# Cluster upgrades
<a name="cluster-upgrade"></a>

An *`eksctl`-managed* cluster can be upgraded in 3 easy steps:

1. upgrade control plane version with `eksctl upgrade cluster` 

1. upgrade nodegroups

1. update the default networking add-ons (For more information, see [Default add-on updates](addon-upgrade.md)):

Carefully review cluster upgrade related resources:
+  [Update existing cluster to new Kubernetes version](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/update-cluster.html) in the Amazon EKS User Guide
+  [Best Practices for Cluster Upgrades](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/best-practices/cluster-upgrades.html) in the EKS Best Practices Guide

**Note**  
The old `eksctl update cluster` will be deprecated. Use `eksctl upgrade cluster` instead.

## Updating control plane version
<a name="_updating_control_plane_version"></a>

Control plane version upgrades must be done for one minor version at a time.

To upgrade control plane to the next available version run:

```
eksctl upgrade cluster --name=<clusterName>
```

This command will not apply any changes right away, you will need to re-run it with `--approve` to apply the changes.

The target version for the cluster upgrade can be specified both with the CLI flag:

```
eksctl upgrade cluster --name=<clusterName> --version=1.16
```

or with the config file

```
cat cluster1.yaml
---
apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig

metadata:
  name: cluster-1
  region: eu-north-1
  version: "1.16"

eksctl upgrade cluster --config-file cluster1.yaml
```

**Warning**  
The only values allowed for the `--version` and `metadata.version` arguments are the current version of the cluster or one version higher. Upgrades of more than one Kubernetes version are not supported.