You can upgrade K3s by using the installation script, or by manually installing the binary of the desired version.

Note: When upgrading, upgrade server nodes first one at a time, then any worker nodes.

Upgrade K3s Using the Installation Script

To upgrade K3s from an older version you can re-run the installation script using the same flags, for example:

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -

If you want to upgrade to specific version you can run the following command:

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | INSTALL_K3S_VERSION=vX.Y.Z-rc1 sh -

Manually Upgrade K3s Using the Binary

Or to manually upgrade K3s:

  1. Download the desired version of the K3s binary from releases
  2. Copy the downloaded binary to /usr/local/bin/k3s (or your desired location)
  3. Stop the old k3s binary
  4. Launch the new k3s binary

Restarting K3s

Restarting K3s is supported by the installation script for systemd and openrc. To restart manually for systemd use:

sudo systemctl restart k3s

To restart manually for openrc use:

sudo service k3s restart