Modifying an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster - Amazon Aurora
Modifying the scaling configurationUpgrading the major versionConverting from Aurora Serverless v1 to provisioned

Modifying an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster

Important

AWS has announced the end-of-life date for Aurora Serverless v1: March 31st, 2025. We strongly recommend upgrading any Aurora Serverless v1 DB clusters to Aurora Serverless v2 before that date. The upgrade can involve a change in the major version number of the database engine. Thus, it's important to plan, test, and implement this switchover before the end-of-life date. Starting January 8th, 2025, customers will no longer be able to create new Aurora Serverless v1 clusters or instances with either the AWS Management Console or the CLI. For information about the migration process, see Upgrading from an Aurora Serverless v1 cluster to Aurora Serverless v2.

Aurora Serverless v2 scales more quickly and in a more granular way. Aurora Serverless v2 also has more compatibility with other Aurora features such as reader DB instances. You can learn about Aurora Serverless v2 in Using Aurora Serverless v2.

After you configure an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster, you can modify certain properties with the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the RDS API. Most of the properties you can modify are the same as for other kinds of Aurora clusters.

The most relevant changes for Aurora Serverless v1 are the following:

Modifying the scaling configuration of an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster

You can set the minimum and maximum capacity for the DB cluster. Each capacity unit is equivalent to a specific compute and memory configuration. Aurora Serverless automatically creates scaling rules for thresholds for CPU utilization, connections, and available memory. You can also set whether Aurora Serverless pauses the database when there's no activity and then resumes when activity begins again.

You can set the following specific values for the scaling configuration:

  • Minimum Aurora capacity unit – Aurora Serverless can reduce capacity down to this capacity unit.

  • Maximum Aurora capacity unit – Aurora Serverless can increase capacity up to this capacity unit.

  • Autoscaling timeout and action – This section specifies how long Aurora Serverless waits to find a scaling point before timing out. It also specifies the action to take when a capacity modification times out because it can't find a scaling point. Aurora can force the capacity change to set the capacity to the specified value as soon as possible. Or, it can roll back the capacity change to cancel it. For more information, see Timeout action for capacity changes.

  • Pause after inactivity – Use the optional Scale the capacity to 0 ACUs when cluster is idle setting to scale the database to zero processing capacity while it's inactive. When database traffic resumes, Aurora automatically resumes processing capacity and scales to handle the traffic.

You can modify the scaling configuration of an Aurora DB cluster with the AWS Management Console.

To modify an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster

  1. Open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases.

  3. Choose the Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster that you want to modify.

  4. For Actions, choose Modify cluster.

  5. In the Capacity settings section, modify the scaling configuration.

  6. Choose Continue.

  7. On the Modify DB cluster page, review your modifications, then choose when to apply them.

  8. Choose Modify cluster.

To modify the scaling configuration of an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster using the AWS CLI, run the modify-db-cluster AWS CLI command. Specify the --scaling-configuration option to configure the minimum capacity, maximum capacity, and automatic pause when there are no connections. Valid capacity values include the following:

  • Aurora MySQL: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256.

  • Aurora PostgreSQL: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 192, and 384.

In this example, you modify the scaling configuration of an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster named sample-cluster.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds modify-db-cluster \
    --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster \
    --scaling-configuration MinCapacity=8,MaxCapacity=64,SecondsUntilAutoPause=500,TimeoutAction='ForceApplyCapacityChange',AutoPause=true

For Windows:

aws rds modify-db-cluster ^
    --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster ^
    --scaling-configuration MinCapacity=8,MaxCapacity=64,SecondsUntilAutoPause=500,TimeoutAction='ForceApplyCapacityChange',AutoPause=true

You can modify the scaling configuration of an Aurora DB cluster with the ModifyDBCluster API operation. Specify the ScalingConfiguration parameter to configure the minimum capacity, maximum capacity, and automatic pause when there are no connections. Valid capacity values include the following:

  • Aurora MySQL: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256.

  • Aurora PostgreSQL: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 192, and 384.

Upgrading the major version of an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster

Important

AWS has announced the end-of-life date for Aurora Serverless v1: March 31st, 2025. We strongly recommend upgrading any Aurora Serverless v1 DB clusters to Aurora Serverless v2 before that date. The upgrade can involve a change in the major version number of the database engine. Thus, it's important to plan, test, and implement this switchover before the end-of-life date. Starting January 8th, 2025, customers will no longer be able to create new Aurora Serverless v1 clusters or instances with either the AWS Management Console or the CLI.

Aurora Serverless v2 scales more quickly and in a more granular way. Aurora Serverless v2 also has more compatibility with other Aurora features such as reader DB instances. You can learn about Aurora Serverless v2 in Using Aurora Serverless v2.

