Upgrade considerations for Relativity

Relativity Server 2026 requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8.1 on all servers in your environment. It is the only supported version; .NET 4.7.2 and 4.8 are no longer supported.

.NET Framework 4.8.1 is included by default with Windows Server 2025, so no separate installation is required on Relativity servers. Verify that it is present before running the Relativity installer, and install it manually on client machines that do not already have it, such as workstations running the Relativity Desktop Client.

Having other .NET versions installed alongside 4.8.1 is not an issue. .NET Framework 3.5 is no longer required, so you do not need to enable or install it on new servers; the only exception is the machine where the Relativity Processing Console (RPC) is installed, if you use the RPC.

Relativity Server 2026 delegates TLS version selection to the Windows operating system. Earlier releases set TLS 1.2 in application code, so Relativity's own connections used TLS 1.2 even when newer protocols were available. Your Windows SCHANNEL configuration now determines which TLS versions Relativity uses.

TLS 1.2 is required on all Relativity servers; keep it enabled. Disable TLS 1.0 and 1.1 on all Relativity servers. Running TLS 1.3 alongside TLS 1.2 for infrastructure components that already negotiate TLS 1.3 continues to be supported, as in prior releases. New in Server 2026, Relativity's own connections also negotiate TLS 1.3 where both endpoints support it, with no configuration required.

If your environment already runs on TLS 1.2, or TLS 1.2 plus 1.3, your configuration carries forward and no action is required. Review any custom SCHANNEL hardening before upgrading, because those settings now directly control TLS negotiation.

At General Availaibility, we plan to extend TLS 1.3 coverage to additional components, including Relativity Secret Store's database connections. TLS 1.2 remains required in all configurations; TLS 1.3-only environments are not supported.

Relativity Server 2026 requires that custom applications be built with Server RAP Builder using the Server 2025 or 2026 SDKs. When you upload a custom application, Relativity validates that its assemblies target .NET Framework 4.8.1 and reference Server 2025 or 2026 versions of the Relativity SDKs, and any warnings appear in the Application Library. Applications that fail validation are not blocked. You can still upload and install them in your environment.

However, these applications are not supported, and issues involving them fall outside the standard support path until the application is rebuilt with Server RAP Builder against the Server 2025 or 2026 SDKs.

For more information, visit the RAP Builder Overview.

A new version of Environment Watch v. 2026.07.28 is available in conjunction with the Server 2026 Early Access release. Environment Watch remains an optional component and this new package is also compatible with Relativity Server 2025 and Server 2024 Patch 2 and higher.

Relativity Alerts is now bundled with the standard Relativity Server 2026 installation, simplifying Environment Watch setup and upgrade workflows.

The Environment Watch MSI installer now handles Elastic TLS certificate setup as part of the installation process. A new Elastic Certificate Setup option on the Options screen lets operators install certificates from the BCP file share, use certificates already set up externally, or skip certificate setup entirely. On reinstall, the installer detects that certificates were previously configured and skips the step automatically. Service account configuration has also moved to the Options screen, consolidating all pre-install settings in one place.

For a full list of changes and the latest Environment Watch release package, visit Github.

Elasticsearch 8.19.8, 9.1.3, and 9.4.3 are officially certified for both Data Grid Audit and Environment Watch for Server 2026 Early Access (EA).

Automated Elastic Stack fresh installation via the Relativity Server CLI now supports multi-node deployments, expanding on the single-node beta introduced in Server 2025 Patch 1. The installer includes guided TLS certificate setup as part of the installation process. Elastic Stack upgrade automation for multi-node deployments is not included in this release and will be introduced in a future update. This also applies to both Data Grid and Environment Watch Elastic deployments.

A new rotate-api-key command has been added to the Relativity Server CLI, enabling administrators to safely rotate Elasticsearch API keys. The command displays the current API key ID and days remaining before expiry, then requires explicit confirmation before executing. It applies to both Data Grid and Environment Watch Elastic deployments.

The Relativity Server CLI can be downloaded as part of the Server bundle release available on Github.

Windows Server 2025 is now supported.

See the Compatibility matrix for more information.

RabbitMQ 4.1.4 is now supported and is the only version of RabbitMQ supported for Server 2025.

