Upgrade the database major version in-place

This page describes how to upgrade the database major version by upgrading your Cloud SQL instance in-place rather than by migrating data.

Introduction

Database software providers periodically release new major versions that contain new features, performance improvements, and security enhancements. Cloud SQL takes in new versions after they're released. After Cloud SQL offers support for a new major version, you can upgrade your instances to keep your database updated.

You can upgrade the database version of an instance in-place or by migrating data. In-place upgrades are a simpler way to upgrade your instance's major version. You don't need to migrate data or change application connection strings. With in-place upgrades, you can retain the name, IP address, and other settings of your current instance after the upgrade. In-place upgrades don't require you to move data files and can be completed faster. In some cases, the downtime is shorter than what migrating your data entails.

Plan a major version upgrade

1. Confirm that you have the required role to perform a major version upgrade: Cloud SQL Owner or Cloud SQL Admin.

2. Choose a target major version.

   gcloud

   For information about installing and getting started with the gcloud CLI, see Install the gcloud CLI. For information about starting Cloud Shell, see Use Cloud Shell.

   To check the database versions that you can target for an in-place upgrade on your instance, do the following:

   1. Run the following command.

   gcloud sql instances describe INSTANCE_NAME
      

   Replace INSTANCE_NAME with the name of the instance.

   2. In the output of the command, locate the section that is labeled upgradableDatabaseVersions.
   3. Each subsection returns a database version that is available for upgrade. In each subsection, review the following fields.
   • majorVersion: the major version that you can target for the in-place upgrade.
   • name: the database version string that includes the major version.
   • displayName: the display name for the database version.

   REST v1

   To check which target database versions are available for a major version in-place upgrade, use the instances.get method of the Cloud SQL Admin API.

   Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

   • INSTANCE_NAME: The instance name.

   HTTP method and URL:

   GET https://sqladmin.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/INSTANCE_NAME

   To send your request, expand one of these options:

   curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

   Execute the following command:

   curl -X GET \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
        "https://sqladmin.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/INSTANCE_NAME"

   PowerShell (Windows)

   Execute the following command:

   $cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
   $headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }
   
   Invoke-WebRequest `
       -Method GET `
       -Headers $headers `
       -Uri "https://sqladmin.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/INSTANCE_NAME" | Select-Object -Expand Content

   You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

   
   upgradableDatabaseVersions:
   
   {
     major_version: "POSTGRES_15_0"
     name: "POSTGRES_15_0"
     display_name: "PostgreSQL 15.0"
   }
   
   

   REST v1beta4

   To check which target database versions are available for major version in-place upgrade of an instance, use the instances.get method of the Cloud SQL Admin API.

   Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

   • INSTANCE_NAME: The instance name.

   HTTP method and URL:

   GET https://sqladmin.googleapis.com/sql/v1beta4/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/INSTANCE_NAME

   To send your request, expand one of these options:

   curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

   Execute the following command:

   curl -X GET \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
        "https://sqladmin.googleapis.com/sql/v1beta4/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/INSTANCE_NAME"

   PowerShell (Windows)

   Execute the following command:

   $cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
   $headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }
   
   Invoke-WebRequest `
       -Method GET `
       -Headers $headers `
       -Uri "https://sqladmin.googleapis.com/sql/v1beta4/projects/PROJECT_ID/instances/INSTANCE_NAME" | Select-Object -Expand Content

   You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

   
   upgradableDatabaseVersions:
   
   {
     major_version: "POSTGRES_15_0"
     name: "POSTGRES_15_0"
     display_name: "PostgreSQL 15.0"
   }
   
   

   For the complete list of the database versions that Cloud SQL supports, see Database versions and version policies.

3. Consider the features offered in each database major version and address incompatibilities.

   • PostgreSQL 18 (Preview)

   • PostgreSQL 17

   • PostgreSQL 16

   • PostgreSQL 15

   • PostgreSQL 14

   • PostgreSQL 13

   • PostgreSQL 12

   • PostgreSQL 11

   • PostgreSQL 10

   New major versions introduce incompatible changes that might require you to modify the application code, the schema, or the database settings. Before you can upgrade your database instance, review the release notes of your target major version to determine the incompatibilities that you must address.

