Upgrade schedule and options

Review the schedule for the Elasticsearch upgrade. Choose to perform the upgrade yourself or allow the VIP Team to complete the upgrade for your environments.

For environments that have Enterprise Search activated on at least one site, the version of Elasticsearch must be upgraded from version 7 to version 8 before Elasticsearch 7 reaches end of life on 15 January 2026. Software that is end of life no longer receives security updates or bug fixes.

Read the Elasticsearch 8 release notes

Enterprise Search is a performant and customizable Elasticsearch solution available for WordPress applications on the WordPress VIP Platform. Enterprise Search is an Integration that is managed in the VIP Dashboard. Prior to the release of Integrations, Enterprise Search activation was managed with constants added to an application’s codebase. The upgrade to Elasticsearch 8 is required for all environments that have Enterprise Search activated on at least one site, even if the environment has not yet completed the transition from code-activation to Integrations.

Read more about Enterprise Search

How to upgrade

• You can choose not to take action and the VIP Team will perform the Elasticsearch upgrade on all of your environments sometime before 15 January 2026. The exact date and time of upgrades performed by the VIP Team cannot be scheduled or announced beforehand.
• Or, you can choose to perform the Elasticsearch upgrade yourself for the environments in your application(s). Performing the upgrade yourself allows you to complete testing and any necessary code updates at your own pace, and to have control over the timing of the actual upgrade.

Follow the instructions in this Guidebook to perform the Elasticsearch upgrade yourself in just a few steps.