Amazon RDS Extended Support for MySQL 5.7 & PostgreSQL 11

Amazon RDS Extended Support

Your MySQL 5.7 and PostgreSQL 11 database instances on Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS will automatically enroll in Amazon RDS Extended Support commencing February 29, 2024.

This will prevent unanticipated downtime and compatibility concerns from automated major version upgrades. You have more control over when to upgrade your major database.

RDS Extended Support may cost more due to automated enrollment. Upgrade your database before RDS Extended Support to prevent these expenses.

Describe Amazon RDS Extended Support

Amazon RDS Extended Support, announced in September 2023, lets you run your database on a major engine version on Amazon Aurora or Amazon RDS after its end of standard support date for a fee.

The MySQL and PostgreSQL open source communities identify CVEs, generate patches, and resolve bugs until community end of life (EoL). Until the database major version is retired, the communities release a quarterly minor version with security and bug updates. CVE patches and bug fixes are no longer available after the community end of life date, making such engines unsupported. As of October and November 2023, the communities no longer support MySQL 5.7 and PostgreSQL 11. AWS appreciate community support of these major versions and a transparent transition process and schedule to the latest major version.

Amazon Aurora and RDS engineer crucial CVE patches and bug fixes for up to three years after a major version’s community EoL with RDS Extended Support. Amazon Aurora and RDS will find engine CVEs and problems, develop patches, and deploy them swiftly for three years. Under RDS Extended Support, AWS will continue to support an engine’s major version after the open source community ends support, protecting your applications from severe security risks and unresolved problems.

You may ask why we charge for RDS Extended Support instead of including it in RDS. AWS must invest developer resources in crucial CVE patches and bug fixes to preserve community EoL engine security and functionality. Because of this, RDS Extended Support only charges clients that need the flexibility to stay on a version past its EoL.

If your applications depend on a specific MySQL or PostgreSQL major version for plug-in compatibility or bespoke functionality, RDS Extended Support may help you satisfy your business objectives. If you’re running on-premises database servers or self-managed Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, you can migrate to Amazon Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition, Amazon RDS for MySQL, and Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL beyond the community EoL date and use them with RDS Extended Support in a managed service. RDS Extended Support lets you phase a large database transfer to ensure a smooth transition without straining IT resources.

RDS Extended Support will be provided in 2024 for RDS for MySQL 5.7, PostgreSQL 11, Aurora MySQL-compatible 2, and Aurora PostgreSQL 11. A supported MySQL major version on Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora major versions in the AWS documentation lists all future supported versions.

Why are all databases automatically enrolled in Amazon RDS Extended Support?

AWS were told you RDS Extended Support would deliver opt-in APIs and console functionality in December 2023. AWS announced that if you did not opt your database into RDS Extended Support, it would automatically update to a newer engine version on March 1, 2024. You would be upgraded from Aurora MySQL 2 or RDS for MySQL 5.7 to Aurora MySQL 3 or RDS for MySQL 8.0, and from Aurora PostgreSQL 11 to 15 and RDS for 15.

However, several users complained that these automated upgrades may damage their applications and cause other unpredictable behavior between major community DB engine releases. If applications are not ready for MySQL 8.0 or PostgreSQL 15, an unplanned major version upgrade could cause compatibility issues or downtime.

Automatic enrollment in RDS Extended Support allows you more time and control to organize, schedule, and test database upgrades on your own timeline while receiving essential security and bug fixes from AWS.

Upgrade before RDS standard support ends to prevent automatic enrollment in RDS Extended Support and associated fees.

Upgrade your database to avoid RDS Extended Support fees

RDS Extended Support helps you schedule your upgrade, but staying with previous versions means missing out on the greatest price-performance for your database workload and paying more for support.

Global Database, Amazon RDS Proxy, Performance Insights, Parallel Query, and Serverless v2 deployments are supported in Aurora MySQL 8.0, also known as Aurora MySQL 3. RDS for MySQL 8.0 supports AWS Graviton2 and Graviton3-based instances, Multi-AZ cluster deployments, and Optimized Reads and Writes for up to three times better performance than MySQL 5.7.

Aurora PostgreSQL 15 Aurora I/O Optimized, Aurora Serverless v2, Babelfish for Aurora PostgreSQL, pgvector extension, TLE, AWS Graviton3-based instances, and community additions are supported by PostgreSQL. RDS for PostgreSQL 15 adds Multi-AZ DB cluster deployments, RDS Optimized Reads, HypoPG extension, pgvector extension, TLEs, and AWS Graviton3-based instances.

Major version upgrades may change databases incompatible with existing apps. To upgrade to the major version, manually edit your database. Any major version upgrade should be tested on non-production instances before being applied to production to verify application compatibility. The AWS documentation describes an in-place upgrade from MySQL 5.7 to 8.0, including incompatibilities, Aurora MySQL in-place major version upgrade, and RDS for MySQL upgrades. Use pgupgrade to upgrade PostgreSQL 11 to 15 in-places.

AWS advocate Fully Managed Blue/Green Deployments in Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS to reduce upgrade downtime. Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments can establish a synchronized, fully controlled staging environment that mimics production in a few clicks. A parallel green environment with upper-version clones of your production databases lower-version is needed. Traffic might transition to the green environment after validation. Blue environment can be discontinued. Blue/Green Deployments reduce downtime best in most cases, except with Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS.

Currently accessible

Amazon RDS Extended Support is now available for clients utilizing MySQL 5.7, PostgreSQL 11, and higher versions in AWS Regions, including AWS GovCloud (US), beyond the 2024 standard support expiration. You can upgrade your databases and obtain 3 years of RDS Extended Support without opting in.