Update VyOS

New system images can be added using the add system image command. This command extracts the image and prompts you to use the current system configuration and SSH security keys, allowing the new image to boot with your current configuration.

Note

Only LTS releases are PGP-signed.

add system image <url | path> | [latest] [vrf name] [username user [password pass]]

Use this command to install a new system image. You can retrieve the image from the web (http://, https://) or from your local system. For example: /tmp/vyos-1.2.3-amd64.iso.

The add system image command also supports installing new VyOS versions through an optional VRF. If the URL requires authentication, you can specify an optional username and password on the command line, which will be passed as “Basic-Auth” to the server.

If there isn’t enough free disk space, the installation will be canceled. To delete images, use the delete system image command.

VyOS associates configuration with each image, and each image has its own unique configuration copy. This differs from traditional network routers where the configuration is shared across all images.

Note

If you have personal files such as scripts that you want to preserve during the upgrade, store them in /config since this directory is always copied to newly installed images.

You can access files from a previous installation and copy them to your current image if they were stored in the /config directory. Use the copy command to do this. For example, to copy /config/config.boot from the VyOS 1.2.1 image, run:

copy file 1.2.1://config/config.boot to /tmp/config.boot.1.2.1

Example

vyos@vyos:~$ add system image https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3-us.vyos.io/rolling/current/vyos-1.4-rolling-202201120317-amd64.iso
Trying to fetch ISO file from https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3-us.vyos.io/rolling/current/vyos-1.4-rolling-202201120317-amd64.iso
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  338M  100  338M    0     0  3837k      0  0:01:30  0:01:30 --:--:-- 3929k
ISO download succeeded.
Checking for digital signature file...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found

Unable to fetch digital signature file.
Do you want to continue without signature check? (yes/no) [yes]
Checking MD5 checksums of files on the ISO image...OK.
Done!

What would you like to name this image? [vyos-1.3-rolling-201912201452]:

OK.  This image will be named: vyos-1.3-rolling-201912201452

You can use latest option. It loads the latest available Rolling release.

vyos@vyos:~$ add system image latest

Note

To use the latest option, “system update-check url” must be configured appropriately for your installed release.

For updates to the Rolling Release for AMD64, the following URL may be used:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vyos/vyos-nightly-build/refs/heads/current/version.json

Hint

You can access the latest Rolling Release for AMD64 from a web browser at:

https://vyos.net/get/nightly-builds/

After rebooting, verify the version you’re running using the show version command.