[Announcement] Amazon RDS Extended Support opt-in behavior is changing. Upgrade your Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL 11 database instances before March 31, 2024 to avoid potential increase in charges.

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL will end standard support for major version 11 on February 29, 2024, at which time any database instances still running this version will be automatically enrolled in Amazon RDS Extended Support to ensure that your databases remain available to your applications.

What’s changing: On September 1, 2023, we announced Amazon RDS Extended Support [1]. We have since heard from customers that they prefer to be auto-enrolled into Amazon RDS Extended Support to maintain availability of their databases. For that reason, we are changing the experience to optimize for availability, meaning that we will automatically enroll all PostgreSQL 11 database instances into Amazon RDS Extended Support on February 29, 2024. You do not have to use the AWS console or APIs to opt-in to Amazon RDS Extended Support manually.

What does it mean: You will see three things as a result of this change:

• First, we will not auto-upgrade your database(s). You will have to upgrade your database to PostgreSQL 12 or higher when you’re ready. You must complete your upgrade before the end of RDS Extended Support for PostgreSQL 11 on February 28, 2027.
• Starting on March 1, 2024, you can create new Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL 11 instances only in Amazon RDS Extended Support mode.
• Starting on April 1, 2024, you will start to be charged for Amazon RDS Extended Support on all Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL 11 database instances that are still active. The charges for Amazon RDS Extended Support service will stop when you upgrade your database instance to PostgreSQL 12 or higher. You can avoid Amazon RDS Extended Support charges entirely by upgrading to PostgreSQL 12 or higher before April 1, 2024.

What do you need to do: Your next steps depend on whether you want to run your Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL 11 databases beyond March 31, 2024.

• If you plan to run your Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL 11 database instances beyond February 29, you do not need to take any action. Your instance/cluster will be automatically enrolled into Amazon RDS Extended Support, and you will be billed for Extended Support starting April 1, 2024. Note, if you are running a minor version lower than PostgreSQL 11.22, your database will be auto-upgraded to PostgreSQL 11.22 starting on April 1, 2024. If you do not want to be auto-upgraded to PostgreSQL 11.22, we recommend that you upgrade to this version manually before March 31, 2024.
• If you do not intend to run your Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL 11 database instances beyond March 31, 2024 or you do not want to incur expenses for Amazon RDS Extended Support, we recommend you upgrade your databases from PostgreSQL 11 to PostgreSQL 12 or higher by March 31, 2024. Consider using Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments [3] to minimize risk and downtime during your PostgreSQL 11 to PostgreSQL 12 or higher upgrade.

If you have any questions or concerns, the AWS Support Team is available on AWS re:Post [4] and via Premium Support [5]

[1] https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2023/09/amazon-aurora-rds-extended-support-mysql-postgresql-databases/

[2] https://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/pricing/

[3] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/blue-green-deployments.html

[4] https://repost.aws

[5] http://aws.amazon.com/support