You can upgrade the major version for an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster compatible with PostgreSQL 11 to a corresponding PostgreSQL 13–compatible version.

You can perform an in-place upgrade of an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster using the AWS Management Console.

To upgrade an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster

  1. Open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases.

  3. Choose the Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster that you want to upgrade.

  4. For Actions, choose Modify cluster.

  5. For Version, choose an Aurora PostgreSQL version 13 version number.

    The following example shows an in-place upgrade from Aurora PostgreSQL 11.16 to 13.9.

    Upgrading an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster using the console

    If you perform a major version upgrade, leave all of the other properties the same. To change any other properties, do another Modify operation after the upgrade finishes.

  6. Choose Continue.

  7. On the Modify DB cluster page, review your modifications, then choose when to apply them.

  8. Choose Modify cluster.

To perform an in-place upgrade from a PostgreSQL 11–compatible Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster to a PostgreSQL 13–compatible one, specify the --engine-version parameter with an Aurora PostgreSQL version 13 version number that's compatible with Aurora Serverless v1. Also include the --allow-major-version-upgrade parameter.

In this example, you modify the major version of a PostgreSQL 11–compatible Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster named sample-cluster. Doing so performs an in-place upgrade to a PostgreSQL 13–compatible Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster.

aws rds modify-db-cluster \
    --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster \
    --engine-version 13.9 \
    --allow-major-version-upgrade

For Windows:

aws rds modify-db-cluster ^
    --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster ^
    --engine-version 13.9 ^
    --allow-major-version-upgrade

To perform an in-place upgrade from a PostgreSQL 11–compatible Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster to a PostgreSQL 13–compatible one, specify the EngineVersion parameter with an Aurora PostgreSQL version 13 version number that's compatible with Aurora Serverless v1. Also include the AllowMajorVersionUpgrade parameter.

Converting an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster to provisioned

You can convert an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster to a provisioned DB cluster. To perform the conversion, you change the DB instance class to Provisioned. You can use this conversion as part of upgrading your DB cluster from Aurora Serverless v1 to Aurora Serverless v2. For more information, see Upgrading from an Aurora Serverless v1 cluster to Aurora Serverless v2.

The conversion process creates a reader DB instance in the DB cluster, promotes the reader instance to a writer instance, and then deletes the original Aurora Serverless v1 instance. When you convert the DB cluster, you can't perform any other modifications at the same time, such as changing the DB engine version or DB cluster parameter group. The conversion operation is applied immediately, and can't be undone.

During the conversion, a backup DB cluster snapshot is taken of the DB cluster in case an error occurs. The identifier for the DB cluster snapshot has the form pre-modify-engine-mode-DB_cluster_identifier-timestamp.

Aurora uses the current default DB minor engine version for the provisioned DB cluster.

If you don't provide a DB instance class for your converted DB cluster, Aurora recommends one based on the maximum capacity of the original Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster. The recommended capacity to instance class mappings are shown in the following table.

Serverless maximum capacity (ACUs) Provisioned DB instance class
1 db.t3.small
2 db.t3.medium
4 db.t3.large
8 db.r5.large
16 db.r5.xlarge
32 db.r5.2xlarge
64 db.r5.4xlarge
128 db.r5.8xlarge
192 db.r5.12xlarge
256 db.r5.16xlarge
384 db.r5.24xlarge
Note

Depending on the DB instance class you choose, and your database usage, you might see different costs for a provisioned DB cluster compared to Aurora Serverless v1.

If you convert your Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster to a burstable (db.t*) DB instance class, you might incur additional costs for using the DB cluster. For more information, see DB instance class types.

To convert an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster to a provisioned cluster, run the modify-db-cluster AWS CLI command.

The following parameters are required:

  • --db-cluster-identifier – The Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster that you're converting to provisioned.

  • --engine-mode – Use the value provisioned.

  • --allow-engine-mode-change

  • --db-cluster-instance-class – Choose the DB instance class for the provisioned DB cluster based on the capacity of the Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster.

In this example, you convert an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster named sample-cluster and use the db.r5.xlarge DB instance class.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds modify-db-cluster \
    --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster \
    --engine-mode provisioned \
    --allow-engine-mode-change \
    --db-cluster-instance-class db.r5.xlarge

For Windows:

aws rds modify-db-cluster ^
    --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster ^
    --engine-mode provisioned ^
    --allow-engine-mode-change ^
    --db-cluster-instance-class db.r5.xlarge

To convert an Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster to a provisioned cluster, use the ModifyDBCluster API operation.

The following parameters are required:

  • DBClusterIdentifier – The Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster that you're converting to provisioned.

  • EngineMode – Use the value provisioned.

  • AllowEngineModeChange

  • DBClusterInstanceClass – Choose the DB instance class for the provisioned DB cluster based on the capacity of the Aurora Serverless v1 DB cluster.