Difficulty: Advanced
Description
We have identified several RDS instances in your account that are either already covered by RDS Extended Support or are projected to enter Extended Support within the next year. RDS Extended Support is a paid offering that results in significant additional costs. Upgrading these instances to a current supported engine version eliminates or prevents those charges.
Selection Criteria
The RDS instance is currently under RDS Extended Support.
OR the RDS instance is using a database engine version that will enter RDS Extended Support within the next year.
Expected Saving
RDS Extended Support costs $0.12/vCPU/hour (year 1) and $0.24/vCPU/hour (year 2+), on top of standard instance costs.
Example: a db.r6g.xlarge (4 vCPUs) incurs ~$350/month extra in year 1 of Extended Support.
Upgrading to a supported version eliminates this charge entirely.
Operational Impact
Downtime: Major version upgrades require a maintenance window. Duration depends on database size and upgrade complexity.
⚠️ Warning — Application compatibility: Major version upgrades may introduce breaking changes in SQL behavior, deprecated functions, or driver compatibility. Test against the new engine version in a non-production environment before applying to production.
⚠️ Warning — Upgrade path: Some engine versions require intermediate upgrades before reaching the latest supported version. Verify the full supported upgrade path before proceeding.
⚠️ Warning — Pre-upgrade snapshot: AWS takes an automatic snapshot before major upgrades, but ensure a recent manual backup exists as an additional safety net.