[Announcement] Extending end-of-life process for Amazon RDS for MySQL 5.5

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Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is extending the end-of-life process for MySQL major version 5.5. Beginning March 29, 2021 00:00:01 UTC, Amazon RDS will automatically upgrade MySQL 5.5 instances to MySQL 5.6 during regular maintenance windows, and will upgrade all remaining MySQL 5.5 instances to MySQL 5.6 on May 25, 2021 00:00:01 UTC.
We previously communicated [1] we would begin automatic upgrades starting February 9, 2021, and upgrade remaining instances on March 9, 2021. We have decided to extend the end-of-life process for all customers based on the volume of customer extension requests, and the opportunity to improve the upgrade experience.

We strongly encourage customers to upgrade their MySQL 5.5 instances to MySQL 5.6 or greater as soon as possible, ahead of this end-of-life schedule. Furthermore, because Amazon RDS for MySQL will discontinue support for MySQL 5.6 on August 3, 2021, we suggest that customers make plans to upgrade all their RDS for MySQL instances to version 5.7 or greater. The MySQL community discontinued support for MySQL 5.5 on December 3, 2018, and for MySQL 5.6 on February 5,2021 [2]. MySQL 5.7 includes fixes to software defects in earlier versions, and major innovations like JSON data type support, GIS with native InnoDB spatial indexes, and performance metrics with the new SYS Schema [3]. MySQL 8.0 contains Window Functions, Common Table Expressions, and offers 2x higher performance over 5.7 [4].

Here is summary of important milestones on the updated end-of-life schedule for MySQL 5.5:

• Now through March 29, 2021 00:00:01 UTC

  • Customers can no longer create new RDS instances using MySQL 5.5 from the AWS Console or CLI. We removed this functionality December 3, 2020.
  • Customers can initiate upgrades of Amazon RDS for MySQL 5.5 instances to MySQL 5.6, 5.7, and 8.0 at any time.
  • Customers can continue to restore MySQL 5.5 snapshots, and create read replicas with version 5.5 until March 29, 2021.
    • March 29, 2021 00:00:01 UTC
  • RDS will automatically upgrade MySQL 5.5 instances to version 5.6 during a scheduled maintenance window after March 29, 2021.
  • When customers restore MySQL 5.5 database snapshots, Amazon RDS will automatically upgrade the restored database to MySQL 5.6.
    • May 25, 2021 00:00:01 UTC
  • RDS will begin automatically upgrading remaining MySQL 5.5 instances to version 5.6, whether or not they are in a maintenance window.

To avoid any unplanned unavailability outside your maintenance window, we recommend that you first test the upgrade process using a database snapshot. To learn more about upgrading MySQL major versions in RDS, review the Upgrading Database Versions page [5]. Another common technique for reducing downtime from version upgrades is described in this AWS blog post[6].

Should you have any questions or concerns, the AWS Support Team is available on the community forums and via Premium Support [7].

References
[1] https://forums.aws.amazon.com/ann.jspa?annID=8175
[2] https://www.mysql.com/support/eol-notice.html
[3] https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2016/02/amazon-rds-now-supports-mysql-5-7/
[4] https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/10/amazon-rds-now-supports-mysql-8/
[5] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_UpgradeDBInstance.Upgrading.html#USER_UpgradeDBInstance.Upgrading.Manual
[6] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/best-practices-for-using-a-mysql-read-replica-to-upgrade-an-amazon-rds-for-mysql-database/
[7] http://aws.amazon.com/support

  • This is an announcement migrated from AWS Forums that does not require an answer

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