---
title: Upgrade
description: This guide covers common aspects of upgrading an AM deployment, whether you are moving to a new maintenance release, upgrading to a new major release, or migrating from a legacy release to a newer AM release.
component: pingam
version: 8.1
page_id: pingam:upgrade:preface
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingam/8.1/upgrade/preface.html
keywords: ["Upgrade"]
page_aliases: ["index.adoc", "upgrade-guide:preface.adoc"]
---

# Upgrade

This guide covers common aspects of upgrading an AM deployment, whether you are moving to a new maintenance release, upgrading to a new major release, or migrating from a legacy release to a newer AM release.

Release levels, and how much change to expect in a maintenance, minor, or major release, are defined in [Product Release Levels](https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingam/release-notes/stability.html#release-levels). Release levels are identified by version number.

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#### [Before you upgrade](upgrade-planning.html)

Review the tasks you need to complete before upgrading AM.

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#### [Upgrade servers](upgrade-servers.html)

Learn, step by step, how to upgrade the AM core services.

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#### [Upgrade components](upgrade-components.html)

Review components and services that you might need to upgrade or reconfigure.

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#### [Migrate to FBC](migrate-to-fbc.html)

Migrate from an LDAP configuration store to file-based configuration.

|   |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| - | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|   | AM supports several versions of the web and Java agents, so you don't usually need to upgrade your agents when you upgrade AM.You can find information on the supported AM versions in [Web Agents](https://docs.pingidentity.com/web-agents/latest/release-notes/before-you-install.html#am-requirements) or [Java Agents](https://docs.pingidentity.com/java-agents/latest/release-notes/before-you-install.html#am-requirements).Learn more about upgrading web and Java agents in the [Web Agents documentation](https://docs.pingidentity.com/web-agents/2025.3/upgrade/preface.html) or the [Java Agents documentation](https://docs.pingidentity.com/java-agents/2025.3/upgrade/preface.html). |