---
title: "Best Practices: Upgrading AppGate SDP Appliances"
slug: "best-practices-upgrading-appgate-sdp-appliances"
description: "Upgrade your AppGate ZTNA appliances safely with this comprehensive guide, covering pre-upgrade checks, scripts, and troubleshooting tips."
updated: 2026-01-09T15:46:53Z
published: 2026-01-09T15:46:53Z
canonical: "support.appgate.com/best-practices-upgrading-appgate-sdp-appliances"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.appgate.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Best Practices: Upgrading AppGate SDP Appliances

This guide helps you plan and perform a safe upgrade of your AppGate SDP appliances. It supplements the AppGate SDP Admin Guide — refer to it for detailed instructions on each step.

🛑This guide is for upgrades from version 6.0 or later. If you're on version 5.5 or earlier, use the [historical upgrade script guide](/v1/docs/best-practices-upgrading-appgate-sdp-appliances-versions-55-and-earlier)

## Quick Things to Know

✅ Only upgrade within 2 versions (e.g., 6.0 → 6.2 is fine; 5.2 → 5.5 is not). ✅ Clients should also stay within 2 versions of the appliances. ⚠️Deprecated features may impact upgrades — always test first. 📜Scripts now check for deprecations before you upgrade. 📖 Always read the Release Notes and Known Issues before upgrading. 🧪Test in a dev environment first, especially if you use 3rd-party tools.

## Pre-Upgrade Checklist

### 1. Review & Prep

☐ Read the Release Notes for your upgrade version. ☐ Set a maintenance window (schedule at least 1 week in advance). ☐ Impose a config freeze during the upgrade. ☐ Download the upgrade file from AppGate's Secure Download Center. ☐ Get the [password](/v1/docs/a-password-is-required-to-download-the-sdp-appliance-images-and-upgrade-file) to open the file. ☐ Do not unzip the file! ☐ Download the latest version of [sdpctl](https://appgate.github.io/sdpctl/). ☐ Confirm SSH access to appliances (Not needed for actual upgrade, but for recovery). ☐ Get the Local Admin credentials. ☐ Ensure all appliances are in a Healthy state on the Dashboard. ☐ Perform a backup of your Controller(s)

- Backup using using **sdpctl**.
- (**Cloud only**) Also take a cloud snapshot (e.g., AWS, GCP).
- (**On prem vm** only) Create local vm snapshots).

### 2. Prepare

☐ Run the Prepare script (sdpctl initial setup):

- Distributes & verifies files, checks for deprecations, and doesn’t touch the live system
- Reboots remove distributed files. Re-run the script to redistribute files to affected machines.

☐ Fix any issues flagged by the script. ☐ Rerun as needed to confirm everything is good.

## Upgrade Time!

➡️ Freeze config changes (again), make backups/snapshots if needed. ➡️ Check the Dashboard – appliances must be Healthy. ➡️ Re-run Prepare mode for any appliances that have been rebooted or missed. ➡️ Run the Complete script to finish the upgrade.

## In Case of Trouble

🛠️If the upgrade fails, gather logs as outlined in the support guide and [contact support](/v1/docs/contacting-appgate-sdp-support). 🛠️If needed, follow the instructions to revert to a previous version.

## Helpful Links

[AppGate Secure Download Center](https://www.appgate.com/support)

[Downloads and guides for sdpctl](https://appgate.github.io/sdpctl/)

[Admin Guide – Upgrade Section](/v1/docs/upgrading-appliances)

[Release Notes](/v1/docs/appgate-sdp-release-notes)