User Action: SQL Database - Postgres 2.0 version 9.6 end-of-life
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Scheduled
The Postgres version 9.6 has come to end-of-life on November 11, 2021. This means that the Postgres open-source community will not fix any bugs found in version 9.6 after that date. In light of this, the Predix engineering team has also decided to stop supporting Postgres version 9.6 starting November 11, 2021. Below we try to answer some of the questions you may have. If you have additional questions, please reach out to the Predix Support team.
Q. Is my database instance affected by this notification?
If your Database version is 9.6, you must take action to upgrade your database to a newer version. Our recommendation is to upgrade to version 12. You can use the following SQL command to check the current version of your DB Instance.
select version();
Q. How to perform the database upgrade
Please use the following Cloud Foundry CLI command to upgrade the Postgres version of your Service Instance.
cf update-service my-db-instance -c '{"postgres_version":"12"}'
Q. Which version of Postgres should we upgrade to?
It is highly recommended to upgrade to the latest Postgres major version, which currently is version 12. But if you have a compelling reason, you may choose to upgrade your DB Instance to one of the other supported major Postgres versions. The complete list of Postgres major versions available for upgrade are versions 10, 11, and 12.
Q. What considerations should I make to choose the appropriate Postgres major version?
The Postgres community introduces new features in every major version. It is rare, but possible that these changes may introduce backwards incompatibility with the previous versions. So you must test your application against the new major version before upgrading to a new major version.
Please read through the release notes (see [b]) of all major version releases between 9.6 and your choice of major version, to see if there are any incompatibilities introduced for your application. Feel free to ignore the release notes of minor versions; that is, read release notes of 10.0, 11.0, and 12.0, but feel free to ignore 10.1, 10.2, 12.1, etc. You can ignore/skip release notes of the minor versions because as a matter of policy, Postgres community does not introduce breaking changes in minor versions.
Q. Will there be any application downtime?
Yes. During the upgrade process, a DB Instance is unavailable, and hence the applications cannot connect to it. The duration of the DB Instance downtime depends on the size of the database. We anticipate that even the largest DB Instance can be upgraded in less than 60 minutes.
Q. How can I test my application without causing downtime of my application?
You can use Predix Postgres service’s Point-in-Time-Recovery (PITR) feature (see [c]) to clone your DB Instance and upgrade that Service Instance to your desired target version and test your application on the cloned-upgraded DB Instance. This way you can test your application's compatibility with your desired target version without causing any downtime to your customer-facing application.
Here are the steps:
1. You use PITR feature to create a clone of your DB Instance. https://www.ge.com/digital/documentation/predix-platforms/postgres-service.html
2. Upgrade the new/cloned DB Instance to your desired version.
3. You bind and test your application with the upgraded DB Instance.
4. During all these steps, your primary DB Instance does not encounter any downtime because of the tests.
Q. What happens if I don’t upgrade my DB Instance?
If you do not upgrade the Postgres version of the DB Instance by Nov 11, 2021, then your DB Instance will be automatically upgraded to version 12 at the earliest opportunity. Please note that, as noted earlier, during this upgrade the DB Instance will be unavailable for application access.
Q. I still have questions. How do I get answers to those?
Please read AWS’ announcement below (see [a]). If you still have questions, Sign in and file a ticket with support at digitalsupport.ge.com
Links/Info:
• [a]:https://forums.aws.amazon.com/ann.jspa?annID=8499
• [b]:https://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/
• [c]:https://www.ge.com/digital/documentation/predix-platforms/postgres-service.html
• [d]:https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/
Q. Is my database instance affected by this notification?
If your Database version is 9.6, you must take action to upgrade your database to a newer version. Our recommendation is to upgrade to version 12. You can use the following SQL command to check the current version of your DB Instance.
select version();
Q. How to perform the database upgrade
Please use the following Cloud Foundry CLI command to upgrade the Postgres version of your Service Instance.
cf update-service my-db-instance -c '{"postgres_version":"12"}'
Q. Which version of Postgres should we upgrade to?
It is highly recommended to upgrade to the latest Postgres major version, which currently is version 12. But if you have a compelling reason, you may choose to upgrade your DB Instance to one of the other supported major Postgres versions. The complete list of Postgres major versions available for upgrade are versions 10, 11, and 12.
Q. What considerations should I make to choose the appropriate Postgres major version?
The Postgres community introduces new features in every major version. It is rare, but possible that these changes may introduce backwards incompatibility with the previous versions. So you must test your application against the new major version before upgrading to a new major version.
Please read through the release notes (see [b]) of all major version releases between 9.6 and your choice of major version, to see if there are any incompatibilities introduced for your application. Feel free to ignore the release notes of minor versions; that is, read release notes of 10.0, 11.0, and 12.0, but feel free to ignore 10.1, 10.2, 12.1, etc. You can ignore/skip release notes of the minor versions because as a matter of policy, Postgres community does not introduce breaking changes in minor versions.
Q. Will there be any application downtime?
Yes. During the upgrade process, a DB Instance is unavailable, and hence the applications cannot connect to it. The duration of the DB Instance downtime depends on the size of the database. We anticipate that even the largest DB Instance can be upgraded in less than 60 minutes.
Q. How can I test my application without causing downtime of my application?
You can use Predix Postgres service’s Point-in-Time-Recovery (PITR) feature (see [c]) to clone your DB Instance and upgrade that Service Instance to your desired target version and test your application on the cloned-upgraded DB Instance. This way you can test your application's compatibility with your desired target version without causing any downtime to your customer-facing application.
Here are the steps:
1. You use PITR feature to create a clone of your DB Instance. https://www.ge.com/digital/documentation/predix-platforms/postgres-service.html
2. Upgrade the new/cloned DB Instance to your desired version.
3. You bind and test your application with the upgraded DB Instance.
4. During all these steps, your primary DB Instance does not encounter any downtime because of the tests.
Q. What happens if I don’t upgrade my DB Instance?
If you do not upgrade the Postgres version of the DB Instance by Nov 11, 2021, then your DB Instance will be automatically upgraded to version 12 at the earliest opportunity. Please note that, as noted earlier, during this upgrade the DB Instance will be unavailable for application access.
Q. I still have questions. How do I get answers to those?
Please read AWS’ announcement below (see [a]). If you still have questions, Sign in and file a ticket with support at digitalsupport.ge.com
Links/Info:
• [a]:https://forums.aws.amazon.com/ann.jspa?annID=8499
• [b]:https://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/
• [c]:https://www.ge.com/digital/documentation/predix-platforms/postgres-service.html
• [d]:https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/
