Update MeiliSearch
3 min read

Update MeiliSearch

Updating MeiliSearch deployed using Laravel Forge.

I am using MeiliSearch for the Wannabes framework that I created, which indexes all the snippets and makes the search super fast.

I am also using Laravel Forge, this is how I provisioned MeiliSearch, but doing it this way, it is not clear how to keep MeiliSearch Updated. I hope this guide can help with that.

Although this guide is created specifically with MeiliSearch using Laravel Forge in mind, the process should be the same for other installs.

It does however assume that:

  1. An IP Address is specified to listen on,
  2. MeiliSearch runs as a service, and
  3. A Master Key is set within the service.
  4. You are logged into the server running MeiliSearch

Set some variables

This is useful for copy / paste of commands.

Store Master Key in a variable

masterKey=`grep -o "master-key\s[a-zA-Z0-9]*" \
  /etc/systemd/system/meilisearch.service \
  | cut -d" " -f2`

Store current listening IP address in a variable, we want to keep this the same.

meiliUrl=`grep -o "http-addr\s[\.:0-9]*" \
  /etc/systemd/system/meilisearch.service \
  | cut -d" " -f2`

Confirm variables.

echo $masterKey
echo $meiliUrl

Current Version

Just to get and make a note of the current version to compare to after upgrade.

curl -s -X GET "http://$meiliUrl/version" \
  --header "X-Meili-API-Key: $masterKey" | jq
jq is optional, but renders json nicely in the terminal and can be installed using most package managers. I am running on Ubuntu, so apt install jq does the trick.
{
  "commitSha": "928930ddd552596f51280a17c143cf38079cdea9",
  "commitDate": "2021-09-13T10:17:10+00:00",
  "pkgVersion": "0.22.0"
}

Store the pkgVersion from the version output in a variable, it will be used later.

meiliVersion="0.22.0"

Current Indexes

Optional, but useful to see what the indexes currently are within MeiliSearch.

curl -s -X GET "http://$meiliUrl/indexes" \
  --header "X-Meili-API-Key: $masterKey" | jq
[
  {
    "uid": "dev_snippets",
    "name": "dev_snippets",
    "createdAt": "2021-09-29T05:54:22.878069498Z",
    "updatedAt": "2021-10-19T04:53:07.067189244Z",
    "primaryKey": "id"
  },
  {
    "uid": "pentester_snippets",
    "name": "pentester_snippets",
    "createdAt": "2021-09-29T05:54:31.368331867Z",
    "updatedAt": "2021-10-19T04:55:03.885423646Z",
    "primaryKey": "id"
  }
]

Prepare for Upgrade

Before upgrading, dumps need to be created as databases are not compatible across versions. Any database created by MeiliSearch v0.X can only be read by that version.

Create dump

curl -s -X POST "http://$meiliUrl/dumps" \
  --header "X-Meili-API-Key: $masterKey" | jq
{
  "uid": "20211027-051152103",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "startedAt": "2021-10-27T05:11:52.103832404Z"
}

Store the uid from the dumps output in a variable

dumpsUid="20211027-051152103"

Check the status of the dump using the dump's uid from above

curl -s -X GET "http://$meiliUrl/dumps/$dumpsUid/status" \
  --header "X-Meili-API-Key: $masterKey" | jq
{
  "uid": "20211027-051152103",
  "status": "done",
  "startedAt": "2021-10-27T05:11:52.103832404Z",
  "finishedAt": "2021-10-27T05:11:55.391049878Z"
}

Dumps will live in /dumps/ with the $dumpsUid.dump as the name.

ls /dumps/
20210929-054047423.dump  20211027-051152103.dump

Stop MeiliSearch

Once the dump process is complete, stop Meilisearch

sudo service meilisearch stop

Backup

Just in case, move the current data directory as a backup. I move the data directory using the current version appended to the directory name.

sudo mv /root/data.ms/ /root/data.ms.$meiliVersion/

Install MeiliSearch

This command will install the latest version

curl -L <https://install.meilisearch.com> | sh

After installation completes, move the binary to the correct location

sudo mv meilisearch /usr/bin/meilisearch

Confirm version

meilisearch -V

meilisearch-http 0.23.1

Import the dumps

Make sure to import the correct date's dumps. P.s. it should be in the $dumpsUid variable.

sudo /usr/bin/meilisearch \
 --env production \
 --http-addr $meiliUrl \
 --master-key $masterKey \
 --db-path /root/data.ms \
 --import-dump /dumps/$dumpsUid

This will run for a bit, but will soon indicate that the import is complete but will remain in a running state. Stop MeiliSearch using ^C

[2021-10-27T05:20:47Z INFO  meilisearch_lib::index_controller::dump_actor] Loading dump from 2021-10-27 05:11:52.106080030 UTC, dump database version: 0.22.0, dump version: V2
[2021-10-27T05:20:48Z INFO  meilisearch_lib::index_controller::dump_actor::loaders::v3] Loading dump from 2021-10-27 05:11:52.106080030 UTC, dump database version: 0.22.0, dump version: V3
[2021-10-27T05:20:56Z INFO  meilisearch_lib::index_controller::dump_actor::loaders::v3] Loading indexes.

888b     d888          d8b 888 d8b  .d8888b.                                    888
8888b   d8888          Y8P 888 Y8P d88P  Y88b                                   888
88888b.d88888              888     Y88b.                                        888
888Y88888P888  .d88b.  888 888 888  "Y888b.    .d88b.   8888b.  888d888 .d8888b 88888b.
888 Y888P 888 d8P  Y8b 888 888 888     "Y88b. d8P  Y8b     "88b 888P"  d88P"    888 "88b
888  Y8P  888 88888888 888 888 888       "888 88888888 .d888888 888    888      888  888
888   "   888 Y8b.     888 888 888 Y88b  d88P Y8b.     888  888 888    Y88b.    888  888
888       888  "Y8888  888 888 888  "Y8888P"   "Y8888  "Y888888 888     "Y8888P 888  888

Database path:		"/root/data.ms"
Server listening on:	"<http://10.106.0.3:7700>"
Environment:		"production"
Commit SHA:		"2e2eeb0a424408e27f4223e58afec303c53e1419"
Commit date:		"2021-10-12T14:47:06+00:00"
Package version:	"0.23.1"

Thank you for using MeiliSearch!

Start MeiliSearch Service

Once the import is complete, start the MeiliSearch service.

sudo service meilisearch start

Conclusion

That is currently my process for updating MeiliSearch, I am sure there will be changes to this once the MeiliSearch Team releases version 1.0, so keep an eye out for that.


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