4. Perform the precheck for upgrades.

5. Test the upgrade with a dry run.

   Perform a dry run of the end-to-end upgrade process in a test environment before you upgrade the production database. You can clone your instance to create an identical copy of the data on which to test the upgrade process.

   In addition to validating that the upgrade completes successfully, run tests to ensure that the application behaves as expected on the upgraded database.

6. Decide on a time to upgrade.

   Upgrading requires the instance to become unavailable for a period of time. Plan to upgrade during a time period when database activity is low.

Prepare for a major version upgrade

Before you upgrade, complete the following steps.

1. Check the LC_COLLATE value for the template and postgres databases. The character set for each database must be en_US.UTF8.

   If the LC_COLLATE value for the template and postgres databases isn't en_US.UTF8, then the major version upgrade fails. To fix this, if either database has a character set other than en_US.UTF8, then change the LC_COLLATE value to en_US.UTF8 before you perform the upgrade.

   To change the encoding of a database:

   1. Dump your database.
   2. Drop your database.
   3. Create a new database with the different encoding (for this example, en_US.UTF8).
   4. Reload your data.

   Another option is to rename the database:

   1. Close all connections to the database.
   2. Rename the database.
   3. Update your application configurations to use the new database name.
   4. Create a new, empty database with the default encoding.

   We recommend that you perform these steps on a cloned instance before applying them to a production instance.

2. Manage your remaining PostgreSQL extensions.

   Most extensions work on the upgraded database major version. Drop any extensions that are no longer supported in your target version. For example, drop the chkpass extension if you're upgrading to PostgreSQL 11 or later versions.

   You can upgrade PostGIS and its related extensions to their latest supported versions manually.

   Sometimes, upgrading from PostGIS versions 2.x can create a situation where there are leftover database objects that aren't associated with the PostGIS extension. This can block the upgrade operation. For information about resolving this issue, see Fixing a broken postgis raster install.

   Sometimes, upgrading to PostGIS version 3.1.7 or later can't complete due to objects using deprecated functions. This can block the upgrade operation. To check the upgrade status, run SELECT PostGIS_full_version();. If there are warnings present, then drop any objects using the deprecated functions and update the PostGIS extension to any intermediate or higher version. After you complete these actions, run the SELECT PostGIS_full_version(); command again. Verify that no warnings appear. Then, proceed with the upgrade operation.

   To learn more about upgrading your PostGIS extensions, see Upgrading PostGIS. For issues associated with upgrading PostGIS, see Check the version of your PostgreSQL instance.
3. Manage your custom database flags. Check the names of any custom database flags that you configured for your PostgreSQL instance. For issues associated with these flags, see Check the custom flags for your PostgreSQL instance.
4. When performing an upgrade from one major version to another, attempt to connect to each database to see if there are any compatibility issues. Ensure that your databases can connect to each other. Check the datallowconn field for each database to ensure that a connection is allowed. A t value means that it's allowed, and an f value indicates that a connection can't be established.
5. If you use the Datadog installation to upgrade your Cloud SQL instance to PostgreSQL 10 or later versions, then before you perform the upgrade, drop the pg_stat_activity() function.

Known limitations

The following limitations affect in-place major version upgrades for Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL:

• You can't perform an in-place major version upgrade on an external replica.
• Upgrading instances that have more than 1,000 databases from one version to another might take a long time and time out.
• Use the select * from pg_largeobject_metadata; statement to query for the number of large objects in each PostgreSQL database of your Cloud SQL instance. If the result from all of your databases is more than 10 million large objects, then the upgrade fails. Cloud SQL rolls back to the previous version of your database.
• Before you perform an in-place major version upgrade to PostgreSQL 16 and later, upgrade the PostGIS extension for all of your databases to version 3.4.0. For PostgreSQL 18, upgrade to PostGIS version 3.6.0.
• Before you perform an in-place major version upgrade to PostgreSQL 17, upgrade the rdkit extension for all of your databases to version 4.6.1.
• Before you perform an in-place major version upgrade to PostgreSQL 16, 17, or 18, upgrade the pg_squeeze extension for all of your databases to version 1.6, 1.7, or 1.8 respectively.
• If you're using PostgreSQL versions 9.6, 10, 11, or 12, then version 3.4.0 of the PostGIS extension isn't supported. Therefore, to perform an in-place major version upgrade to PostgreSQL 16 and later, you must first upgrade to an intermediate version of PostgreSQL (versions 13, 14, or 15).

