Downtime during the time zone file update - Amazon Relational Database Service
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Downtime during the time zone file update

When RDS updates your time zone file, existing data that uses TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE might change. In this case, your primary consideration is downtime.

Warning

If you add the TIMEZONE_FILE_AUTOUPGRADE option, your engine upgrade might have prolonged downtime. Updating time zone data for a large database might take hours or even days.

The length of the time zone file update depends on factors such as the following:

  • The amount of TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE data in your database

  • The DB instance configuration

  • The DB instance class

  • The storage configuration

  • The database configuration

  • The database parameter settings

Additional downtime can occur when you do the following:

  • Add the option to the option group when the DB instance uses an outdated time zone file

  • Upgrade the Oracle database engine when the new engine version contains a new version of the time zone file

Note

During the time zone file update, RDS for Oracle calls PURGE DBA_RECYCLEBIN.