Upgrading a Minor Version

Scenarios

RDS for PostgreSQL supports minor version upgrades to improve performance, add new functions, and fix bugs.

Precautions

• To upgrade a minor version, choose Service Tickets > Create Service Ticket in the upper right corner of the management console to apply for the required permissions.
• 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.
• A minor version upgrade cannot be rolled back after the upgrade is complete. 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.
• You need to re-establish a DR relationship after upgrading the minor version of a DR instance.
• After a minor version upgrade, you may need to update extensions. For details, see Installing and Uninstalling an Extension on the RDS Console.
• 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.
• 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 management console.
2. Click in the upper left corner and select a region.
3. Click in the upper left corner of the page and choose Databases > Relational Database Service.
4. On the Instances page, click the primary instance name.
5. Under DB Engine Version, click Upgrade Minor Version.
   Figure 1 Upgrading a minor version
   

6. In the displayed dialog box, click OK.

   RDS upgrades the minor version to the latest version immediately.