Minor version management

Precautions

• A version upgrade typically takes no more than 30 minutes. During the upgrade, PolarProxy or the database kernel engine is restarted, which may cause transient connection interruptions. We recommend that you perform the upgrade during off-peak hours and ensure that your application has an automatic reconnection mechanism.

  Note

  If you have configured Cloud Monitor to monitor your PolarDB cluster, you may receive notifications about cluster access exceptions during the upgrade.

• During the upgrade, some change-related features in the PolarDB console are unavailable, such as configuration upgrade/downgrade, adding/deleting nodes, modifying parameters, and restarting nodes. However, query-related features such as performance monitoring are not affected. You cannot downgrade the version after an upgrade.

View version information

1. Log in to the PolarDB console，In the navigation pane on the left, click Clusters. Select the Region where the cluster is deployed, and then click the cluster ID to go to the cluster details page。

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Settings and Management > Version Management.

3. On the Minor Version Upgrade page, view the version information of PolarProxy and the database kernel engine in the Version Information section.

Manual upgrade

If the current PolarProxy or database kernel engine version is not the latest, you can upgrade it as needed.

1. Go to the Settings and Management > Version Management menu for the target cluster. On the Minor Version Upgrade page, in the Upgrade Version section, you can select Upgrade PolarDB Database Proxy and Kernel, Upgrade Kernel Only, or Upgrade PolarDB Database Proxy Only as needed.

   Note

   • If the current PolarProxy or database kernel engine version is already the latest, the Upgrade PolarDB Database Proxy and Kernel, Upgrade Kernel Only, and Upgrade PolarDB Database Proxy Only options are grayed out.

   • If you select Upgrade PolarDB Database Proxy Only, only the features related to read/write splitting are upgraded, such as consistency level (global consistency), transaction splitting, and whether the primary database accepts read requests.

2. Click Upgrade Now or Upgrade in Maintenance Window. If you select Upgrade in Maintenance Window, you can view the task details or cancel the task on the Scheduled Tasks page. For more information, see Scheduled tasks.

   Important

   • During Upgrade PolarDB Database Proxy and Kernel, both the primary endpoint and the cluster endpoint experience 30 to 90 seconds of transient disconnections. Make sure your application has a reconnection mechanism.

     Note

     Apart from the impact described above, the minor version upgrade does not affect normal cluster usage during the rest of the process.

   • During Upgrade PolarDB Database Proxy Only, the cluster endpoint and custom endpoints experience 30 seconds of transient disconnections. The primary endpoint is not affected. Make sure your application has a reconnection mechanism.

   • During Upgrade Kernel Only, PolarDB clusters with PolarProxy 2.3.50 or later can use Connection Preserving to protect 95% of database connections from being interrupted.

3. View the upgrade task:

   • In the header of the cluster details page, click the task icon button on the right to view the task progress panel and the upgrade progress.

   • Return to Clusters . In the left-side navigation pane, choose Task Management > Task Center , where you can view the task list for all clusters.

Forced upgrade

In rare high-risk scenarios, such as when a vulnerability with a Critical CVE rating is discovered, Alibaba Cloud initiates a forced upgrade to protect your data assets and system security.

To minimize the impact on your business, forced upgrades are performed only within the Set a maintenance window that you configured. We strongly recommend that you configure a proper maintenance window in advance to minimize the impact on your business.

The forced upgrade process is as follows:

1. Before the maintenance starts, Alibaba Cloud notifies the account contacts by SMS and email. Make sure the contact information is valid.

   • Depending on the urgency of the issue, the upgrade operation may or may not be cancelable.

2. During the upgrade, the cluster enters the Maintaining state.

   • The read and write services of the cluster remain available, but change-related operations in the console are restricted. For example, configuration changes, restarts, and parameter modifications are unavailable.

   • During the upgrade, one or two connection interruptions may occur. Make sure to implement an automatic reconnection mechanism at the application layer.

Extension versions

PolarDB for PostgreSQL supports various PostgreSQL extensions. During a minor version upgrade, installed extension versions remain unchanged.

You can use the ALTER EXTENSION statement to upgrade an extension to the latest version supported by the current minor kernel version:

-- View currently installed extensions and their versions
SELECT name, installed_version FROM pg_available_extensions WHERE installed_version IS NOT NULL;

-- Upgrade a specific extension (for example, vector)
ALTER EXTENSION vector UPDATE;

Related API operations