• RabbitMQ 4.1.4 requires Erlang 26.2–27.x.
• If you're using an unsupported Erlang version, RabbitMQ nodes will not start.

See the System requirements and RabbitMQ for more information.

• Relativity Server 2025 supports Microsoft Office 2024, building on the initial availability introduced in Server 2024 Patch 2.
• Microsoft ended support for Office 2016 on October 14, 2025; upgrading to Office 2024 is recommended to maintain a secure and supported environment.
• Worker servers that run Office 2024 must be on Windows Server 2022. Other server roles (SQL, Web, Agent and others) may remain on their existing operating systems, provided those versions are still supported and you intend to continue using them in their current configurations.
• For detailed upgrade steps, including removing legacy Office versions and installing Office 2024, see Upgrading your Workers to Office 2024.

The following agent is new:

• Alert Manager – this agent is used for Environment Watch, and it runs every 30 seconds to fetch alert data from Kibana and populate it into corresponding Relativity Alert RDOs. The Alert Manager Agent is automatically added when the Relativity Alerts application is installed in the instance.

Server 2025 is compatible with Elasticsearch 8.x and 9.x. The following versions are officially certified for both Data Grid Audit and Environment Watch:

• Elasticsearch 8.19.8
• Elasticsearch 9.1.3

Relativity Server 2024 Patch 1 introduced changes to Data Grid Audit authentication and licensing. Data Grid Audit no longer uses the Custom Realms plug-in or requires a Platinum Elasticsearch license. Instead, authentication now relies on API key–based OAuth2, and the Relativity-provided license key will expire in April 2026. All customers using Data Grid Audit must, by April 1, 2026:

• Upgrade Elasticsearch to 7.17.9 or higher (v8 supported only after cut-over).

• Upgrade to Server 2024 Patch 1 (or higher) or Server 2025.
• Complete the API key-based authentication cut-over via the Relativity Server CLI.

• Update Elasticsearch to remove the old Relativity-provided Platinum license; customers may use a free/open Elastic license or their own Platinum/Enterprise license for premium features.

Data Grid Audit will stop functioning after April 1, 2026 if you do not complete these steps. Core functionality remains unchanged when you move to the free/open license. For more information, see Enable Data Grid Audit.

You can apply Server 2024 Patch 2 with Office 2016  as well. 

If you want to use Office 2024, there is a script that you need to run to insert toggles.

To install Office 2024 and Patch 2:

1. Stop Invariant queue manager and all workers.
2. Install Office 2024.
3. Upgrade Invariant Patch 2.

If you are going to use Office 2024, you can run the following scripts:

1. Run the following script in the Invariant Database:

Use Invariant 
IF EXISTS ( 
	SELECT 1 
	FROM [Invariant].[dbo].[Toggle]	
	WHERE [Name] = 'Invariant.Toggles.Office2024Toggle'
)
BEGIN 
	UPDATE [Invariant].[dbo].[Toggle]
	SET [IsEnabled] = 1 
	WHERE [Name] = 'Invariant.Toggles.Office2024Toggle';
END
ELSE
BEGIN
	INSERT INTO [Invariant].[dbo].[Toggle] ([Name], [IsEnabled])
	VALUES ('Invariant.Toggles.Office2024Toggle', 1);
END

2. Run the following script in the EDDS Database:

Use EDDS

IF EXISTS (
	SELECT 1
	FROM [EDDS].[eddsdbo].[Toggle]
	WHERE [Name] = 'Relativity.Imaging.Toggles.Office2024Toggle'
)
BEGIN
	UPDATE [EDDS].[eddsdbo].[Toggle]
	SET [IsEnabled] = 1
	WHERE [Name] = 'Relativity.Imaging.Toggles.Office2024Toggle';
END
ELSE
BEGIN
	INSERT INTO [EDDS].[eddsdbo].[Toggle] ([Name], [IsEnabled])
	VALUES ('Relativity.Imaging.Toggles.Office2024Toggle', 1); 
END 

Please complete the following checks prior to beginning your upgrade to Server 2025.

