Amazon Aurora now supports MySQL 8.4 with enhanced features

Amazon has announced the general availability of Amazon Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition with support for MySQL 8.4, a major version of community MySQL Long Term Support (LTS). This new release aligns Aurora’s version numbering with that of community MySQL, ensuring that the version you use on Aurora corresponds with the compatible community MySQL version. Aurora also simplifies operations by managing the underlying patches for you.

The release of Aurora MySQL 8.4 aims to keep pace with community MySQL LTS versions, targeting major releases within 12 months and minor versions within 3 months. Additionally, an Aurora LTS minor version is expected within a year of each major release. For detailed release objectives, users can refer to the Aurora and RDS open source release calendar announcement.

This version of Aurora MySQL enhances security by default for new clusters. It enforces TLS by default, supporting only TLS 1.2 and 1.3. New user accounts are set up with the caching_sha2_password authentication plugin, and password validation policies can be customized through DB cluster parameter groups. Automated upgrade prechecks are also available to help identify any compatibility issues before upgrading, ensuring a smoother transition.

Users interested in the Aurora MySQL 8.4 customer experience can find more details in the launch announcement blog. Database upgrades can be performed using Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments, in-place upgrades, or by restoring from a snapshot. The Amazon Aurora User Guide provides further information on executing major version upgrades. Additionally, migration to Aurora MySQL 8.4 from external MySQL sources is possible using AWS Database Migration Service or Percona XtraBackup.

Amazon Aurora MySQL 8.4 is available in all AWS Regions where Aurora MySQL is offered. Designed for high performance and global scale, Aurora MySQL offers full MySQL compatibility, serverless compute scaling, multi-region resilience with Aurora Global Database, optimized I/O performance for intensive workloads, and built-in security along with continuous backups. To begin using Amazon Aurora, users can visit the getting started page.