Howto: Upgrade Postgresql 16 to 17

Follow these steps to upgrade your existing Postgresql 16 cluster to version 17.

Note: all steps should be done as root (or using sudo).

1. use pg_lsclusters to list the current clusters. There should be two available:

# pg_lsclusters 
Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory              Log file
16  main    5432 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/16/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log
17  main    5433 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log

The cluster in version 16 should contain all your current data, while version 17 should be empty.

2. now drop the empty new cluster with pg_dropcluster:

# pg_dropcluster 17 main --stop

3. verify, that only the old version is left:

# pg_lsclusters 
Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory              Log file
16  main    5432 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/16/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log

4. start the upgrade using pg_upgradecluster, and watch the output:

# pg_upgradecluster 16 main 
Stopping old cluster...
Restarting old cluster with restricted connections...
Notice: extra pg_ctl/postgres options given, bypassing systemctl for start operation
Creating new PostgreSQL cluster 17/main ...
[....]
Success. Please check that the upgraded cluster works. If it does,
you can remove the old cluster with
    pg_dropcluster 16 main

Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory              Log file
16  main    5433 down   postgres /var/lib/postgresql/16/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-16-main.log
Ver Cluster Port Status Owner    Data directory              Log file
17  main    5432 online postgres /var/lib/postgresql/17/main /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-17-main.log

5. at last, drop the old cluster and remove the old packages:

# pg_dropcluster 16 main
# apt purge postgresql-16 postgresql-client-16

Done!

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