• If you install the pg_ivm extension for your instance, then you can't perform a major version upgrade. To fix this, uninstall this extension and then perform the upgrade. For more information about the extensions, see Configure PostgreSQL extensions.

• If you enable the vacuum_defer_cleanup_age and force_parallel_mode flags, then you can't perform a major version upgrade. To fix this, delete these flags and then perform the upgrade. For more information about the flags, including how to delete them, see Configure database flags.

Assess upgrade readiness for your instance

Cloud SQL lets you run a precheck on your instance before a major version upgrade. This precheck is a long-running operation (LRO) that checks if your instance is ready for an upgrade. It helps find potential problems like incompatibilities, configuration issues, or data problems prior to the upgrade operation.

The precheck either confirms your instance can be upgraded, or lists issues you need to fix first and their solutions. These issues might be due to incompatible extensions, unsupported dependencies, or data format problems.

The precheck mainly reads your instance's metadata and performs checks. These tasks don't affect your instance's performance or cause downtime. We highly recommend running the precheck as it helps prevent upgrade failures and unexpected downtime.

When you run the precheck, one of the following happens:

• No issues found: The precheck finished successfully, and no problems were found.
• Upgrade blocking issues found: The precheck finished successfully, but it found errors that stop the upgrade. The issues must be resolved prior to the upgrade.
• Non-blocking warnings found: The precheck finished successfully and found warnings, but none of them stop the upgrade.

Depending on the precheck's results, you can either proceed with the upgrade or fix the identified issues before upgrading.

Limitations

When using the major version upgrade precheck, consider these limitations:

• The instance state must be set to RUNNING.
• The instance must be a primary instance. precheck doesn't support replica instances.

• The instance must not have any blocking operations pending. If a blocking operation is pending, then the precheck results in an error with the following message:

  Operation failed because another operation was already in progress. Try
  your request after the current operation is complete.
  

• The precheck needs to connect to all databases on the instance. If a database is inaccessible, locked, or unresponsive, the precheck might fail or show errors. Although the precheck doesn't affect your instance's performance or cause downtime, we recommend running the precheck when database load is low.

Before you begin

• Make sure the Cloud SQL Admin API is enabled for your instance.
• Confirm you have the cloudsql.instances.preCheckMajorVersionUpgrade IAM permission.

Perform the precheck

To perform the major version upgrade precheck, do the following:

Review precheck findings

After the precheck finishes, your instance is either ready for upgrade, or it has issues that need your attention.

Ready for upgrade

If the precheck finishes successfully and the preCheckResponse array is empty, it means no issues or warnings were found. Your instance is ready for the major version upgrade. To continue, see Perform the major version upgrade.

Not ready for upgrade

If the precheck ran successfully and the preCheckResponse array contains issues, your instance isn't ready for the upgrade and needs attention. The identified issues might or might not block the upgrade. These issues are noted in the preCheckResponse with the following message types:

If your instance only has INFO or WARNING messages, you can upgrade it, but you might have issues after the upgrade. We recommend reviewing the message details and resolving the issue before upgrading. If your instance has ERROR messages, you must resolve these issues before upgrading.

Each issue type includes a message and an actions_required field. Review each issue to understand its type and how to resolve it. For more information about common issues and their solutions, see Common major version upgrade precheck errors.

After you resolve the issues, re-run the precheck to confirm your instance is ready for the upgrade. Then, proceed with upgrading your instance once the precheck is clear.

Perform the major version upgrade

You can upgrade the major version of a single Cloud SQL instance, or you can upgrade the major version of a primary instance and include all of its replicas in the upgrade, including cascading replicas and cross-region replicas.

