Upgrade AKO using Helm

This page describes how to upgrade Aerospike Kubernetes Operator (AKO) to version 4.6.0 by using Helm.

Prerequisites

• Helm 3.x

Note

Do not skip intermediate AKO versions if you are starting from version 3.0.0. Upgrade to version 4.5.0 or later before upgrading to version 4.6.0.

Upgrade CRD

Helm 3.x does not support the upgrade of Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs). You need to manually upgrade the CRD.

1. Replace the old CRDs with the new CRD:

   Caution

   Do not remove the old CRDs. This deletes all the Aerospike related CRs like AerospikeClusters, AerospikeBackups. Do not use kubectl replace with the --force flag as this also deletes all the Aerospike related CRs.

   kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aerospike/aerospike-kubernetes-operator/v4.6.0/config/crd/bases/asdb.aerospike.com_aerospikeclusters.yaml
   kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aerospike/aerospike-kubernetes-operator/v4.6.0/config/crd/bases/asdb.aerospike.com_aerospikebackupservices.yaml
   kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aerospike/aerospike-kubernetes-operator/v4.6.0/config/crd/bases/asdb.aerospike.com_aerospikebackups.yaml
   kubectl replace -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aerospike/aerospike-kubernetes-operator/v4.6.0/config/crd/bases/asdb.aerospike.com_aerospikerestores.yaml

2. Run the following command to add the Helm repository.

   helm repo add aerospike https://aerospike.github.io/aerospike-kubernetes-enterprise

   If the Helm repository is already added, update the index:

   helm repo update

3. Run the following command to upgrade AKO:

   helm upgrade aerospike-kubernetes-operator aerospike/aerospike-kubernetes-operator --version=4.6.0

   The chart checks your values against its values schema. If helm upgrade reports a schema error, correct the value that the error names. To change how AKO gets its webhook certificate, see Webhook certificates.

Check AKO logs

AKO runs as two replicas by default for higher availability. Run the following command to follow the logs for the AKO pods.

kubectl -n RELEASE_NAMESPACE logs -f deployments/aerospike-kubernetes-operator manager

Sample output:

2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  setup  Initializing webhook certificate watcher using provided certificates  {"webhook-cert-path": "/tmp/k8s-webhook-server/serving-certs", "webhook-cert-name": "tls.crt", "webhook-cert-key": "tls.key"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.certwatcher  Updated current TLS certificate
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  setup  Init aerospike-server config schemas
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "6.0.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "6.1.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "6.2.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "7.0.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "8.0.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "8.1.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "8.2.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "6.3.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "6.4.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "7.1.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  DEBUG  setup  Config schema added  {"version": "7.2.0"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a mutating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1, Kind=AerospikeCluster", "path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1-aerospikecluster"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1-aerospikecluster"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a validating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1, Kind=AerospikeCluster", "path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1-aerospikecluster"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1-aerospikecluster"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a mutating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1beta1, Kind=AerospikeBackupService", "path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackupservice"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackupservice"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a validating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1beta1, Kind=AerospikeBackupService", "path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackupservice"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackupservice"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a mutating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1beta1, Kind=AerospikeBackup", "path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackup"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackup"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a validating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1beta1, Kind=AerospikeBackup", "path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackup"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikebackup"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a mutating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1beta1, Kind=AerospikeRestore", "path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikerestore"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/mutate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikerestore"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.builder  Registering a validating webhook  {"GVK": "asdb.aerospike.com/v1beta1, Kind=AerospikeRestore", "path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikerestore"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/validate-asdb-aerospike-com-v1beta1-aerospikerestore"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  eviction-webhook  Eviction webhook metrics registered
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Registering webhook  {"path": "/validate-eviction"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  setup  Adding webhook certificate watcher to manager
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  setup  Starting manager
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  starting server  {"name": "health probe", "addr": "[::]:8081"}
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Starting webhook server
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  setup  disabling http/2
2026-01-08T14:27:14Z  INFO  controller-runtime.webhook  Serving webhook server  {"host": "", "port": 9443}