Upgrades of the MariaDB DB engine

When Amazon RDS supports a new version of a database engine, you can upgrade your DB instances to the new version. There are two kinds of upgrades for MariaDB DB instances: major version upgrades and minor version upgrades.

Major version upgrades can contain database changes that are not backward-compatible with existing applications. As a result, you must manually perform major version upgrades of your DB instances. You can initiate a major version upgrade by modifying your DB instance. However, before you perform a major version upgrade, we recommend that you follow the instructions in Major version upgrades for RDS for MariaDB.

In contrast, minor version upgrades include only changes that are backward-compatible with existing applications. You can initiate a minor version upgrade manually by modifying your DB instance. Or you can enable the Auto minor version upgrade option when creating or modifying a DB instance. Doing so means that your DB instance is automatically upgraded after Amazon RDS tests and approves the new version. For information about performing an upgrade, see Upgrading a DB instance engine version.

If your MariaDB DB instance is using read replicas, you must upgrade all of the read replicas before upgrading the source instance. If your DB instance is in a Multi-AZ deployment, both the writer and standby replicas are upgraded. Your DB instance might not be available until the upgrade is complete.

For more information about MariaDB supported versions and version management, see MariaDB on Amazon RDS versions.

Database engine upgrades require downtime. The duration of the downtime varies based on the size of your DB instance.

Tip

You can minimize the downtime required for DB instance upgrade by using a blue/green deployment. For more information, see Using Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments for database updates.

Topics

• Considerations for MariaDB upgrades
• Finding valid upgrade targets
• MariaDB version numbers
• RDS version numbers in RDS for MariaDB
• Major version upgrades for RDS for MariaDB
• Upgrading a MariaDB DB instance
• Automatic minor version upgrades for RDS for MariaDB
• Using a read replica to reduce downtime when upgrading an RDS for MariaDB database

Considerations for MariaDB upgrades

Amazon RDS takes two or more DB snapshots during the upgrade process. Amazon RDS takes up to two snapshots of the DB instance before making any upgrade changes. If the upgrade doesn't work for your databases, you can restore one of these snapshots to create a DB instance running the old version. Amazon RDS takes another snapshot of the DB instance when the upgrade completes. Amazon RDS takes these snapshots regardless of whether AWS Backup manages the backups for the DB instance.

Note

Amazon RDS only takes DB snapshots if you have set the backup retention period for your DB instance to a number greater than 0. To change your backup retention period, see Modifying an Amazon RDS DB instance.

After the upgrade is complete, you can't revert to the previous version of the database engine. If you want to return to the previous version, restore the first DB snapshot taken to create a new DB instance.

You control when to upgrade your DB instance to a new version supported by Amazon RDS. This level of control helps you maintain compatibility with specific database versions and test new versions with your application before deploying in production. When you are ready, you can perform version upgrades at the times that best fit your schedule.

If your DB instance is using read replication, you must upgrade all of the Read Replicas before upgrading the source instance.

If your DB instance is in a Multi-AZ deployment, both the primary and standby DB instances are upgraded. The primary and standby DB instances are upgraded at the same time and you will experience an outage until the upgrade is complete. The time for the outage varies based on your database engine, engine version, and the size of your DB instance.

Finding valid upgrade targets

When you use the AWS Management Console to upgrade a DB instance, it shows the valid upgrade targets for the DB instance. You can also run the following AWS CLI command to identify the valid upgrade targets for a DB instance:

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions \
  --engine mariadb \
  --engine-version version_number \
  --query "DBEngineVersions[*].ValidUpgradeTarget[*].{EngineVersion:EngineVersion}" --output text

For Windows:

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions ^
  --engine mariadb ^
  --engine-version version_number ^
  --query "DBEngineVersions[*].ValidUpgradeTarget[*].{EngineVersion:EngineVersion}" --output text

For example, to identify the valid upgrade targets for a MariaDB version 10.5.17 DB instance, run the following AWS CLI command:

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions \
  --engine mariadb \
  --engine-version 10.5.17 \
  --query "DBEngineVersions[*].ValidUpgradeTarget[*].{EngineVersion:EngineVersion}" --output text

For Windows:

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions ^
  --engine mariadb ^
  --engine-version 10.5.17 ^
  --query "DBEngineVersions[*].ValidUpgradeTarget[*].{EngineVersion:EngineVersion}" --output text

Upgrading a MariaDB DB instance

For information about manually or automatically upgrading a MariaDB DB instance, see Upgrading a DB instance engine version.