When your subscription ApsaraDB RDS instance expires, you may no longer be able to access the instance. If you want to continue using your instance, you must renew its subscription. Otherwise, instance resources such as CPU cores, memory, and disks are released, and your data will be permanently deleted. Pay-as-you-go instances do not expire and thus do not require renewal.
Alibaba Cloud sends notifications to you before your subscription expires. To avoid business interruptions, we recommend that you renew your subscription at your earliest opportunity.
Renewal methods
You can manually renew or enable auto-renewal for your RDS instance. The cost of renewing a subscription is the same as purchasing a new subscription.
The price of an instance varies based on its configurations, such as the region, instance type, and storage capacity. For more information, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
Enable auto-renewal for an RDS instance
You can enable the auto-renewal feature to prevent business interruptions caused by instance expiration. For more information, see Use the auto-renewal feature.
If you enable auto-renewal for your RDS instance, the system deducts the renewal fee at 08:00 on two days before the RDS instance expires. If this fails, the system attempts to deduct the renewal fee once every day for the remaining subscription duration until the deduction succeeds. Make sure you have sufficient balance in your Alibaba Cloud account to ensure that auto-renewal is successful.
For example, auto-renewal is enabled for an RDS subscription that expires on January 9, 2023.
The system attempts to deduct the renewal fee at 08:00 beginning on January 07, 2023 until January 09, 2023. If any of the deductions is successful, the auto-renewal process is complete.
First attempt: January 07, 2023, 08:00. If the deduction succeeds, the auto-renewal process is complete. Otherwise, the system will attempt again on January 08, 2023.
Second attempt: January 08, 2023, 08:00. If the deduction succeeds, the auto-renewal process is complete. Otherwise, the system will attempt again on January 09, 2023.
Last attempt: January 09, 2023, 08:00. If the deduction succeeds, the auto-renewal process is complete and the instance expires at 24:00 the same day. For more information about post-expiration instance states, see Post-expiration instance states.
We recommend that you follow up on the progress of the deduction and manually renew your RDS instance at your earliest opportunity if the deduction fails.
Manually renew an RDS subscription
When an RDS subscription expires, Alibaba Cloud retains your instance for a few days before it is released. You can manually renew your subscription within this period. After this period, the instance is released, and the data stored on it is permanently deleted. For more information, see Manually renew an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Post-expiration instance states
Post-expiration state | Operation |
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Important Data that has been deleted cannot be restored. |
If your RDS instance is released, the backup files of the instance are retained in the following scenarios:
The RDS instance runs MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server, and the cross-region backup retention period has not ended. The backup files are retained until the cross-region backup retention period ends. For more information, see Use the cross-region backup feature, Use the cross-region backup feature, and Use the cross-region backup feature.
The RDS instance runs MySQL, and you have determined to retain the backup files of the RDS instance even after the RDS instance is released. In this case, the backup files of the RDS instance are retained. For more information, see Enable the automatic backup feature for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.