All Products
Search

This Product

    ApsaraDB RDS:Upgrade from Basic Edition to Cluster Edition

    Document Center

    ApsaraDB RDS:Upgrade from Basic Edition to Cluster Edition

    Last Updated:Mar 30, 2026

    RDS Cluster Edition delivers readable secondary nodes, primary/secondary switchover, multi-zone disaster recovery, and node-level monitoring. This topic explains how to upgrade an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance from RDS Basic Edition to RDS Cluster Edition.

    When to upgrade

    Upgrade from RDS Basic Edition to RDS Cluster Edition when you need any of the following:

    • Higher availability: Protect your database with multi-zone disaster recovery and automatic primary/secondary switchover.

    • Read scalability: Use readable secondary nodes to offload read traffic and implement read/write splitting.

    • Finer operational control: Monitor at the node level and manage your cluster topology—add or remove nodes without downtime.

    For a detailed description of RDS Cluster Edition capabilities, see RDS Cluster Edition.

    Prerequisites

    Before you begin, make sure that:

    • Your RDS instance runs MySQL 5.7 or MySQL 8.0 on RDS Basic Edition. Check this on the Basic Information page of your instance.

    • Your instance uses enterprise SSD (ESSD) or Premium ESSD storage. If it uses standard SSD, upgrade the storage type to ESSD first.

    • The minor engine version of your instance is 20211231 or later. To update the version, see Update the minor engine version.

    Before you start

    Warning

    After the upgrade completes, you cannot downgrade back to RDS Basic Edition.

    The upgrade triggers an instance switchover, causing a momentary disconnection. Make sure your application has an automatic reconnection mechanism. For details, see Impacts of an instance switchover.

    The actual fees for the upgrade are displayed on the buy page. For the fee structure, see Change instance specifications.

    Upgrade to RDS Cluster Edition

    1. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region where your instance resides, then click the instance ID.

    2. In the Configuration Information section, click Change Specifications.

    3. (Subscription instances only) Select Upgrade, then click Next step.

    4. Configure the following parameters:

      Parameter Description
      Edition Select Cluster Edition.
      Storage Type Select a storage type based on your requirements.
      Instance Type Select an instance type based on your requirements.
      Storage Capacity Drag the slider to set the storage capacity.
      Switching Time Select Execute Immediately or Switch Within Maintenance Window. In both cases, data migration starts immediately and does not affect your workload. The difference is when the instance switchover (momentary disconnection) happens: immediately after migration completes, or within your configured maintenance window.

    5. Read and select Terms of Service, click Pay Now, and complete the payment.

    6. On the Basic Information page, verify that Type and Edition shows Regular Instance (Cluster Edition). If it does, the upgrade is successful.

    Note

    The endpoint of your RDS instance remains unchanged after the upgrade. No application configuration changes are needed.

    API reference

    Use the following API operations to perform or verify the upgrade programmatically:

    Operation Description
    ModifyDBInstanceSpec Upgrades the instance to RDS Cluster Edition. Set DBInstanceClass to an instance type supported by RDS Cluster Edition and set Category to Cluster.
    DescribeDBInstanceAttribute Verifies the upgrade. Check the Category field in the response—a value of Cluster confirms the upgrade succeeded.