• Application services shutdown - all Relativity services must be stopped on all servers prior to starting the upgrade. You can use the Relativity-PreUpgrade-CleanUp.ps1 script described below to stop services.
• Disk space verification and temp folder cleanup - Server 2025 includes enhancements to our temp directory structure to allow compatibility with Windows Storage Sense*. Due to these changes, Relativity temp files may be orphaned after upgrading to Server 2025. The Relativity installer does not automatically clean up these temp files, so it is possible for services to be disrupted if the drive becomes full. To prevent this from occurring, Relativity recommends clearing existing temp files and ensuring at least 50GB of free disk space on Web and Agent servers before upgrading to Server 2025. Customers may use the attached Relativity-PreUpgrade-CleanUp.ps1 script to facilitate this on each server.
  • Relativity-PreUpgrade-CleanUp.ps1 - this script automates the process of shutting down Relativity services, checking available disk space and clearing files from the following Relativity-only temp folders. This script is available in the installation files attached to the Relativity Server 2025 GA installation files Community Site article and should be executed prior to beginning your upgrade.
    • {drive}:\Users\{service_account_name}\AppData\Local\Temp
    • {drive}:\Users\{service_account_name}\AppData\Local\Relativity\TempStorage

*Clients who have previously disabled Windows Storage Sense can now enable the feature because Relativity Server 2025 utilizes a new custom temp location at {drive}:\Users\{service_account_name}\AppData\Local\Relativity\TempStorage.

You must use RabbitMQ version 3.12.x or 3.13.x and a compatible version of Erlang. Note, however, that there are compatibility issues between RabbitMQ 3.12.x and Erlang 26.0 and 26.1. There are no issues with Erlang 26.2 and above and RabbitMQ 3.12.x. For compatibility details, see Erlang Version Requirements. To download the latest version of Erlang, see Download Erlang. RabbitMQ 3.13.x is certified compatible with Server 2024 when TLS 1.3 is enabled. Relativity only supports TLS 1.2 and 1.3. If you have prior versions of TLS, we recommend manually disabling them. To learn more, see Disabling previous versions of TLS in Windows. Ensure that you're using the 64-bit version of Erlang, or else the system will be constrained to 2GB of memory. For details on RabbitMQ's version policies, see RabbitMQ versions. Review the RabbitMQ upgrade overview beforehand to avoid issues during the upgrade process.

The following agents are new:

• RSMF Slicing Agent - Works with the Message Broker to complete RSMF slicing operation to create subsets of larger RSMF documents/conversations.

Server 2023

Patch 2

There are a number of new, removed, and modified instance settings for Server 2023. See Instance settings change log for more information.

The default value of the TreatArmRestoreJobFailureAsWarning instance setting, which you must manually add to your instance, is now True. This means that, by default, ARM restore jobs will skip analytics indexes and structured analytics sets that have failed. If you'd like to revert to the previous behavior of ARM erroring when an index or set fails, set this instance setting to false.

Effective with the Relativity Server 2023 General Availability (GA) release, the NuGet packages required to extend core functionality and implement custom applications for Relativity Server will be published and maintained separately from the SDKs hosted on the Relativity NuGet Gallery. The latest SDKs for Relativity Server will be hosted in a separate repository, while the Relativity NuGet Gallery is now considered the repository for RelativityOne packages. Separating the RelativityOne and Relativity Server packages provides for a more stable and reliable developer experience as each platform evolves. You are not required to recompile your custom application against the relocated packages for your application to work on Server 2023. Custom applications compiled against the packages hosted on the Relativity NuGet Gallery will continue to work on future Relativity Server releases, as long as no breaking changes are introduced by the RelativityOne platform. However, we do recommend recompiling your code to consume the new repository packages when possible, to ensure that your application is running against the latest Relativity Server SDKs. The new package repository and documentation for consuming the Server-specific packages will be made available within a few weeks of the official Server 2023 release. We will make an announcement and provide additional documentation when the repository is made available. For more information, see the Relativity Server 2023 Developer News topic on the platform site.

For Server 2023, versions 3.11.x, 3.12.x, and 3.13.x are supported. You must use RabbitMQ version 3.11.x - 3.13.x and a compatible version of Erlang. For compatibility details, see Erlang Version Requirements. Ensure that you're using the 64-bit version of Erlang, or else the system will be constrained to 2GB of memory.