Does Sentry automatically create a pre‑upgrade backup before running sentry upgrade?

Answer

No, the sentry upgrade command does not create a pre-upgrade backup automatically. This is a deliberate design choice in Sentry's upgrade mechanism.

Confirmed Behavior

• The upgrade process performs schema migrations and code updates without generating any backup artifacts or snapshot directories.
• No command-line flag (such as --backup or --create-snapshot) exists to trigger automatic backup creation.
• There is no built-in rollback mechanism if migrations fail mid-process.

Why This Matters

The absence of automatic backups means administrators must handle data protection manually. This design likely prioritizes simplicity and assumes operators will manage their own backup strategies for production environments.

Recommended Manual Steps

1. PostgreSQL Database Dump: Execute pg_dump -U sentry_user -h localhost sentry_db > sentry_backup_$(date +%F).sql before upgrading.
2. Configuration Backup: Copy config/ directory contents and any environment files (.env, sentry.conf.py).
3. Media Files: Archive the uploads/ directory if custom media is stored locally.
4. Version Verification: Note the current Sentry version via sentry --version for potential rollback reference.

Recovery After Failed Upgrade

If an upgrade fails, the typical recovery path is:

1. Stop the Sentry service to prevent further writes.
2. Restore the PostgreSQL database from the manual dump: psql -U sentry_user -h localhost sentry_db < sentry_backup_2024-01-15.sql.
3. Revert configuration files from your backup.
4. Restart Sentry services.

Verify service health with sentry checkup after restoration.

Verification Steps

To confirm the current behavior in your environment:

• Run sentry upgrade --help and review available options—backup flags are not present in any released version.
• Check upgrade logs for entries containing 'Backup' or 'snapshot'—these will be absent.
• Inspect the Sentry source code (version X.X.X) for backup-related logic in the upgrade command implementation.