How do I perform a major version upgrade of my Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible global database?

Resolution

Before you perform the major version upgrade in your production environment, it's important that you test your production DB cluster on the upgraded version. The upgrade process requires downtime. It's a best practice to perform the upgrade during your planned maintenance window.

When you're performing the major version upgrade of your Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible global database, you can't apply a custom parameter group to the global database cluster. Create your custom parameter groups in each AWS Region of the global cluster, and then manually apply the parameter groups to the Regional clusters after the upgrade.

Note: If you receive errors when you run AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands, then see Troubleshooting errors for the AWS CLI. Also, make sure that you're using the most recent AWS CLI version.

Turn off rds.global_db_rpo

The rds.global_db_rpo parameter is turned off by default. If you didn't turn on the parameter, then proceed to the steps to perform the major upgrade.

If you set a recovery point objective (RPO) on the global DB cluster, then turn off the rds.global_db_rpo parameter before you upgrade to a major version. Major version upgrades fail when RPO is turned on, and you receive an error message that's similar to the following:

"Error: We're sorry, your request to modify global database GlobalCluster-GCTest has failed. Primary cluster can't have RPO setting enabled during major version upgrade."

Use the Amazon RDS console

Complete the following steps:

1. Open the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Parameter groups.
3. Choose your primary DB cluster parameter group.
4. For Parameter group actions, choose Actions, and then choose Edit.
5. Select the rds.global_db_rpo parameter.
6. Choose Reset.
7. Under Reset parameters in DB parameter group, choose Reset parameters.

For more information about DB cluster parameters, see DB cluster parameter groups for Amazon Aurora DB clusters.

Use AWS CLI

Run the reset-db-cluster-parameter-group command for your operating systems (OS).

Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds reset-db-cluster-parameter-group \
    --db-cluster-parameter-group-name global_db_cluster_parameter_group \

    --parameters "ParameterName=rds.global_db_rpo,ApplyMethod=immediate"

Windows:

aws rds reset-db-cluster-parameter-group ^
    --db-cluster-parameter-group-name global_db_cluster_parameter_group ^

    --parameters "ParameterName=rds.global_db_rpo,ApplyMethod=immediate"

Perform the major version upgrade

Prerequisite: Confirm that the version that you're upgrading to is available in your Region.

Use the Amazon RDS console

Complete the following steps:

1. Open the Amazon RDS console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then select the global database that you want to upgrade.
   Note: Choose the top-level item under Databases. To confirm that you chose the correct item, choose Role and look for Global database.
3. Choose Modify.
4. On the Modify DB cluster page, for Engine version, choose the latest version.
5. Choose Continue, and then review the summary of modifications.
6. To immediately apply the changes, choose Apply immediately.
   Note: This option can cause unexpected downtime for the DB instance.
7. Choose Modify cluster to save your changes.

Use AWS CLI

Run the modify-global-cluster command:

aws rds modify-global-cluster --global-cluster-identifier cluster_global_identifier --engine-version engnie_version --allow-major-version-upgrade

Note: Replace cluster_global_identifier with your identifier and engine_version with your engine version.

Related information

Upgrading an Amazon Aurora global database