Upgrade the major version of a single instance

When you initiate an upgrade operation for a single instance, Cloud SQL does the following:

1. Checks the configuration of your instance to ensure that the instance is compatible for an upgrade.
2. After Cloud SQL verifies the configuration, then Cloud SQL makes the instance unavailable.
3. Makes a pre-upgrade backup.
4. Performs the upgrade on the instance.
5. Makes your instance available.
6. Makes a post-upgrade backup.

resource "google_sql_database_instance" "instance" {
  name             = "postgres-instance"
  region           = "us-central1"
  database_version = "POSTGRES_14"
  settings {
    tier = "db-custom-2-7680"
  }
  # set `deletion_protection` to true, will ensure that one cannot accidentally delete this instance by
  # use of Terraform whereas `deletion_protection_enabled` flag protects this instance at the GCP level.
  deletion_protection = false
}

When you place an in-place upgrade request, Cloud SQL first performs a pre-upgrade check. If Cloud SQL determines that your instance isn't ready for an upgrade, then your upgrade request fails with a message suggesting how you can address the issue. See also Troubleshoot a major version upgrade.

Include replicas in the major version upgrade

If your primary instance has replicas, then you can include all replicas in the upgrade. Cloud SQL can upgrade all replicas of the primary instance, including cross-region replicas and cascading replicas.

When you include replicas in a major version upgrade, Cloud SQL does the following:

1. Checks the configuration of your primary instance and replicas to ensure that the instance and replicas are compatible for an upgrade.
2. Makes your primary instance unavailable.
3. Makes a pre-upgrade backup of the primary instance.
4. Stops replication for all replicas.
5. Performs the upgrade on the primary instance.
6. If the upgrade on the primary instance is successful, then the primary instance becomes available again and restarts replication.
7. Cloud SQL takes a post-upgrade backup of the primary instance.
8. Cloud SQL proceeds to upgrade all replicas.

Even if the major version upgrade of a replica fails, the primary instance continues to be available.

To include replicas in a major version upgrade, you can't use the Google Cloud console or Terraform. You can only use gcloud CLI or the Cloud SQL Admin API.

Automatic upgrade backups

When you perform a major version upgrade, Cloud SQL automatically makes two on-demand backups, called upgrade backups:

• The first upgrade backup is the pre-upgrade backup, which is made immediately before starting the upgrade. You can use this backup to restore your database instance to its state on the previous version.
• The second upgrade backup is the post-upgrade backup, which is made immediately after new writes are allowed to the upgraded database instance.

When you view your list of backups, the upgrade backups are listed with type On-demand. Upgrade backups are labeled so that you can identify them quickly. For example, if you're upgrading from PostgreSQL 14 to PostgreSQL 15, your pre-upgrade backup is labeled Pre-upgrade backup, POSTGRES_14 to POSTGRES_15. and your post-upgrade backup is labeled Post-upgrade backup, POSTGRES_14 to POSTGRES_15.

As with other on-demand backups, upgrade backups persist until you delete them or delete the instance. If you have PITR enabled, you can't delete your upgrade backups while they're in your retention window. If you need to delete your upgrade backups, you must disable PITR or wait until your upgrade backups are no longer in your retention window.

Complete the major version upgrade

After you finish upgrading your primary instance, perform the following steps to complete your upgrade:

1. Refresh the database statistics.

   Run ANALYZE on your primary instance to update the system statistics after the upgrade. Accurate statistics make sure that the PostgreSQL query planner processes queries optimally. Missing statistics can lead to bad query plans, which in turn might degrade performance and take up excessive memory.

2. Perform acceptance tests.

   Run tests to make sure that the upgraded system performs as expected.

Troubleshoot a major version upgrade

Cloud SQL returns an error message if you attempt an invalid upgrade command, for example, if your instance contains invalid database flags for the new version.

If your upgrade request fails, check the syntax of your upgrade request. If the request has a valid structure, try looking into the following suggestions.

View error logs

If any issues occur with a valid upgrade request, then Cloud SQL publishes error logs to projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudsql.googleapis.com%2Fpostgres-upgrade.log. Each log entry contains a label with the instance identifier to help you identify the instance with the upgrade error. Look for such upgrade errors and resolve them.

To view error logs, use the Google Cloud console::

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.

