Upgrading from RouterOS v6 to v7

Hardware Requirements

RouterOS v7 needs more RAM headroom than v6 did on the same device — MikroTik documents a 64 MB RAM minimum for v7 on supported hardware. Very old or low-memory devices that ran v6 acceptably may be tight on v7; check your device’s free memory under System > Resources before committing to the upgrade.

Backup Before You Upgrade

Take a full binary backup and a plain-text configuration export before upgrading — this is standard practice for any RouterOS upgrade, but matters more for v6→v7 given how much the routing configuration format changes underneath you. See our Backup & Export command reference for both commands. For anything beyond a straightforward access-point config — particularly MPLS — test the upgrade on a non-production device or maintenance window first.

BGP: a Complete Redesign

This is the single biggest routing change in v7. The old flat /routing/bgp/peer configuration is replaced with three separate menus: connection, template, and session. A BGP peer in v7 is assembled from a connection referencing a template, rather than one flat peer entry with every setting inline.

/routing/bgp/connection
/routing/bgp/template
/routing/bgp/session (read-only, live state)

/routing/bgp/instance
/routing/bgp/peer

A new mandatory field in v7 is the peer role — every connection must explicitly declare ibgp or ebgp, rather than RouterOS inferring it from AS numbers. Connections also require an explicit remote.address, a referenced template, and connect/listen direction flags; multi-hop peerings additionally need local.address set explicitly. If you’re running BGP, plan to rebuild your peer configuration against the new structure rather than expecting an automatic like-for-like conversion of complex setups.

OSPF: Merged and Template-Based

OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 are merged into a single /routing/ospf menu in v7, instead of separate menus per IP version. There are no default instances or areas created automatically — you create an instance, then add an area under it, explicitly. Interface participation is matched using templates rather than per-interface toggles, and the old interface and neighbor menus become read-only status views rather than configuration points.

MPLS: Upgrade With Caution

MPLS is one of the areas MikroTik itself flags as needing careful testing during a v6→v7 upgrade. If you’re running MPLS in production, we’d treat this as the highest-risk part of the migration — validate on a lab device or maintenance window with rollback available, rather than upgrading a live MPLS core directly.

Routing Filters: New Syntax

Routing filters move to a script-like syntax in v7, using explicit if...then conditional blocks rather than the flatter rule-list style from v6. Multiple filter rules stack similarly to how firewall rules chain, but the conditional logic itself reads more like a small script. Filter options that don’t have a direct v7 equivalent can convert into empty or incomplete entries — review converted filters manually rather than assuming the conversion is complete and correct.

User Manager: No Direct Migration

User Manager is redesigned in v7, and there’s no automatic in-place migration of the v6 User Manager database. If you’re running User Manager for HotSpot/PPPoE subscriber accounting, plan for this specifically: MikroTik provides a legacy-database migration path (/user-manager/database/migrate-legacy-db) to import v6 user data into the new v7 structure, but it’s a deliberate migration step, not something that happens automatically as part of the general upgrade.

Features Removed in v7

• The LCD package (for devices with physical status displays) is not available in v7
• The KVM package is removed
• PIM-SM configuration is not preserved automatically during upgrade and needs reconfiguring under the new /routing/pimsm menu; the separate multicast package v6 required is no longer needed

What v7 Adds

Beyond the routing stack changes, v7’s new kernel brings performance improvements and a genuinely large feature set that didn’t exist in v6, including a redesigned NTP client/server, a REST API alongside the existing API, Let’s Encrypt certificate support, IPv6 NAT, VRRP, WireGuard VPN support, VXLAN, L2TPv3, and hardware acceleration on supported devices. If any of these are why you’re upgrading, they’re v7-only — there’s no equivalent in v6.

Post-Upgrade Verification

After upgrading, don’t assume everything converted correctly — check explicitly:

/system resource print
/system routerboard print
/routing/bgp/connection print
/routing/ospf/instance print
/ip/route print

Confirm the RouterOS version and free memory look healthy, then walk through each routing protocol you actually use, comparing live state against your pre-upgrade backup rather than assuming a silent, complete conversion.