Upgrade to Camunda 8.8
Upgrade your Camunda 8 Self-Managed deployment from version 8.7 to 8.8.
Get started by preparing your Self-Managed environment for upgrade to Camunda 8.8. Confirm upgrade eligibility, understand platform-level changes, and identify actions you might need to take before upgrading.
Prepare for upgrade
About
This guide applies to Camunda 8 Self-Managed installations only and does not apply to Camunda 8 SaaS.
Camunda 8 upgrades must be performed sequentially. If your deployment is running a version earlier than 8.7, you must complete the required version-specific upgrades listed in upgrading from an earlier version before you can upgrade to 8.8.
Upgrade sequence
The 8.7 to 8.8 upgrade spans several guides. Work through them in this order, rather than treating them as separate destinations.
| Step | What you do | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Confirm upgrade eligibility, review platform changes in 8.8, and verify infrastructure compatibility. | Prepare for upgrade |
| 2 | Review component changes. Some require action before you upgrade, such as consolidating to a single Elasticsearch/OpenSearch instance and updating custom index prefixes. | Component upgrade from 8.7 to 8.8 |
| 3 | Create and update your 8.8 values file, then run the upgrade and any required data migration. | Upgrade Camunda 8.7 to 8.8 using Helm, or manual upgrade for non-Helm deployments |
| 4 | Monitor and validate the upgrade before returning the deployment to normal use. | Validate the upgrade |
Complete Step 2 before Step 3. The component guide contains prerequisites that affect what you add to your values file in Step 3.
Upgrade guides
Choose the upgrade guide that matches how your environment is deployed:
Kubernetes with Helm
Upgrade a Helm-managed Camunda 8.7 deployment on Kubernetes to version 8.8.
Manual
Manually upgrade a local Camunda installation from an archive distribution to version 8.8.
If you are upgrading a dual-region Helm deployment, follow the standard Helm upgrade guide and then complete the additional dual-region steps.
Docker Compose deployments
Docker Compose is supported for development and testing environments only.
Camunda does not provide an automated upgrade process for Docker Compose deployments. To upgrade, manually upgrade each component by following the component upgrade guide:
Component upgrade from 8.7 to 8.8
With Camunda 8.8, the default docker-compose.yaml deploys the Orchestration Cluster and connectors. Web Modeler must be deployed using a separate Docker Compose configuration.
For production environments, use Kubernetes with the official Camunda Helm chart or create a custom deployment process using Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or AWS CloudFormation.
8.8 release information
Learn about new features, breaking changes, and deprecations in Camunda 8.8:
Upgrading from an earlier version
Camunda 8 upgrades must be performed sequentially.
- You must upgrade sequentially, one minor version at a time. For example, you must upgrade from 8.6 to 8.7 before you can upgrade to 8.8.
- Upgrading to the latest available patch of each minor is strongly recommended for fix coverage.
- Do not skip releases. Skipping a minor version fails the schema compatibility check and blocks startup.
Use the following version-specific upgrade guides to upgrade to Camunda 8.7 before you can proceed with the 8.8 upgrade.
Each guide covers only the changes required for that specific version upgrade.
Kubernetes with Helm
- Upgrade from Camunda 8.6 to 8.7
- Upgrade from Camunda 8.5 to 8.6
- Upgrade from Camunda 8.4 to 8.5
- Upgrade from Camunda 8.3 to 8.4
- Upgrade from Camunda 8.2 to 8.3