   Go to Cloud SQL Instances

2. To open the Overview page of an instance, click the instance name.

3. In the Operations and logs pane of the instance Overview page, click the View PostgreSQL error logs link.

   The Logs Explorer page opens.

4. View logs as follows:

   • To list all error logs in a project, select the log name in the Log name log filter.

   For more information on query filters, see Advanced queries.

   • To filter the upgrade error logs for a single instance, enter the following query in the Search all fields box, after replacing DATABASE_ID

   with the project ID followed by the instance name in this format: project_id:instance_name.

   resource.type="cloudsql_database"
   resource.labels.database_id="DATABASE_ID"
   logName : "projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudsql.googleapis.com%2Fpostgres-upgrade.log"

   For example, to filter the upgrade error logs by an instance named shopping-db running in the project buylots, use the following query filter:

    resource.type="cloudsql_database"
    resource.labels.database_id="buylots:shopping-db"
    logName : "projects/buylots/logs/cloudsql.googleapis.com%2Fpostgres-upgrade.log"

   You can either review all logs reported within a given timeframe, or you can filter logs by severity. A common option for troubleshooting might include selecting the following filters:

   • Emergency
   • Alert
   • Critical
   • Error

Log entries with the pg_upgrade_dump prefix indicate that an upgrade error had occurred. For example:

pg_upgrade_dump: error: query failed: ERROR: out of shared memory
HINT: You might need to increase max_locks_per_transaction.

Additionally, log entries labeled with a .txt secondary filename might list other errors that you might want to resolve before attempting the upgrade again.

All filenames are found in the postgres-upgrade.log file. To locate a filename, look at the labels.FILE_NAME field.

Filenames that might contain errors to resolve include:

• tables_with_oids.txt: This file contains tables that are listed with object identifiers (OIDs). Either delete the tables or modify them so that they don't use OIDs.
• tables_using_composite.txt: This file contains tables that are listed using system-defined composite types. Either delete the tables or modify them so that they don't use these composite types.
• tables_using_unknown.txt: This file contains tables that are listed using the UNKNOWN data type. Either delete the tables or modify them so that they don't use this data type.
• tables_using_sql_identifier.txt: This file contains tables that are listed using the SQL_IDENTIFIER data type. Either delete the tables or modify them so that they don't use this data type.
• tables_using_reg.txt: This file contains tables that are listed using the REG* data type (for example, REGCOLLATION or REGNAMESPACE). Either delete the tables or modify them so that they don't use this data type.
• postfix_ops.txt: This file contains tables that are listed using postfix (right-unary) operators. Either delete the tables or modify them so that they don't use these operators.

Check the memory

If the instance has insufficient shared memory, you might see this error message: ERROR: out of shared memory. This error is more likely to occur if you have in excess of 10,000 tables.

Before you attempt an upgrade, set the value of the max_locks_per_transaction flag to approximately twice the number of tables in the instance. The instance is restarted when you change the value of this flag.

Check the connections capacity

If your instance has insufficient connection capacity, you might see this error message: ERROR: Insufficient connections.

Cloud SQL recommends that you increase the max_connections flag value by the number of databases in your instance. The instance is restarted when you change the value of this flag.

Check for an ambiguous column reference

Cloud SQL automatically performs a pre-upgrade check to identify user-defined views that depend on system catalog views, such as pg_stat_activity or pg_stat_replication. The column structure of these system catalog views can change between major PostgreSQL versions. If you have views that select * or rely on the column order of these system views, then they might become incompatible after an upgrade, resulting in an error, such as ERROR: column reference "column_name" is ambiguous.

The pre-upgrade check detects such views by checking for dependencies. If incompatible views are found, the upgrade process is stopped and an error message is displayed. This message lists the incompatible views in each database that need to be addressed.

Example Error Message

• For pg_stat_activity related issues:

  Please remove the following usages of views that depend on functions returning
  data types of pg_stat_activity before attempting an upgrade:
  (database: my_db, schema name: public, view name: my_stat_activity_view)

• For pg_stat_replication related issues:

  Please remove the following usages of views that depend on functions returning
  data types of pg_stat_replication before attempting an upgrade:
  (database: my_db, schema name: public, view name: my_replication_stats_view)

To resolve such issues and proceed with the upgrade: 1. Identify the views listed in the pre-upgrade check error message.

