Pulse/docs/UPGRADE_v5.md

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://raw.githubusercontent.com/rcourtman/Pulse/release/5.1/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

Sensor proxy removal

The pulse-sensor-proxy from v4 is no longer needed — temperature monitoring is now handled by the unified agent. If you had the sensor proxy installed on your Proxmox hosts, remove it on each host after upgrading:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rcourtman/Pulse/release/5.1/scripts/uninstall-sensor-proxy.sh | \
  sudo bash -s -- --uninstall --purge

If you deleted the old node from Pulse and want the cleanup to also remove the old pulse-monitor@pam API user/tokens before reinstalling, add --remove-proxmox-access.

See the Legacy Cleanup section in the temperature monitoring docs for the full cleanup details.

Skipping this step will leave a selfheal timer running on the host that generates recurring TASK ERROR entries in the Proxmox task log.

LXC mount entry cleanup

If your Pulse LXC container fails to start after a host reboot with:

Failed to mount "/run/pulse-sensor-proxy" onto ".../mnt/pulse-proxy"
TASK ERROR: startup for container '<ctid>' failed

This means the v4 installer added a mount entry for /run/pulse-sensor-proxy to the container config. After reboot, /run (tmpfs) is cleared and the mount source no longer exists.

Automatic fix: Re-run the Pulse installer on the Proxmox host. It detects and removes stale sensor-proxy mount entries from all LXC container configs before proceeding.

Manual fix:

# Check which containers have stale entries
grep -n 'pulse-sensor-proxy' /etc/pve/lxc/*.conf

# Remove mp<N> entries via pct (container must be stopped)
# Replace mp0 with the actual key shown in the grep output (mp0, mp1, etc.)
pct set <ctid> -delete mp0

# Or remove lxc.mount.entry lines directly
sed -i '/lxc\.mount\.entry:.*pulse-sensor-proxy/d' /etc/pve/lxc/<ctid>.conf

After removing the stale entry, start the container with pct start <ctid>.

Temperature monitoring in containers

If Pulse runs in a container and you are relying on SSH-based temperature collection, move to the agent or run Pulse on the host. SSH-based collection from containers is intended for dev/test only (use PULSE_DEV_ALLOW_CONTAINER_SSH=true if you must).

Preferred option:

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

Alternative option:

• Run Pulse outside a container and use SSH-based temperature collection (restricted sensors -j keys)

Backups not showing (PVE)

If local PVE backups aren't appearing in Pulse, your API token may be missing the PVEDatastoreAdmin permission required for backup visibility.

This can happen if:

• You upgraded from v4 (older setup scripts didn't include this permission)
• You set up nodes via the unified agent before v5.1.x (the agent wasn't granting this permission)
• You created the API token manually without the storage permission

Quick fix (run on each Proxmox host):

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

Alternative (re-run setup):

1. Delete the node from Pulse Settings
2. Re-run the setup (either the UI-generated script or agent with --enable-proxmox)
3. The new token will have correct permissions

Note: The "re-run setup" option only works on v5.1.x or later, which includes the fix for agent-based setups.