[[breaking-changes]]
= Breaking changes

[partintro]
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This section discusses the changes that you need to be aware of when migrating
your application from one version of Elasticsearch to another.

As a general rule:

* Migration between minor versions -- e.g. `7.x` to `7.y` -- can be
  performed by <<rolling-upgrades,upgrading one node at a time>>.

* Migration between consecutive major versions -- e.g. `6.x` to `7.x` --
  requires a <<restart-upgrade,full cluster restart>>.

* Migration between non-consecutive major versions -- e.g. `5.x` to `7.x` --
  is not supported.

For more information, see <<setup-upgrade>>.

See also <<release-highlights>> and <<es-release-notes>>.

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include::migrate_7_0.asciidoc[]