Help Center/ Relational Database Service_RDS for PostgreSQL/ User Guide/ Version Upgrade/ Upgrading a Minor Version
Updated on 2026-09-08 GMT+08:00
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Upgrading a Minor Version

Scenarios

RDS for PostgreSQL allows you to upgrade the minor version of your instance in either of the following methods:
  • Manual upgrade

    You can manually upgrade the minor version of your instance to improve performance, add new functions, and fix bugs.

  • Automatic upgrade

    You can enable Auto Minor Version Upgrade in advance. Once this function is enabled, if the system detects any new minor version, it automatically pushes an update event and upgrades the minor version based on the scheduled time displayed on the Events page. Before an automatic upgrade starts, you can change the upgrade time or cancel the upgrade on the Events page.

    To use this function in certain regions, submit a service ticket to request required permissions.

Precautions

  • When any new minor version is released to address vulnerabilities and other issues from the open source community, perform a minor version upgrade for your instance.
  • The upgrade will cause the instance to reboot and interrupt services for a period of time. The length of the interruption depends on service volume. To minimize the impact of the upgrade, perform the upgrade during off-peak hours, or ensure that your applications support automatic reconnection.
  • When you upgrade the minor version of a primary instance, the minor versions of read replicas (if any) will also be upgraded automatically. Read replicas cannot be upgraded separately.
  • You can select a desired version when upgrading the minor version of your instance. The available versions are displayed on the console. If the upgrade fails, the DB instance will be automatically rolled back to the source version.
  • You are advised to perform a full backup before upgrading a minor version.
  • If the storage is insufficient before a minor version upgrade, scale up storage space first. If storage autoscaling is triggered during the upgrade, both of them will fail.
  • After the primary instance in a DR relationship is upgraded to a new minor version, you must remove the DR relationship and rebuild the DR setup.
  • Before upgrading minor versions earlier than RDS for PostgreSQL 12.6, you need to stop all logical replications and delete all logical replication slots. Otherwise, the upgrade will fail.
    • Querying a replication slot: select * from pg_replication_slots;
    • Deleting a replication slot: select pg_drop_replication_slot('SLOT_NAME');
  • If the kernel version of your instance has potential risks or major defects, has expired, or has been brought offline, the system will notify you by SMS message or email and deliver an upgrade task during the maintenance window.

Constraints

  • The minor version cannot be upgraded for instances with abnormal nodes.
  • For primary/standby DB instances, the standby DB instance is upgraded first and then the primary DB instance is upgraded afterwards.
  • The following minor versions cannot be upgraded:
    • Versions earlier than 11.2 for RDS for PostgreSQL 11
    • Versions earlier than 1.0.12 for RDS for PostgreSQL Enhanced Edition
  • The upgrade will be performed immediately upon the submission of your request. Delayed upgrade of minor versions is not supported.
  • Read replicas cannot be upgraded independently.
  • DB instances of the latest version cannot be upgraded.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RDS console.
  2. Click in the upper left corner and select a region.
  3. On the Instances page, locate the target instance and click Upgrade Minor Version.

    Figure 1 Upgrading a minor version

  4. In the dialog box displayed on the right, select the required information, enter UPGRADE, and click OK.

    Figure 2 Confirming upgrade information
    • Upon submission: The system upgrades the minor version immediately after you have submitted your upgrade request.
    • In maintenance window: The system will upgrade the minor version during the maintenance window that you have configured.

  5. Return to the instance list. In the navigation pane, choose Task Center and check the progress of the upgrade task.

    • For an upgrade task to be executed immediately upon submission:

      On the Instant Tasks page, search for PostgreSQL instance version upgrade and check the execution progress. Instant tasks cannot be canceled.

    • For an upgrade task to be executed during the maintenance window:

      On the Scheduled Tasks page, search for the instance ID and check the execution status of the upgrade task. Scheduled tasks can be canceled.

    For more operations, see Viewing a Task.

  6. Check the result.

    During the upgrade, the instance status is Upgrading minor version. After the upgrade is complete, the instance status changes to Available and the version is the target kernel minor version.

    Figure 3 Checking the new minor version

  1. Log in to the RDS console.
  2. Click in the upper left corner and select a region.
  3. On the Instances page, click the primary instance name.
  4. On the Summary page, find Auto Minor Version Upgrade and click Configure.
  5. In the displayed dialog box, toggle on the switch and click OK.

    Figure 4 Enabling Auto Minor Version Upgrade

  6. After this function is enabled, the system automatically pushes an update event whenever a minor version update becomes available.

    Before an automatic upgrade starts, you can change the upgrade time or cancel the upgrade on the Events page.

Follow-up Operations

Upgrading a minor version will also upgrade the versions of certain extensions. After the upgrade is complete, you need to update the versions of these extensions on the console. For details, see Installing and Uninstalling an Extension on the RDS Console.

Parent Topic: Version Upgrade