Announcement: Amazon RDS for SQL Server ending support for Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Microsoft announced they will end support for SQL Server 2012 on July 12, 2022. On that date, Microsoft will stop critical patch updates for SQL Server 2012. We strongly recommend that you upgrade your RDS for SQL Server 2012 database instance to a different major version at your earliest convenience [1].

Starting September 1, 2021, we will begin disabling the creation of new Amazon RDS for SQL Server database instances using Microsoft SQL Server 2012. Starting June 1, 2022, we plan to end support of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 on Amazon RDS SQL Server. At that time, any remaining instances will be scheduled to migrate to SQL Server 2014 (latest minor version available) as described below. We recommend that you upgrade your Microsoft SQL Server 2012 instances to Microsoft SQL Server 2014 or later at a time convenient to you.

You can schedule an upgrade to a different major version by going to the instance modify page in the AWS Management Console and changing the database version to a desired value. If you choose the "Apply Immediately" option, the upgrade will be initiated immediately after exiting the modify page. If you choose not to apply the change immediately, the upgrade will be scheduled during your maintenance window.

Upgrade Options:

We support five (or four on some regions) different major/minor version combinations of SQL Server 2012. These database instances can be upgraded to the latest minor version of SQL Server 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019 directly. To find out more information on upgrading please reference this document [2].

You will still be able to restore a SQL Server 2012 database to any major version supported instance on Amazon RDS SQL Server, even after the deprecation. For more information on restoring a database in RDS see here [3].

Should you have any questions or concerns, the AWS Support Team is available via AWS Premium Support [4].

[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/microsoft-sql-server-2012

[2] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_UpgradeDBInstance.SQLServer.html

[3] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/SQLServer.Procedural.Importing.html

[4] https://aws.amazon.com/support