1. Drop these views using DROP VIEW view_name;.

2. Retry the major version upgrade.

3. Once the upgrade is complete, recreate the views. Ensure the new view definitions are compatible with the schema of the system catalog views in the current PostgreSQL version. You might need to explicitly list columns instead of using select * to avoid future issues.

For a more-detailed example of the problem and further insights, see this stack overflow discussion

Check for SRFs in CASE statements

If you are upgrading your instance from version 9.6 and using set returning functions in your CASE statements, then you might see this error message ERROR: set-returning functions are not allowed in CASE. This issue occurs as from version 10 onwards using set-returning functions in CASE statements is disallowed.

To resolve this issue and upgrade your instance successfully, ensure that any CASE statements utilizing set-returning functions are modified to avoid their use before retrying the upgrade. Some commonly used SRFs include the following:

• unnest()
• generate_series()
• array_agg()
• regexp_split_to_table()
• jsonb_array_elements()
• json_array_elements()
• sonb_each()
• json_each()

Check views created on custom casts

If you have a view created on a custom cast, then an error message similar to the following appears: ERROR: cannot cast type <type_1> to <type_2>. This issue occurs because of permission issues on custom created casts.

To resolve this issue, update your instance to [PostgreSQL version].R20240910.01_02

For more information, see Self-service maintenance.

Check event trigger ownership

In Cloud SQL, all event triggers must be owned by a user with the cloudsqlsuperuser role. Cloud SQL performs a pre-upgrade check to validate ownership of all event triggers. If an event trigger is owned by a user who lacks the cloudsqlsuperuser role, then the upgrade process is halted and you might get an error message, such as:

Please ensure that the owners of all event triggers have the cloudsqlsuperuser
role assigned to them before attempting an upgrade:
(database: your_db, triggerName your_trigger, owner: non_super_user)

To resolve this issue, either change the owner of the event trigger to a user that has the cloudsqlsuperuser role, such as postgres, or grant the cloudsqlsuperuser role to the current owner.

To identify event triggers with owners lacking the required role, run the following command:

SELECT
  t.evtname AS trigger_name,
  r.rolname AS current_owner
FROM pg_event_trigger t
JOIN pg_roles r ON t.evtowner = r.oid
WHERE NOT pg_has_role(r.rolname, 'cloudsqlsuperuser', 'member');

The results show any event trigger with an owner who doesn't have the cloudsqlsuperuser role.

Check generated columns from unlogged tables

If you have an unlogged table which has generated columns you might see the error message ERROR: unexpected request for new relfilenumber in binary upgrade mode. This issue occurs due to discrepancies in the persistence characteristics between tables and their sequences for generated columns.

To address this issue, do the following:

1. Drop unlogged tables: if possible, drop any unlogged tables that are linked to generated columns. Make sure that data loss can be safely mitigated before proceeding.
2. Convert to permanent tables: temporarily, convert unlogged tables to permanent tables using the following steps:
   1. Convert the table to a logged table ALTER TABLE SET LOGGED;
   2. Perform major version upgrade
   3. Convert the table back to an unlogged table ALTER TABLE SET UNLOGGED

You can identify all such tables by using the following query :

SELECT
  relnamespace::regnamespace,
  c.relname AS table_name,
  a.attname AS column_name,
  a.attidentity AS identity_type
FROM
  pg_catalog.pg_class c
  JOIN pg_catalog.pg_attribute a ON a.attrelid = c.oid
WHERE
  a.attidentity IN ('a', 'd') AND c.relkind = 'r' AND c.relpersistence = 'u'
ORDER BY c.relname, a.attname;

Check the custom flags for your PostgreSQL instance

If you're upgrading to a PostgreSQL instance, version 14 or higher, then check the names of any custom database flags that you configured for the instance. This is because PostgreSQL placed additional restrictions on allowed names for custom parameters.

The first character of a custom database flag must be alphabetic (A-Z or a-z). All subsequent characters can be alphanumeric, the underscore (_) special character, or the dollar sign ($) special character.

