Upgrade using Docker Compose

Upgrade a Docker Compose deployment of Anchore Enterprise to a newer release within the same major version.

This procedure upgrades a Docker Compose deployment of Anchore Enterprise to a newer release within the same major version. Before you begin, review Prepare for the Upgrade.

This procedure applies to upgrades within v6.x only. It reuses your existing volumes and configuration, which is not valid when migrating from v5.x. For that, follow the v5.x → v6.x Migration Guide.

Upgrading a host with no outbound internet access? See Air-Gapped Upgrade before you begin. You’ll need to mirror the new image tags to your registry (or move them as a tarball) before restarting the stack below.

Upgrade Procedure

Step 1: Review the Release Notes

View the Anchore Enterprise Release Notes for the target version. The release notes call out breaking changes, new or changed configuration, and any version-specific upgrade instructions you need to plan for before starting.

Step 2: Stop Anchore Enterprise

docker compose down

Step 3: Back Up Your Data Volumes

As described in Prepare for the Upgrade, make a copy of any data volumes before proceeding.

Step 4: Back Up Your Original Compose File

cp docker-compose.yaml docker-compose.yaml.backup

Step 5: Update Your Compose File

Download the compose file that ships with the target release and check it against your current file to see if there any changes that may affect your deployment, such as new services, environment variables, or volume definitions:

curl -sSfL https://docs.anchore.com/current/docs/deployment/docker_compose/docker-compose.yaml > docker-compose-new.yaml

You may notice that the name and the volume changes in the new compose file that you download. Ensure that you DO NOT change or update these values. These need to be kept the same in your existing docker-compose.yaml to ensure that you continue to use the same data stored on the volume you have been using to date.

name: "anchore-6001"
volumes:
  anchore-enterprise-6.0-db:
    external: false

The current URL always serves the latest release.

Fold any relevant changes into your docker-compose.yaml. If the diff shows nothing beyond version bumps, confirm every service is still present in your file and update the image tags in place. All services using the enterprise image move to the new release tag, while the ui service uses the separately versioned enterprise-ui image:

 services:
   api:
-    image: docker.io/anchore/enterprise:v6.0.1
+    image: docker.io/anchore/enterprise:v6.1.1
   ui:
-    image: docker.io/anchore/enterprise-ui:v6.0.0
+    image: docker.io/anchore/enterprise-ui:v6.1.0

Step 6: Restart the Anchore Enterprise Containers

docker compose up -d

Step 7: Confirm the Services Start

Watch the output of the previous to confirm all the services start. Once they have all started, you can use the below command to list the running services and confirm that they are all healthy.

docker ps

Step 8: Verify the New Version Is Running

Once the containers are up, verify the new version is running:

anchorectl system status

Last modified August 19, 2026