the easiest to upgrade.

Use the right repo (TriliumNext/Trilium), both for desktop and server (Docker).