How do I resolve hardware maintenance or OS update notifications for my RDS for MySQL DB instance?

Short description

Amazon RDS for MySQL performs maintenance on your DB instances to repair issues related to security and instance reliability. During the maintenance window, RDS for MySQL applies updates related to hardware, operating systems, or DB engine minor versions. For more information, see Maintaining a DB instance.

Configure an Amazon CloudWatch Events rule to receive notifications about maintenance actions on your RDS for MySQL DB instances. When you receive a notification, use the Amazon RDS console to view pending maintenance actions for your DB instances. For more information, see What do I need to know about the Amazon RDS maintenance window?

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when running AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands, then confirm that you're running a recent version of the AWS CLI.

View maintenance actions

To view maintenance actions for your RDS for MySQL DB instance, complete the following steps:

1. Open the Amazon RDS console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases.
3. Select the RDS for MySQL DB instance or DB instance that you want to view maintenance actions for.
4. Choose the Maintenance & backups tab to view the list of pending maintenance actions under the Pending maintenance section or run the following command:

Note: Make sure to replace example-region-name with your specified Region name.

$ aws rds describe-pending-maintenance-actions --region example-region-name

Hardware maintenance notifications

Email notifications are sent for hardware maintenance that are scheduled on your DB instances. The notification includes the time frame that the maintenance must be completed in, the Availability Zones (AZ), and the resources that are affected.

When you receive a hardware maintenance notification, complete one of the following actions:

• Apply the hardware maintenance within the specified time frame.

Note: Make sure to review pending modifications on your AWS Management Console before you apply maintenance. All pending modifications are completed when you apply maintenance.

• Take no action. The maintenance is automatically completed on the affected DB instance during the maintenance window and within the specified time frame.

During hardware maintenance and depending on the deployment type of your RDS for MySQL DB instance, you might experience downtime as follows:

• RDS for MySQL with a single AZ deployment - This deployment type is unavailable for a few minutes until the hardware maintenance is completed.
• RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ deployment - If the primary host AZ is affected, then this deployment type is unavailable during the DB instance failover (approximately 60 seconds). If the secondary AZ is affected, then there is no failover or downtime. If the maintenance is scheduled for the primary and secondary Availability Zones, then maintenance is performed on the secondary AZ (standby) first. Then, a failover occurs and maintenance is performed on the new secondary AZ.
• RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ cluster deployment - If the primary host AZ is affected, then this deployment type is unavailable during the DB instance failover (approximately 35 seconds). Amazon RDS manages failover to one of the reader DB instances based on which reader DB instance has the most recent change of record. If the secondary AZ is affected for any of the two readable standby DB instances, then there is no failover or downtime. If the maintenance is scheduled for the primary and secondary Availability Zones, then maintenance is performed on the secondary AZ (standby) first. Then, a failover occurs and maintenance is performed on the new secondary AZ. For more information, see Failover process for Multi-AZ DB clusters.

Note: Hardware maintenance actions can't be deferred.

OS maintenance notifications

OS upgrades to improve performance take approximately ten minutes to complete. During this upgrade, your DB engine version or DB instance class of your RDS for MySQL DB instance is unchanged. Notifications are sent for scheduled OS maintenance and the maintenance is applied automatically. For optional updates, Amazon RDS doesn't apply these updates automatically. For more information, see Working with operating system updates and Applying updates for a DB Instance.

When OS maintenance is scheduled for the next maintenance window, postpone the maintenance by adjusting your preferred DB instance maintenance window. Maintenance can also be deferred by choosing Defer Upgrade from the Actions dropdown menu.

To minimize your downtime, modify the Amazon RDS DB instance to a Multi-AZ deployment. For more information, see What's the impact of modifying my Single-AZ Amazon RDS instance to a Multi-AZ instance and vice versa?.

For Multi-AZ deployments, OS maintenance is applied to the secondary instance first, then the instance fails over and the primary instance is updated. Downtime occurs during the failover. For more information, see Maintenance for Multi-AZ deployments.

Note: It's best practice to keep your Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instances up to date.

Related information

How long is the Amazon RDS maintenance window?

How do I minimize downtime during required Amazon RDS maintenance?