Upgrade Kubernetes version

NKP supports in-place Kubernetes version upgrades via nic deploy. Edit the kubernetes_version field in your config and re-run deploy — nic handles the rest.

Before you upgrade

Version constraints and accepted formats vary by provider — see your provider's page before upgrading.

The Nebari Operator and Software Packs run inside the cluster and follow its Kubernetes version. There is no separate compatibility matrix to check before upgrading.

Upgrade steps

These steps are the same for all providers.

Edit kubernetes_version in your config. See your provider's page for provider specific requirements.
Validate the config:
Terminal window
```
nic validate -f <config-file>
```
Preview what will change:
Terminal window
```
nic deploy -f <config-file> --dry-run
```
Apply the upgrade:
Terminal window
```
nic deploy -f <config-file>
```

Operator and pack considerations

During node rolling, pods on the node being replaced are evicted and rescheduled elsewhere:

The Nebari Operator may be briefly unavailable while the node it runs on is replaced.
Software Packs, ArgoCD, Keycloak, and other foundational apps may be briefly unavailable during the rollout of the node they run on.
Once ArgoCD's replacement pod is ready, any apps that fell out of sync during the rollout are restored automatically.

Multi-replica workloads tolerate rolling node replacement without downtime, provided their replicas are spread across nodes. Single-replica packs will have a brief interruption while their pod is rescheduled.

Verify the upgrade

After deploy completes, check that all nodes are running the new version:

kubectl get nodes -o wide

All nodes should show the target version in the VERSION column. Then verify ArgoCD apps are healthy:

kubectl get applications -n argocd

All applications should reach Healthy. Any that are briefly Progressing after the upgrade will self-correct within a few minutes.