Ipad Safari tabs

Performing a system software update shouldn’t affect your existing data - or your open Safari Tabs or History.

That said, as a precautionary measure, it’s always a good practice to ensure you have a current iCloud or itunes backup of your iPad at all times:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

As for all your open tabs, these can be easily backed-up to a single folder in iPadOS Safari. To do so, tap the Tabs icon at top-right of the Safari window (two overlapping squares) to open the Tab view. With the Tab view open, touch-and-hold (i.e., long-touch) any of the open Tabs to open an Action Menu.

From the menu, tap Add Bookmarks for n Tabs (“n” being the number of currently open tabs):

Give the folder a meaningful name, then tap the Save button - to save all your open tabs to the folder:

In the unlikely event of encountering a problem - or if you accidentally force-close the open Safari window - you can simply open the tabs again from a new Safari window…

To open the saved tabs all at once, restoring the previous open tabs - from the Safari Start page, you’ll see your previously saved Tabs folder at the top of your saved pages. Touch-and-hold the folder to expose the Action menu - and from the menu tap Open in New Tabs:

If you habitually keep a Safari window open with many open tabs, this is good method of keeping an independent backup of the Safari instance - that can be reopened on any of your devices that are signed-in with the same AppleID.