// This assembly is included in the following assemblies:
//
// assembly-upgrade.adoc

[id='con-upgrade-sequence-{context}']
= Required upgrade sequence

[role="_abstract"]
To upgrade brokers and clients without downtime, you _must_ complete the Strimzi upgrade procedures in the following order:

. Make sure your Kubernetes cluster version is supported.
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Strimzi {ProductVersion} requires Kubernetes {KubernetesVersion}.
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You can xref:con-upgrade-cluster-{context}[upgrade Kubernetes with minimal downtime].

. xref:assembly-upgrade-cluster-operator-{context}[Upgrade the Cluster Operator].

. xref:assembly-upgrading-kafka-versions-{context}[Upgrade all Kafka brokers and client applications] to the latest supported Kafka version.

. Optional: Upgrade consumers and Kafka Streams applications xref:proc-upgrading-consumers-streams-cooperative-rebalancing_{context}[to use the _incremental cooperative rebalance_ protocol] for partition rebalances.