This guide covers the automatic in-place upgrade path for a PostgreSQL major version upgrade when using the CloudNativePG (CNPG) operator. CNPG natively supports offline in-place major version upgrades using PostgreSQL's pg_upgrade --link. This is triggered automatically when xl kube upgrade with PreservePvc=Yes applies a new Cluster template that bumps the imageName to a higher major version against an existing running cluster.
This guide covers the manual steps required to upgrade PostgreSQL across a major version when using the CloudNativePG (CNPG) operator-based PostgreSQL installation — i.e., when PostgreSQL is managed through the experimental postgresql-operator and postgresql-cluster rather than through the Deploy CR's built-in spec.postgresql keys.
This guide covers the manual steps required to migrate from the Bitnami chart-managed PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ installation (the default up to and including operator 25.1 releases) to the operator-managed equivalents: