Operating system updates in Amazon Aurora - Amazon Aurora
Availability of operating system updates

Operating system updates in Amazon Aurora

DB instances in Aurora MySQL and Aurora PostgreSQL DB clusters occasionally require operating system updates. Amazon RDS upgrades the operating system to a newer version to improve database performance and customers’ overall security posture. Typically, the updates take about 10 minutes. Operating system updates don't change the DB engine version or DB instance class of a DB instance.

We recommend that you update the reader DB instances in a DB cluster first, then the writer DB instance. We don't recommend updating reader and writer instances at the same time, because you might incur downtime in the event of a failover.

We recommend that you use the AWS drivers to achieve faster database failover. For more information, see Connecting to Aurora DB clusters with the AWS drivers.

There are two types of operating system updates, differentiated by the description visible in the pending maintenance action on the DB instance:

  • Operating system distribution upgrade – Used to migrate to the latest supported major version of Amazon Linux. Its description in the pending maintenance action is New Operating System upgrade is available.

  • Operating system patch – Used to apply various security fixes and sometimes to improve database performance. Its description in the pending maintenance action is New Operating System patch is available.

Operating system updates can be either optional or mandatory:

  • An optional update can be applied at any time. While these updates are optional, we recommend that you apply them periodically to keep your RDS fleet up to date. RDS does not apply these updates automatically.

    To be notified when a new, optional operating system patch becomes available, you can subscribe to RDS-EVENT-0230 in the security patching event category. For information about subscribing to RDS events, see Subscribing to Amazon RDS event notification.

    Note

    RDS-EVENT-0230 doesn't apply to operating system distribution upgrades.

  • A mandatory update is required, and we send a notification before the mandatory update. The notification might contain a due date. Plan to schedule your update before this due date. After the specified due date, Amazon RDS automatically upgrades the operating system for your DB instance to the latest version during one of your assigned maintenance windows.

    Operating system distribution upgrades are mandatory.

Note

Staying current on all optional and mandatory updates might be required to meet various compliance obligations. We recommend that you apply all updates made available by RDS routinely during your maintenance windows.

You can use the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI to get information about the type of operating system upgrade.

To get update information using the AWS Management Console

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then select the DB instance.

  3. Choose Maintenance.

  4. In the Pending maintenance section, find the operating system update, and check the Description value.

In the AWS Management Console, an operating system distribution upgrade has its Description set to New Operating System upgrade is available, as shown in the following image. This upgrade is mandatory.

Operating system distribution upgrade.

An operating system patch has its Description set to New Operating System patch is available, as shown in the following image.

Operating system patch.

To get update information from the AWS CLI, use the describe-pending-maintenance-actions command.

aws rds describe-pending-maintenance-actions

The following output shows an operating system distribution upgrade.

{
  "ResourceIdentifier": "arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:123456789012:db:mydb1",
  "PendingMaintenanceActionDetails": [
    {
      "Action": "system-update",
      "Description": "New Operating System upgrade is available"
    }
  ]
}

The following output shows an operating system patch.

{
  "ResourceIdentifier": "arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:123456789012:db:mydb2",
  "PendingMaintenanceActionDetails": [
    {
      "Action": "system-update",
      "Description": "New Operating System patch is available"
    }
  ]
}

Availability of operating system updates

Operating system updates are specific to DB engine version and DB instance class. Therefore, DB instances receive or require updates at different times. When an operating system update is available for your DB instance based on its engine version and instance class, the update appears in the console. It can also be viewed by running AWS CLI describe-pending-maintenance-actions command or by calling the RDS DescribePendingMaintenanceActions API operation. If an update is available for your instance, you can update your operating system by following the instructions in Applying updates for a DB cluster.