Amazon Aurora supports Multi Major Version Upgrade to Aurora PostgreSQL 11 and higher

Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition now supports Multi Major Version Upgrades which allows you to perform major version upgrades across multiple different major versions.

Previously, major version upgrades could only be done to one higher version at a time. For example, PostgreSQL 9.6.X could only be upgraded to PostgreSQL 10.X. If you wanted to upgrade your older instances to the latest major version, you would have to perform multiple major version upgrades until you reached your target version.

You can perform an in-place upgrade of your database cluster to PostgreSQL major version 11.X, 12.X and 13.X. Instead of backing up and restoring the database to the new version, you can upgrade with just a few clicks in the Amazon RDS Management Console or by using the AWS SDK or CLI. With the multi major version upgrade feature, you can perform any of the following upgrades seamlessly in a single step, thus reducing downtime substantially.

• Upgrade from PostgreSQL 9.6.X to PostgreSQL 11.X
• Upgrade from PostgreSQL 9.6.X to PostgreSQL 12.X
• Upgrade from PostgreSQL 10.X to PostgreSQL 12.X
• Upgrade from PostgreSQL 10.X to PostgreSQL 13.X
• Upgrade from PostgreSQL 11.X to PostgreSQL 13.X

To upgrade, select the "Modify" option on the AWS Management Console corresponding to the DB cluster you want to upgrade, choose the version of Aurora PostgreSQL you want to upgrade to, and proceed with the wizard. The upgrade will be applied immediately (if you select the "Apply Immediately" option) or during your next maintenance window (by default). Note that in either case, your database will be unavailable for a few minutes as the upgrade completes and your database instances are rebooted. Please review the Aurora documentation for more details around the Aurora PostgreSQL versions that are supported as source and target versions and also any limitations associated with the upgrade process. The feature is available in all regions supported by Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL.

Amazon Aurora combines the performance and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases. It provides up to three times better performance than the typical PostgreSQL database, together with increased scalability, durability, and security. For more information, please visit the Amazon Aurora product page. To get started with Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, take a look at our getting started page.

May 4, 2022: Our initial publish of this post neglected to mention upgrade from PostgreSQL 10.X to PostgreSQL 13.X and upgrade from PostgreSQL 11.X to PostgreSQL 13.X, and has since been republished to include it.