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Upgrade to Pulse v5

This is a practical guide for upgrading an existing Pulse install to v5.

Before You Upgrade

  • Create an encrypted config backup: Settings → System → Backups → Create Backup
  • Confirm you can access the host/container console (for rollback and bootstrap token retrieval)
  • Review the v5 release notes on GitHub before upgrading

Upgrade Paths

systemd and Proxmox LXC installs

Preferred path:

  • Settings → System → Updates

If you prefer CLI, use the official installer for the target version:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/rcourtman/Pulse/releases/latest/download/install.sh | \
  sudo bash -s -- --version vX.Y.Z

This installer updates the Pulse server. Agent updates use the /install.sh command generated in Settings → Agents → Installation commands.

Docker

docker pull rcourtman/pulse:latest
docker compose up -d

Kubernetes (Helm)

helm repo update
helm upgrade pulse pulse/pulse -n pulse

Post-Upgrade Checklist

  • Confirm version: GET /api/version
  • Confirm scheduler health: GET /api/monitoring/scheduler/health
  • Confirm nodes are polling and no breakers are stuck open
  • Confirm notifications still send (send a test)
  • Confirm agents are connected (if used)

Notes and Common Gotchas

Bootstrap token on fresh auth setup

If you reset auth (for example by deleting .env), Pulse may require a bootstrap token before you can complete setup.

  • Docker: docker exec pulse /app/pulse bootstrap-token
  • systemd/LXC: sudo pulse bootstrap-token

Temperature monitoring in containers

If Pulse runs in a container and you are relying on SSH-based temperature collection, v5 blocks that in hardened configurations.

Preferred option:

  • Install the unified agent (pulse-agent) on Proxmox hosts with --enable-proxmox

Deprecated option (existing installs only):

  • pulse-sensor-proxy continues to work for now, but it is deprecated in v5 and not recommended for new installs. Plan to migrate to the unified agent.

Backups not showing after upgrade (v4 → v5)

If your backups stop appearing after upgrading from v4, your existing API token may be missing the PVEDatastoreAdmin permission required for backup visibility.

Quick fix (run on each Proxmox host):

pveum aclmod /storage -user pulse-monitor@pam -role PVEDatastoreAdmin

Alternative (re-run agent setup):

  1. Delete the node from Pulse Settings
  2. Re-run the agent setup command from Settings → Proxmox → Add Node
  3. The new token will have correct permissions

This happens because v5's agent setup grants broader permissions than the v4 manual setup scripts did.