ApsaraDB RDS:Upgrade the major engine version

Upgrade methods

• Method 1: Upgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance in the ApsaraDB RDS console

• Upgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance in the Data Transmission Service (DTS) console

For more information about how to upgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance that runs a different database engine, see the following topics:

• Upgrade the major engine version of an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance

• Upgrade the major engine version

Method 1: Upgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance in the ApsaraDB RDS console

Description

You can perform the following upgrades in the ApsaraDB RDS console:

• Upgrade from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8.0

• Upgrade from MySQL 5.6 to MySQL 5.7

• Upgrade from MySQL 5.5 to MySQL 5.6

Procedure

1. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides. Then, find the RDS instance and click the ID of the instance.

2. In the Configuration Information section of the Basic Information page, click Upgrade Database.

   

   Note

   If Upgrade Database is not displayed, check whether the major engine version of the RDS instance meets the upgrade requirements.

3. In the dialog box that appears, select Switch Immediately or Switch Within Maintenance Window and click OK.

   • Switch Immediately: After the upgrade is complete, the system immediately switches your workloads.

   • Switch Within Maintenance Window: After the upgrade is complete, the system switches your workloads over within the specified maintenance window. For more information, see Set the maintenance window of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance. You can also click Configure to the right of Maintenance Window to change the maintenance window.

   Note

   During the upgrade, the RDS instance is in the Migrating Version state.

Method 2: Upgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance in the DTS console

If the major engine version of an RDS instance cannot be upgraded in the ApsaraDB RDS console, you can perform the following operations to upgrade the major engine version:

1. Create an RDS instance that runs the new major engine version. For more information, see Create an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.

2. Migrate the data of the original RDS instance to the new RDS instance. For more information, see Migrate data between ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances.

3. Release the original RDS instance. For more information, see Release or unsubscribe from an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.

For example, if you want to upgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance that runs MySQL 5.7 and has TDE enabled to MySQL 8.0, you must first create an RDS instance that runs MySQL 8.0 and migrate the data of the original RDS instance to the new RDS instance. After you confirm that your workloads run as expected on the new RDS instance, you can release the original RDS instance.

Appendix 1: Advantages of MySQL 8.0 over MySQL 5.7

• The security of your database system is enhanced. You can manage accounts in a more flexible manner.

• You can create and manage resource groups.

• The features of the InnoDB storage engine are enhanced.

• New character sets, data types, and syntax are supported. Backup locks and optimizer_switch flags are introduced.

• JSON and XML expressions are enhanced.

• Optimizers are enhanced.

• Replication performance is enhanced.

• Multi-value indexes can be created. Derived condition pushdown is optimized.

• MySQL grant tables can be read.

• Resource allocation control is supported.

Appendix 2: Advantages of MySQL 5.7 over MySQL 5.6

• New features such as password management, account locking, and connection encryption are introduced. These new features help improve the security of your database system.

• Online DDL operations are supported. For example, you can use RENAME INDEX to rename an index.

• The scalability of the InnoDB storage engine and the performance of temporary InnoDB tables are optimized to accelerate data loading.

• JSON expressions are supported.

• Index Condition Pushdown (ICP) is supported for partitioned tables, and spatial indexes are supported for InnoDB tables.

• Most of the used parsers, optimizers, and cost models are optimized to improve the maintainability, scalability, and performance of your database system.

• New character sets are supported. The character sets include the gb18030 character set that is defined in the Chinese National Standard GB 18030-2005: Information technology - Chinese coded character set.

• The ngram full-text parser plug-in is provided. The plug-in supports Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK).

• Dump threads are optimized to reduce lock contention and increase throughput.

• The replication latency is significantly reduced.

• The sys system database is added to support multiple metrics. These metrics help reduce storage usage and simplify database management.

Appendix 3: Differences between MySQL 5.7 and MySQL 8.0

Appendix 4: Differences between MySQL 5.6 and MySQL 5.7

FAQ

• Why does an instance switchover occur when I upgrade the major engine version of my RDS instance? Does the upgrade cause other serious risks?

  If your RDS instance uses local SSDs, the system upgrades the major engine version of the secondary RDS instance. Then, the system switches your workloads over to the secondary RDS instance before it upgrades the major engine version of the primary RDS instance. This ensures service stability. If your RDS instance uses ESSDs, the system create an RDS instance and upgrade the major engine version of the new RDS instance to the required version. Then, the system switches your workloads over from the original RDS instance to the new RDS instance In this case, a primary/secondary switchover occurs. The major engine version upgrade does not cause other serious risks. For more information about the impacts of a primary/secondary switchover, see Impacts.