Remove extensions

If you're upgrading your Cloud SQL instance, then you might see this error message: pg_restore: error: could not execute query: ERROR: role "16447" does not exist.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Remove the pg_stat_statements and pgstattuple extensions.
2. Perform the upgrade.
3. Reinstall the extensions.

MVU operation running for a longer duration

There are two underlying tasks associated with a major version upgrade:

• Pre-check operation: Returns a timeout error if not finished within three hours.
• Upgrade operation: Returns a timeout error if not finished within six hours.

If the instance has an ongoing MAJOR_VERSION_UPGRADE operation for a length of time longer than expected, then investigate the PostgreSQL error logs. This might be caused by common issues such as:

• A large number of tables, views, or indexes
• Insufficient resources such as CPU or memory
• Major transactions blocking the shutdown of databases for the upgrade process to begin. You can use the Google Cloud console to check current processes.

Common major version upgrade precheck errors

Issues found by the major version upgrade precheck fall into these categories:

• Incompatible extensions: These are Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL extensions on your instance that don't work with the new major version.

• Unsupported dependencies: These are dependencies that either aren't supported by the new major version or need updates to work with it.

• Database incompatibilities: These are problems with your database or data that might happen after a major version upgrade. This includes differences in database structures, data types, encoding, collation, or system catalog changes specific to the new version.

Incompatible extensions

The following table lists common errors related to incompatible extensions that the major version upgrade precheck might find:

Unsupported dependencies

The following table lists common errors related to unsupported dependencies that the major version upgrade precheck might find:

Database incompatibilities

The following table lists common errors related to data format incompatibilities that the major version upgrade precheck might find:

Restore the primary instance to the previous major version

If your upgraded database system doesn't perform as expected, then you might need to restore your primary instance to the previous version. You do so by restoring your pre-upgrade backup to a Cloud SQL recovery instance, which is a new instance running the pre-upgrade version.

To restore a primary instance to the previous version, perform the following steps:

1. Identify your pre-upgrade backup.

   See Automatic upgrade backups.

2. Create a recovery instance.

   Create a new Cloud SQL instance using the major version that Cloud SQL was running when the pre-upgrade backup was made. Set the same flags and instance settings that the original instance uses.

3. Restore your pre-upgrade backup.

   Restore your pre-upgrade backup to the recovery instance. This might take several minutes to complete.

4. Add your read replicas.

   If you're using read replicas, then add the read replicas individually.

5. Connect your application.

   Having recovered your database system, update your application with details about the recovery instance and its read replicas. You can resume serving traffic on the pre-upgrade version of your database.

FAQs

The following questions might come up when upgrading the database major version.

Is my instance unavailable during an upgrade?

Yes. Your instance remains unavailable for a period of time while Cloud SQL performs the upgrade.

How long does an upgrade take?

Upgrading a single instance typically takes less than 10 minutes. If your instance configuration has a small number of vCPUs or memory, then your upgrade might take more time.

If your instance hosts too many databases or tables, or your databases are very large, then the upgrade might take hours or even time out because the total upgrade time corresponds to the number of objects in your databases. If you have multiple instances that need to be upgraded, then your upgrade time increases proportionately. If you include replicas in your upgrade, then the upgrade operation can take up to an hour to complete, depending on the number of replicas that your primary instance has.

Can I monitor each step in my upgrade process?

While Cloud SQL lets you monitor whether an upgrade operation is still in progress, you can't track the individual steps in each upgrade.

Can I cancel my upgrade after I've started it?

No, you can't cancel an upgrade once it has started. If your upgrade fails, Cloud SQL automatically recovers your instance on the previous version.

What happens to my settings during an upgrade?

When you perform an in-place major version upgrade, Cloud SQL retains your database settings, including your instance name, IP address, explicitly configured flag values, and user data. However, the default value of the system variables might change. For example, the default value of the password_encryption flag in PostgreSQL 13 and earlier is md5. When you upgrade to PostgreSQL 14, the default value of this flag changes to scram-sha-256.

To learn more, see Configure database flags. If a certain flag or value is no longer supported in your target version, then Cloud SQL automatically removes the flag during the upgrade.

What's next

• Learn about options for connecting to an instance.
• Learn about importing and exporting data.
• Learn more about [setting database flags][flags].