Updating LaraOwl

Safely upgrade your LaraOwl server to the latest version.

Keep LaraOwl current to receive new features, security patches, and bug fixes. The process differs slightly between Docker and Composer installs. Follow the one that matches how you deployed.

Back up your database before every update. Migrations can alter schema and are not always reversible. Take a full database dump first.

Back up first

Regardless of install method, snapshot your data before upgrading:

PostgreSQL

pg_dump -U laraowl laraowl > laraowl-backup.sql

Composer install

For a bare-metal / Composer deployment, update the code, dependencies, database, and compiled assets, then restart the background workers.

1. Enable maintenance mode

   Take the app offline so no telemetry is processed against a half-migrated schema:

   php artisan down
   
2. Pull the latest code

   git pull origin main
   
3. Update dependencies

   Update PHP and frontend dependencies:

   composer update
   npm install
   
4. Run database migrations

   Apply any new schema changes:

   php artisan migrate
   

   In an automated deploy pipeline, use php artisan migrate --force to run migrations without the interactive confirmation prompt.

5. Clear cached state

   Flush stale cached config, routes, views, and events so the new version’s values are used:

   php artisan optimize:clear
   
6. Rebuild frontend assets

   npm run build
   
7. Restart background workers

   Queue workers and Reverb hold the old code in memory until restarted. Restart them so they pick up the new version:

   php artisan queue:restart
   # If you run Horizon:
   php artisan horizon:terminate
   

   Your process manager (Supervisor) will automatically start fresh workers. Restart the Reverb process the same way if it is supervised.

8. Bring the app back online

   php artisan up
   

For production it is often faster to cache config and routes after clearing them: run php artisan optimize once the update is complete.

Docker install

For a Docker deployment, pull the latest code, rebuild the image, and recreate the containers. Because the app, worker, scheduler, and Reverb all share the same image, rebuilding once updates every service.

1. Pull the latest code

   cd laraowl
   git pull origin main
   

   If you deploy from a prebuilt image registry instead of building locally, pull the new image directly with docker compose pull and skip the --build flag in the next step.

2. Rebuild and restart the containers

   docker compose up -d --build
   

   Compose rebuilds the image and recreates only the containers that changed, restarting the app, Horizon worker, scheduler, and Reverb with the new code.

3. Run database migrations

   Migrations do not run automatically on rebuild. Apply them inside the app container:

   docker compose exec app php artisan migrate --force
   
4. Clear cached state

   docker compose exec app php artisan optimize:clear
   

After updating

• Confirm the dashboard loads and the connection indicator shows real-time updates are live.
• Send a test event from a monitored app and verify it appears.
• Check the logs for migration or worker errors — see Troubleshooting.