When Amazon Redshift releases a new version, it updates the version of your Amazon Redshift data warehouse (serverless workgroup or provisioned cluster). You can control whether your data warehouse is updated to the most recent release or to the previous certified release.
The serverless workgroup or provisioned cluster's track determines which released version is applied during a version update. Amazon Redshift updates provisioned clusters during the specified maintenance window. For serverless workgroups, updates are online and seamless, without a set maintenance window. Amazon Redshift determines the timing of serverless workgroup updates based on activity levels, applying the update during idle periods or times of low activity. When Amazon Redshift releases a new version, that version is assigned to the current track, and the previous version is assigned to the trailing track. To set the track for your data warehouse, specify one of the following values:
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Current – With the Current track, you get the most up-to-date certified release version with the latest features, security updates, and performance enhancements.
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Trailing – With the Trailing track, you will be on the previous certified release.
For example, suppose that your serverless workgroup is currently running version 1.0.2762 and Amazon Redshift releases Redshift Serverless version 1.0.3072. If your track value is Current, your workgroup is updated to version 1.0.3072 (the latest release). If you set the track value to Trailing, your workgroup is updated when the next trailing track version is released.
For Redshift Serverless workgroups, you have the option to run a subset of Redshift Serverless workgroups in the Redshift Serverless Trailing track. This allows for 1-6 weeks of testing and integration validation in your environment before adopting the release across all of your workgroups. By default, Redshift Serverless creates all workgroups in the Current track to take advantage of the most up-to-date, certified release. Redshift Serverless Trailing track gives you additional diligence and time needed for testing and development environments to evaluate the Current track before adopting the Current track for your mission-critical workloads in production. The Trailing track ensures maximum stability, making it ideal for mission-critical workloads in production environments.
Note
The trailing track version may be the same as the current track version for short periods of time. This happens when the current track hasn't advanced to the next version. Normally, the current track version is ahead of the trailing track version.
Switching between tracks
Changing tracks for an Amazon Redshift resource is generally a one-time decision. You should exercise caution in changing tracks. You can downgrade your data warehouse's version by changing it to Trailing track. For information about which features are in which data warehouse versions, see Cluster versions for Amazon Redshift.
If you change the track from Trailing to Current, we will update the data warehouse to the Current track release version. If you change the data warehouse's track to Trailing, we will update your data warehouse as follows:
For serverless workgroups, we update your data warehouse's version immediately.
For provisioned clusters, we won't update your data warehouse until there is a new release after the Current track release version.
Tracks and restore
For serverless workgroups, a snapshot inherits the target Amazon Redshift data warehouse's track. For example, if you create a snapshot for a workgroup set to Trailing track, and apply that snapshot to a workgroup set to Current track, the workgroup will have a track setting of Current.
For provisioned clusters, a snapshot inherits the source Amazon Redshift data warehouse's track. If you change the source data warehouse's track after you take a snapshot, the snapshot and the source data warehouse are on different tracks. When you restore from the snapshot, the new data warehouse will be on the track that was inherited from the snapshot source. You can change the track after the restore operation completes.
Resizing a data warehouse doesn't affect its track.
Managing versions
A track is a series of releases. You can decide if your Amazon Redshift data warehouse is on the Current track or the Trailing track. If you put your data warehouse on the Current track, it will always be upgraded to the most recent release version. If you put your resource on the Trailing track, it will always run the release version that was released immediately before the most recently released version.
For provisioned clusters, the Release status column in the Amazon Redshift console list of Amazon Redshift data warehouses indicates whether one of your resources is available for upgrade.
Determining the workgroup or cluster
version
You can determine the Amazon Redshift serverless workgroup version or provisioned cluster version engine with the Amazon Redshift console.
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Redshift console at
https://console.aws.amazon.com/redshiftv2/
For serverless workgroups, on the navigation menu, choose Workgroups, then choose the workgroup name from the list to open its details. The details of the workgroup are displayed.
