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Teleport

Upgrading the Teleport Binary

Version 11.x
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In this guide, we will show you how to upgrade the teleport binary on a Linux host without sacrificing availability.

If you are running teleport as a container, see How to Run Teleport Using Docker for information on specifying a version.

Prerequisites

This guide requires a host where the teleport binary is running. The version of the binary must be behind the latest.

For Teleport major version 11 the latest version is 11.3.1. Compare this to the version of Teleport you have installed on the host:

teleport version
Teleport v8.3.7 git:v8.3.7-0-ga8d066935 go1.17.3

Step 1/3. Download a new Teleport binary

Preserve the old binary, just in case the upgrade goes wrong.

DIR=$(which teleport | xargs dirname)
sudo mv ${DIR}/teleport ${DIR}/teleport.bak

Install the newest version of Teleport on the host:

Next, use the appropriate commands for your environment to install your package.

Teleport Edition

Open Source

Add the Teleport repository to your repository list:

Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-release
Add the Teleport APT repository for v11. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
Note: if using a fork of Debian or Ubuntu you may need to use '$ID_LIKE'
and the codename your distro was forked from instead of '$ID' and '$VERSION_CODENAME'.
Supported versions are listed here: https://github.com/gravitational/teleport/blob/master/build.assets/tooling/cmd/build-os-package-repos/runners.go#L42-L67
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/v11" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install teleport
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-release
Add the Teleport YUM repository for v11. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
Note: if using a fork of RHEL/CentOS or Amazon Linux you may need to use '$ID_LIKE'
and the codename your distro was forked from instead of '$ID'
Supported versions are listed here: https://github.com/gravitational/teleport/blob/master/build.assets/tooling/cmd/build-os-package-repos/runners.go#L133-L153
sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo $(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v11/teleport.repo")
sudo yum install teleport
Tip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults    secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
Optional:  Use DNF on newer distributions
$ sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://rpm.releases.teleport.dev/teleport.repo
$ sudo dnf install teleport

In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM-ARCH with the appropriate value (amd64, arm64, or arm). All example commands using this variable will update after one is filled out.

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./install

In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM-ARCH with the appropriate value (amd64, arm64, or arm). All example commands using this variable will update after one is filled out.

After Downloading the .deb file for your system architecture, install it with dpkg. The example below assumes the root user:

dpkg -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent_11.3.1_
.deb
Selecting previously unselected package teleport-ent.
(Reading database ... 30810 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack teleport-ent_11.3.1_$SYSTEM_ARCH.deb ...
Unpacking teleport-ent 11.3.1 ...
Setting up teleport-ent 11.3.1 ...

After Downloading the .rpm file for your system architecture, install it with rpm:

rpm -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent-11.3.1.
.rpm
warning: teleport-ent-11.3.1.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA512 Signature, key ID 6282c411: NOKEY
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v11.3.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./install

For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations of Teleport Enterprise, package URLs will be slightly different:

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport-ent
sudo ./install

In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM-ARCH with the appropriate value (amd64, arm64, or arm). All example commands using this variable will update after one is filled out.

After Downloading the .deb file for your system architecture, install it with dpkg. The example below assumes the root user:

dpkg -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent_11.2.1_
.deb
Selecting previously unselected package teleport-ent.
(Reading database ... 30810 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack teleport-ent_11.2.1_$SYSTEM_ARCH.deb ...
Unpacking teleport-ent 11.2.1 ...
Setting up teleport-ent 11.2.1 ...

After Downloading the .rpm file for your system architecture, install it with rpm:

rpm -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent-11.2.1.
.rpm
warning: teleport-ent-11.2.1.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA512 Signature, key ID 6282c411: NOKEY
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.2.1-linux-
-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./install

Before installing a teleport binary with a version besides v11, read our compatibility rules to ensure that the binary is compatible with Teleport Cloud.

When running multiple teleport binaries within a cluster, the following rules apply:

  • Patch and minor versions are always compatible, for example, any 8.0.1 component will work with any 8.0.3 component and any 8.1.0 component will work with any 8.3.0 component.
  • Servers support clients that are 1 major version behind, but do not support clients that are on a newer major version. For example, an 8.x.x Proxy Service is compatible with 7.x.x resource services and 7.x.x tsh, but we don't guarantee that a 9.x.x resource service will work with an 8.x.x Proxy Service. This also means you must not attempt to upgrade from 6.x.x straight to 8.x.x. You must upgrade to 7.x.x first.
  • Proxy Services and resource services do not support Auth Services that are on an older major version, and will fail to connect to older Auth Services by default. This behavior can be overridden by passing --skip-version-check when starting Proxy Services and resource services.

Step 2/3. Fork the teleport process

Fork a new teleport process by sending it the USR2 signal:

sudo kill -USR2 $(pidof teleport)

The original teleport process forked a new child process and passed existing file descriptors to the child. You now have two processes handling requests on the same socket:

pidof teleport
235276 235119

In our example, 235276 is a PID of the child process, and 235119 is a PID of the parent.

You can use the following command, which prints the parent for each PID returned by pidof:

ps -o ppid= -p $(pidof teleport)
   1494
   1495

In the logs you will see that the parent process reports that it has forked a new child process, and the child accepts file descriptors from its parent.

2021-08-19T10:16:51-07:00 [PROC:1]  INFO Forked new child process. path:/usr/local/teleport service/signals.go:457
2021-08-19T10:16:51-07:00 [PROC:1]  INFO Using file descriptor diag 127.0.0.1:3434 passed by the parent process. service/signals.go:207

Step 3/3. Return to a single teleport process

After forking the new teleport process, check the logs to ensure that the process is running as expected. After that, you should either roll back or complete the upgrade:

If the new binary behaves with errors, shut down the child process:

sudo kill -TERM 235276
2022-04-20T15:33:58Z INFO [PROC:1]    Got signal "terminated", exiting immediately. service/signals.go:86
2022-04-20T15:33:58Z WARN [PROC:1]    Forked teleport process 235276 has exited with status: 0. service/signals.go:506
WARNING

Do not forget to restore the original binary

sudo mv ${DIR}/teleport.bak ${DIR}/teleport

You can retry the process again later.

WARNING

If you are upgrading a teleport daemon using an SSH connection established via Teleport, make sure to connect to the newly upgraded teleport process and shut down the previous teleport process from it.

You can see which teleport process handles the connection by using pstree:

pstree -aps $$
systemd,1 splash
└─systemd,6247 --user
└─teleport-,235276
└─bash,190718
└─pstree,242371 -aps 190718

Shut down the parent process gracefully using SIGQUIT:

sudo kill -QUIT 235119

The parent process will log a graceful shutdown:

2021-08-19T10:32:10-07:00 INFO [PROXY:SER] Shutting down gracefully. service/service.go:2952

In a couple of minutes, all existing connections drain off and the parent will exit:

pidof teleport
235276

If for some reason, the parent process gets stuck (e.g., waiting for existing connections to finish), you can shut it down non-gracefully:

sudo kill -TERM 235119

You are all set.

Further reading

In this guide, we explained how to upgrade the teleport binary on a single host. If you would like to learn how to upgrade all of the components in a Teleport cluster while preserving compatibility, read Upgrading a Teleport Cluster.

See the full list of supported signals in the Teleport Signals Reference.

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