# 🔄 Upgrade FreeLLMAPI without losing your data — and keep a way back

**URL:** <https://onehack.st/t/upgrade-freellmapi-without-losing-your-data-and-keep-a-way-back/326417>\
**Category:** Tutorials & Methods\
**Tags:** tips-tricks, backup, self-hosted-tools\
**Created:** [October 12, 2026, 8:33pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/upgrade-freellmapi-without-losing-your-data-and-keep-a-way-back/326417 "2026-10-12T20:33:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BCBC](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/bcbc/32/174133_2.png) [@BCBC](https://onehack.st/u/BCBC)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 8:33pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/upgrade-freellmapi-without-losing-your-data-and-keep-a-way-back/326417/1 "2026-10-12T20:33:53Z")

</div>

### 🔄 Upgrade it, verify it, keep a way back

 ![The whole upgrade, in five glowing stages: before old v0.13.9 still running, copy the database (a filename is not a backup), one override moves the traffic, livez 200 readyz 200, old version kept in place, and a dashed amber line labelled the way back](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/b/0/b01b58ec693b3bc7e117b6ebd39c664f65834600.jpeg)

**Downloading new code is not an upgrade. Building it is not an upgrade. Restarting the service is not proof that it worked.**

I upgraded a live **FreeLLMAPI** box from **v0.13.9-ish to v0.13.10** — a Proxmox VE 9 container, Debian, plain **Node.js and systemd** , SQLite, **no Docker**. It finished clean, and the way it finished clean is the whole point of this post.

**🎯 Why it matters:** an upgrade can look finished while the old code is still running, or while the new service quietly builds itself an **empty database**. Those two failures are invisible until you need your data.  
**✨ What makes it unique:** nothing gets overwritten. The old version stays installed, and the entire switch is **one systemd override** — flip it forward, or flip it back.  
**❤ Why you should care:** you keep a **way back**. That turns an upgrade from a gamble into a procedure.

### 🔀 The road, in one picture

```auto
        users
          |
   [systemd switch]
      / \
   NEW OLD
 v0.13.10 kept, ready

```

One lever. The new version takes the traffic, and the old version stays installed, whole, ready to take it back.

### 🧭 Six stages, and the trap hiding in each

**1 · Know what is running.** Which directory, which tag, which systemd unit, where the database lives, where the keys live. `systemctl cat`, `systemctl status`, `git describe --tags --always`.  
**🪤 The trap:** the database is not always inside the app folder, and the version the health check reports is not always the version Git checked out. A clean checkout proves nothing about what systemd actually launched.

**2 · Back up before you touch anything.** The application directory, the systemd config, a **separate SQLite rollback copy** , and a full container backup.  
`sqlite3 /path/to/freeapi.db ".backup '/path/to/rollback.db'"`  
**🪤 The trap:**  **a filename is not a backup.** Restore it somewhere and look at it before you trust it.

**3 · Keep the original, install beside it.** `/opt/freellmapi-original/` and `/opt/freellmapi-v0.13.10/`. Nothing is deleted, nothing is overwritten.

**4 · Fetch the exact release.** The tag you chose — not the moving branch.

**5 · Install dependencies and build.** A successful build is a step, not a result.

**6 · Mind the migrations.** A release that reshapes the database can leave the old binary unable to read it. **App and database are one unit** — that is why step 2 exists.

### ✅ Then verify twice, because once is not enough

**First, the service:** the unit is active, and `/livez` and `/readyz` both answer **HTTP 200**.  
**Then, the real path:** check it the way your users reach it, over the network — not just from inside the box. SSH access to the upgraded instance answered **200** in my run.

**🪤 The trap that catches monitoring setups:** treating anything that is not 200 as “down”. They are different conditions.

- **401** — the server answered, authentication is required
- **403** — the server answered, access is forbidden
- **404** — the server answered, that path is not there
- **500** — the server answered, and it has an internal error
- **no response at all** — that is the only real “cannot reach it”

A 401 proves that authentication is required, not that the service is down. A 200 on a health endpoint proves the service answers, not that every API call works.

### 🧾 What was actually proven, and what was not

**Verified:** new tag checked out · dependencies built · **original source kept** · **existing database retained** · migrations completed · integrity check passed · systemd pointing at the new version · service active after cutover · `/livez` 200 · `/readyz` 200 · network path 200 · old instance still reachable · **rollback materials preserved**.

**Not yet proven:** every provider integration · every model answering · compatibility with every existing API client · **recovery after a host reboot**. Those are separate tests, and saying so is part of doing the job properly.

### 🚫 What I would not do

- Overwrite a working directory without a backup
- Treat a successful build as a finished upgrade
- Treat 200 as proof that everything works, or 401 as proof that nothing does
- Run migrations without a rollback copy
- Swap a systemd unit without preserving its original
- Delete the old installation right away
- Run package cleanup just before a critical reboot
- Expose admin interfaces to the internet to make testing easier
- Paste environment files, API keys or setup codes into troubleshooting logs
- Call the upgrade done before the **running service and its database** were both checked

### ⏪ And the way back, told honestly

Rollback means: the old directory, the old systemd config, the **database copy** , the container backup, and a note of the new override. Two truths to hold:

**1 · An older app against a migrated database can fail.** They move together.  
**2 · Restoring an old database discards everything written since that copy.** Rollback is a controlled recovery, not a `git checkout`.

### 🔗 The pieces

- **[FreeLLMAPI](https://github.com/tashfeenahmed/freellmapi)** — the project itself
- **[Its releases](https://github.com/tashfeenahmed/freellmapi/releases)** — pick the exact tag
- **[SQLite’s own backup command](https://sqlite.org/backup.html)** — the safe copy, while the service runs
- **[My earlier post on this box](https://onehack.st/t/326404)** — what it is and where the free models come from

**🎯 Do it once. Document it. Verify it. Keep a way back.**