diff --git a/doc/source/install/index.rst b/doc/source/install/index.rst
index f57cb695..a9563ba8 100644
--- a/doc/source/install/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/install/index.rst
@@ -25,4 +25,5 @@
    dbreco
    development
    manual
+   upgrade
    mod_wsgi
diff --git a/doc/source/install/upgrade.rst b/doc/source/install/upgrade.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d3d769fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/install/upgrade.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+..
+      Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+      not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+      a copy of the License at
+
+          http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+      Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+      distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+      WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+      License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+      under the License.
+
+.. _upgrade:
+
+==========
+ Upgrading
+==========
+
+Ceilometer's services support both full upgrades as well as partial
+(rolling) upgrades. The required steps for each process are described below.
+
+
+Full upgrades
+=============
+
+The following describes how to upgrade your entire Ceilometer environment in
+one pass.
+
+.. _full upgrade path:
+
+1. Upgrade the database (if applicable)
+
+   Run ceilometer-dbsync to upgrade the database if using one of Ceilometer's
+   databases (see :ref:`choosing_db_backend`). The database does not need to be
+   taken offline as no data is modified or deleted. Ideally this should be done
+   during a period of low activity. Best practices should still be followed
+   (ie. back up your data). If not using a Ceilometer database, you should
+   consult the documentation of that storage beforehand.
+
+2. Upgrade the collector service(s)
+
+   Shutdown all collector services. The new collector, that knows how to
+   interpret the new payload, can then be started. It will disregard any
+   historical attributes and can continue to process older data from the
+   agents. You may restart as many new collectors as required.
+
+3. Upgrade the notification agent(s)
+
+   The notification agent can then be taken offline and upgraded with the
+   same conditions as the collector service.
+
+4. Upgrade the polling agent(s)
+
+   In this path, you'll want to take down agents on all hosts before starting.
+   After starting the first agent, you should verify that data is again being
+   polled. Additional agents can be added to support coordination if enabled.
+
+.. note::
+
+   The API service can be taken offline and upgraded at any point in the
+   process (if applicable).
+
+
+Partial upgrades
+================
+
+The following describes how to upgrade parts of your Ceilometer environment
+gradually. The ultimate goal is to have all services upgraded to the new
+version in time.
+
+1. Upgrade the database (if applicable)
+
+   Upgrading the database here is the same as the `full upgrade path`_.
+
+2. Upgrade the collector service(s)
+
+   The new collector services can be started alongside the old collectors.
+   Collectors old and new will disregard any new or historical attributes.
+
+3. Upgrade the notification agent(s)
+
+   The new notification agent can be started alongside the old agent if no
+   workload_partioning is enabled OR if it has the same pipeline configuration.
+   If the pipeline configuration is changed, the old agents must be loaded with
+   the same pipeline configuration first to ensure the notification agents all
+   work against same pipeline sets.
+
+4. Upgrade the polling agent(s)
+
+   The new polling agent can be started alongside the old agent only if no new
+   pollsters were added. If not, new polling agents must start only in it's
+   own partitioning group and poll only the new pollsters. After all old agents
+   are upgraded, the polling agents can be changed to poll both new pollsters
+   AND the old ones.
+
+5. Upgrade the API service(s)
+
+   API management is handled by WSGI so there is only ever one version of API
+   service running
+
+.. note::
+
+   Upgrade ordering does not matter in partial upgrade path. The only
+   requirement is that the database be upgraded first. It is advisable to
+   upgrade following the same ordering as currently described: database,
+   collector, notification agent, polling agent, api.
+
+
+Developer notes
+===============
+
+When updating data models in the database or IPC, we need to adhere to a single
+mantra: 'always add, never delete or modify.'