# Upgrading JupyterHub and its database

From time to time, you may wish to upgrade JupyterHub to take advantage
of new releases. While much of this process is automated using scripts,
such as those generated by alembic for database upgrades, it's critical
to backup data and configurations before shutting down the JupyterHub
process and server.

Four fundamental steps are needed when upgrading JupyterHub and its
database:

1. Backup
2. Shutdown
3. Upgrade JupyterHub
4. Run `jupyterhub upgrade-db` to upgrade the database

Let's take a closer look at each step in the upgrade process.

## The upgrade process

### Backup

### Shutdown

### Upgrade JupyterHub

### Run `jupyterhub upgrade-db`


## Upgrading a sqlite database