Update Channels

Update Channels dictate the flow of updates to running SpiceDB clusters.

All channels offer a trade-off between feature availability and update churn. While each channel has a different qualification standards, all channels offer fully tested GA releases of SpiceDB.

While open source users of the SpiceDB Operator have a single update channel of open source releases, AuthZed maintains two configurable channels:

• Rapid: every enterprise release of SpiceDB
• Regular: releases qualified by time spent deployed to Rapid, usually trailing by 1-2 releases

Configuring Updates

Once a channel is selected, Update Channels can be configured on two more dimensions: update strategy and rollout strategy.

Update Strategy

By default, channels are configured for automatic updates.

By unchecking a box, updates can be applied manually by selecting the next release whenever one so chooses.

Regardless of choice, updates can only occur between compatible versions of SpiceDB as dictated by the Update Channel.

Rollout Strategy

There are two different strategies for upgrading to a new version of SpiceDB:

• Rolling Update: zero-downtime, gradual deployment of new SpiceDB instances
• Immediate: involves downtime, but is the fastest way to upgrade

By default, a SpiceDB upgrade is applied using a Rolling Update to avoid downtime.