Minimize the downtime of Aurora mysql engine Upgrade.

Question

Hi,

I want to upgrade our mysql engine 5.6 to latest available. I have 4TB of data in Aurora Mysql.
So how i can perform this task in our production servers without downtime or Is there any way we can minimize the downtime.

Accepted Answer

To minimize the downtime during major version upgrade, [blue-green upgrade technique](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/performing-major-version-upgrades-for-amazon-aurora-mysql-with-minimum-downtime/) could be the option. Please note, using blue-green upgrade, source cluster should be binary log enabled. To do this, need to engine restart to enable binary log and may cause some performance impact due to additional resource 
consumption by writing and shipping binaly log.

Another option should be [in-place upgrade](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/AuroraMySQL.Updates.MajorVersionUpgrade.html#AuroraMySQL.Updates.MajorVersionUpgrade.1to2). You can estimate upgrade time by create cloned cluster and upgrade it for measuring upgrade time.

Minimize the downtime of Aurora mysql engine Upgrade.

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