Upgrading a DB instance for Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle

You can upgrade an Amazon RDS Custom DB instance by modifying it to use a new custom engine version (CEV). For general information about upgrades, see Upgrading a DB instance engine version.

Requirements for RDS Custom for Oracle upgrades

When upgrading your RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance to a target CEV, make sure you meet the following requirements:

Considerations for RDS Custom for Oracle upgrades

When planning an upgrade, consider the following:

Viewing valid upgrade targets for RDS Custom for Oracle DB instances

You can see existing CEVs on the Custom engine versions page in the Amazon Web Services Management Console.

You can also use the describe-db-engine-versions Amazon CLI command to find valid upgrades for your DB instances, as shown in the following example. This example assumes that a DB instance was created using the version 19.my_cev1, and that the upgrade versions 19.my_cev2 and 19.my_cev exist.

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions --engine custom-oracle-ee --engine-version 19.my_cev1

The output resembles the following.

{
    "DBEngineVersions": [
        {
            "Engine": "custom-oracle-ee",
            "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev1",
            ...
            "ValidUpgradeTarget": [
                {
                    "Engine": "custom-oracle-ee",
                    "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev2",
                    "Description": "19.my_cev2 description",
                    "AutoUpgrade": false,
                    "IsMajorVersionUpgrade": false
                },
                {
                    "Engine": "custom-oracle-ee",
                    "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev3",
                    "Description": "19.my_cev3 description",
                    "AutoUpgrade": false,
                    "IsMajorVersionUpgrade": false
                }
            ]
            ...

Upgrading an RDS Custom DB instance

To upgrade your RDS Custom DB instance, you modify it to use a new CEV.

Read replicas managed by RDS Custom are automatically upgraded after the primary DB instance is upgraded.

aws rds modify-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance \
    --engine-version 19.my_cev3 \
    --apply-immediately

aws rds modify-db-instance ^
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance ^
    --engine-version 19.my_cev3 ^
    --apply-immediately

Viewing pending upgrades for RDS Custom DB instances

You can see pending upgrades for your Amazon RDS Custom DB instances by using the describe-db-instances or describe-pending-maintenance-actions Amazon CLI command.

However, this approach doesn't work if you used the --apply-immediately option or if the upgrade is in progress.

The following describe-db-instances command shows pending upgrades for my-custom-instance.

aws rds describe-db-instances --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance

The output resembles the following.

{
    "DBInstances": [
        {
           "DBInstanceIdentifier": "my-custom-instance",
            "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev1",
            ...
            "PendingModifiedValues": {
                "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev3"
            ...
            }
        }
    ]
}

The following shows use of the describe-pending-maintenance-actions command.

aws rds describe-pending-maintenance-actions

The output resembles the following.

{
    "PendingMaintenanceActions": [
        {
            "ResourceIdentifier": "arn:aws-cn:rds:us-west-2:123456789012:instance:my-custom-instance",
            "PendingMaintenanceActionDetails": [
                {
                    "Action": "db-upgrade",
                    "Description": "Upgrade to 19.my_cev3"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Troubleshooting an upgrade failure for an RDS Custom for Oracle DB instance

If an RDS Custom DB instance upgrade fails, an RDS event is generated and the DB instance status becomes upgrade-failed.

You can see this status by using the describe-db-instances Amazon CLI command, as shown in the following example.

aws rds describe-db-instances --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance

The output resembles the following.

{
    "DBInstances": [
        {
           "DBInstanceIdentifier": "my-custom-instance",
            "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev1",
            ...
            "PendingModifiedValues": {
                "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev3"
            ...
            }
            "DBInstanceStatus": "upgrade-failed"
        }
    ]
}

After an upgrade failure, all database actions are blocked except for modifying the DB instance to perform the following tasks:

For more information, see Troubleshooting upgrades for RDS Custom for Oracle.