Why is my Aurora DB instance in an incompatible-parameters status?

Short description

The incompatible-parameters status occurs when a parameter in the associated parameter group has a value that isn't compatible with your engine version. Or, the parameter value isn't compatible with your current DB instance class and size.

A DB instance might be in the incompatible-parameters state for one of the following reasons:

• The total memory that the cluster's parameters and the instance parameter groups use exceeds the available memory on the instance.
• The database engine is incompatible with one or more of the parameter settings in the custom DB parameter group.
• The workload on the DB instance is memory intensive, and results in an out of memory (OOM) state. This can happen if you didn't set memory-related parameters or if you use the default values.

To resolve this issue, manually modify your DB parameter group values, or reset all DB parameter group parameters to their default values.

Note: You can't directly modify the DB instance or the engine version. You can only reboot or delete your DB instance.

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when you run AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands, then see Troubleshooting errors for the AWS CLI. Also, make sure that you're using the most recent AWS CLI version.

To identify the issue, run the following copy-db-parameter-group AWS CLI command to copy the incompatible parameter group:

aws rds copy-db-parameter-group \
    --source-db-parameter-group-identifier existing-pg \
    --target-db-parameter-group-identifier copy-pg \
    --target-db-parameter-group-description "Copy of parameter group"

Note: Replace existing-pg with your incompatible parameter group name, copy-pg with the name of the parameter group copy, and Copy of my parameter group with a description for the parameter group copy.

Compare the differences between the custom parameter values and the default parameter group values.

After you identify the modified parameters, take one of the following actions to resolve the incompatible-parameters status.

Reset the incompatible parameter values

Modify the parameter group and the parameter value for the incompatible parameters. For example, if the memory usage of the parameter and parameter group exceeds the available instance memory, then decrease the value of the memory usage parameters. Reboot the DB instance to apply the new settings.

Reset all the parameters in the parameter group to their default values

Reset all parameters in the parameter group to their default values.

Reduce the memory for heavy workloads

For memory-intensive workloads, decrease the innodb_buffer_pool_size parameter value from the default of 75% of memory value. For example, configure DBInstanceClassMemory*5/8 or DBInstanceClassMemory*1/2.

Note: If you modified or reset a static parameter, then you must wait for Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) to apply the modification. Then, reboot the DB instance.

Related information

Viewing Amazon RDS DB instance status

How do I resolve issues with an Amazon RDS DB in an incompatible network state?