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Service maintenance, updates and upgrades

Aiven applies some maintenance updates automatically and lets you decide when to apply major version upgrades.

Maintenance updates​

Aiven provides two types of updates:

  • Mandatory updates: Security updates, quarterly patch releases, and platform updates that affect reliability or stability of the service nodes.
  • Optional updates: All updates other than mandatory ones are initially optional. After six months, they become mandatory and are applied in the next week’s maintenance window at the earliest.

Advance notice is provided for all updates. You have at least seven days’ notice before an update is applied, except for critical security updates, which may be applied in the current week’s window.

During service upgrades, maintenance updates are applied automatically and do not require your action.

note

When a mandatory service update for Apache Kafka® is released, the Kafka upgrade procedure runs automatically.

You can check pending updates using:

Maintenance window​

A maintenance window defines when Aiven can automatically apply maintenance updates to a service. Set the window by choosing a day of the week and a start time (UTC) for each service. Maintenance can begin any time after the configured start time.

Aiven uses maintenance windows to apply routine updates such as operating system patches, security fixes, and minor version upgrades. During maintenance, Aiven may restart or replace service nodes. This can cause brief connection interruptions, but services are designed to minimize downtime.

Aiven performs maintenance in a rolling-forward style, creating new nodes alongside existing ones and retiring the old nodes after the upgrade completes.

important

Major service upgrades are triggered manually. A manually triggered upgrade starts immediately, regardless of the maintenance window. See Upgrade PostgreSQL to a major version.

How maintenance scheduling works​

When an update becomes available, Aiven schedules it for the next available maintenance window for each service.

  • Each service follows its own configured day and time.
  • The update runs in the first window that occurs after it becomes available.

Example

ServiceMaintenance window
Non-productionMonday 12:00 UTC
ProductionWednesday 12:00 UTC

If an update becomes available on Tuesday, production updates on Wednesday and non-production the following Monday.

important

You cannot control the order in which services are updated (for example, non-production before production). Each service updates according to its own configured maintenance window, and there is no guaranteed way to control the update sequence. Manual updates and maintenance window adjustments only help for non-critical updates.

MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Valkey updates​

For MySQL®, PostgreSQL®, and Valkey, the maintenance process usually lasts several seconds. The downtime comes from the old primary stopping in a controlled manner and the new primary being promoted.

After promotion, the old primary forwards requests to the new node so the service remains accessible before DNS updates propagate. Clients reconnecting to the old node may experience a brief disconnection when it is permanently retired.

Apache Kafka and OpenSearch updates​

For Apache Kafka® and OpenSearch®, the service DNS address resolves to all available nodes. During maintenance, the DNS records are updated to reflect added or removed nodes.

For example, during an Apache Kafka upgrade procedure, a three-node service always keeps at least three nodes available throughout the upgrade.

note
  • The DNS name stays the same, but the underlying IP addresses change during maintenance. See Static IP addresses.
  • Starting with Aiven for OpenSearch® versions 1.3.13 and 2.10, OpenSearch Dashboards remain available during maintenance that includes version updates.

Set the maintenance window​

  1. In the Aiven Console, open your service.
  2. On the Overview page, scroll to the Maintenance section.
  3. Click Actions > Change maintenance window.
  4. Set the day and time, then click Save changes.

Periodic infrastructure updates​

Maintenance updates are scheduled automatically for services with nodes active for 180 days and more.

important

Periodic infrastructure updates are mandatory for all the services except for those with maintenance disabled.

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