• Does the system upgrade the major engine version of the primary RDS instance and the secondary RDS instance at the same time?

  No. If your RDS instance uses local SSDs, the system first upgrades the major engine version of the secondary RDS instance, switches your workloads to the secondary RDS instance, and then upgrades the major engine versions of the primary RDS instance.

• How do I upgrade the major engine version of my RDS instance that runs MySQL 5.7 on RDS Basic Edition with standard SSDs?

  You cannot directly upgrade the major engine versions of RDS instances that run MySQL 5.7 on RDS Basic Edition with standard SSDs. If you want to upgrade the major engine version of your RDS instance that runs MySQL 5.7 on RDS Basic Edition with standard SSDs, you must upgrade the RDS edition of the RDS instance from RDS Basic Edition to RDS High-availability Edition and change the storage type of the RDS instance.

• Is the parameter template that is applied to my RDS instance changed after I upgrade the major engine version of my RDS instance?

  The answer varies. Assume that you want to upgrade the major engine of your RDS instance from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8.0. If the RDS instance uses the system parameter template before the upgrade, the RDS instance will use the system parameter template that corresponds to the original template after the upgrade. For example, if the RDS instance uses the MySQL_InnoDB_5.7_RDS High-availability Edition_High-performance parameter template, the RDS instance will use the MySQL_InnoDB_8.0_RDS High-availability Edition_High-performance parameter template after the upgrade. If the RDS instance uses a custom parameter template before the upgrade, the RDS instance cannot use the template after the upgrade because the template is not retained.

• Can I change the configuration items of my RDS instance when I upgrade the major engine version of the RDS instance?

  You cannot change the configuration items of your RDS instance when you upgrade the major engine version of the RDS instance. You can perform other operations on your RDS instance only after the major engine version is upgraded.

• Does ApsaraDB RDS support the automatic upgrade of a major engine version?

  No, the major engine version of your RDS instance does not support automatic upgrade.

• Can I downgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance?

  No, you cannot downgrade the major engine version of an RDS instance or roll back the major engine version upgrade.

• When I upgrade the minor engine version of my RDS instance from MySQL 5.6 to MySQL 5.7 or from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8.0, the upgrade fails and the error message "The current instance minor version is less than 20221130. Please upgrade the minor version before deleting or rebuilding the full-text index." or "The current instance contains full-text indexes created in the system tablespace. Delete and rebuild the corresponding full-text indexes before upgrading." is displayed. What are the cause and solution of the error?

  The following list describes the cause and solution of the error:

  • Cause

    If you create a full-text index for your RDS instance that runs MySQL 5.6 and an earlier minor engine version, the full-text index is created in the system tablespace due to history reasons. After you upgrade the major engine version of your RDS instance from MySQL 5.6 to MySQL 5.7 or MySQL 8.0, the full-text index that is created in the system tablespace may cause tablespace damage. Therefore, you must delete the full-text index before the upgrade to avoid issues such as data corruption and inaccessibility.

    Note

    The preceding issues are fixed for RDS instances that run MySQL 5.6 and a minor engine version of 20221130, and the full-text indexes are created in a separate tablespace for the RDS instances.

  • Solution

    Important

    If your RDS instance runs MySQL 5.6, upgrade the major engine version of the RDS instance to MySQL 5.7 or make sure that the RDS instance runs a minor engine of 20221130 or later. In this case, the full-text index is not created in the system tablespace for the RDS instance. If your RDS instance runs MySQL 5.6 and an earlier minor engine version, update the RDS instance to the most recent minor engine version.

    1. Delete the full-text index created in the system tablespace based on the mentioned table name.

       # Delete a full-text index.
       ALTER TABLE $table_name DROP INDEX $fts_name;

    2. Recreate the full-text index.

       # Recreate the full-text index.
       ALTER TABLE $table_name ADD FULLTEXT INDEX $fts_name;

    3. After the recreation, execute the following SQL statement to check the full-text index created for your RDS instance. If no full-text index created in the system tablespace is returned, the upgrade of the major engine version from MySQL 5.6 to MySQL 5.7 does not fail due to the full-text index created in the system tablespace.

       # Query the full-text index created in the system tablespace.
       SELECT NAME FROM information_schema.INNODB_SYS_TABLES WHERE TABLE_ID IN ( SELECT CONV(SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(NAME, '_', -4),'_', 1),16,10) FROM INNODB_SYS_TABLES WHERE NAME LIKE '%fts_00000000%' AND SPACE = 0);

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