Learn about the OVHcloud policy for major versions of engines provided in Cloud Databases and Analytics.
Cloud Databases and Analytics allow you to focus on building and deploying cloud applications while OVHcloud takes care of the database infrastructure and maintenance. Each service is powered by third-party database management systems (DBMS), maintained by third-party companies or communities such as PostgreSQL community, Oracle, MongoDB, RedisLab, Apache Foundation, Apache Kafka, Grafana®, OpenSearch, and others.
Lifecycle policy
This policy is being provided to help customers understand the lifecycle of OVHcloud Cloud Databases and Analytics, to anticipate and prepare transitions to newer versions.
End Of Life (EOL) refers to the deadline after which affected Cloud Databases and Analytics services are deprecated and will no longer be supported nor maintained.
OVHcloud aims to follow the EOL schedule set by the original authors and maintainers of the databases and analytics engines, also known as upstream projects. Once the upstream project retires a specific version, it no longer receives security updates or critical bug fixes.
Continued use of outdated services means that they no longer offer our customers the level of protection their business needs. Therefore, by following the upstream project's EOL schedule, we ensure that OVHcloud services are always running on supported versions of the DBMS software.
Service coverage
This lifecycle policy applies to:
- All Cloud Databases and Analytics services;
- Including all the service plans (Essential, Business, Enterprise, Discovery, Production);
- And all proposed database and analytics engines, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Kafka, Grafana®, etc.;
- Whatever state; if they are up and running or in a sleeping state (powered off, waiting for payment).
Providing new major versions
Once a new major version is considered stable to use, OVHcloud will do its best to provide it to our customers as soon as we can. Since many factors can come into play, we cannot provide an exact timeline or commitment.
Prior EOL
When OVHcloud defines the EOL date for a service major version:
- Customers will receive an EOL email announcement via their main contact point (account admin);
- The OVHcloud Control Panel will also show an EOL notification for affected services;
- Email reminders may also be sent to customers.
Upon EOL
Once the EOL date is reached:
- Affected running services will be automatically upgraded to the latest available version. For example, if the latest version is PostgreSQL 13, then upon PostgreSQL 9.6 EOL, it will be upgraded to the latest PostgreSQL 13 instead of PostgreSQL 10, 11, or 12.
- Affected sleeping state (powered-off) services will no longer be accessible and their backups will be deleted.
Potential impacts
New versions can introduce minor changes but also breaking changes, leading to malfunctions in your code and applications. A specific feature might not work properly, or your entire website or application can become non-functional and unavailable. These impacts cannot be predicted by OVHcloud and customers are responsible for their own code. We recommend browsing the official documentation of the engine to review the newly introduced features and/or deprecated ones.
Recommendations for upgrades
We highly recommend performing the version upgrade well before EOL so that you can test compatibility for any breaking changes, plan for unforeseen issues, and migrate to the newer version at your own schedule.
Cloud Databases and Analytics offer database forking (a copy) as an efficient tool to verify the version upgrade so that you can safely test compatibility without committing your production services to a one-way upgrade.
To perform a fork, navigate to the "Overview" page of your service, and scroll down until you see a "New database fork" (or "New service fork") button. This will allow you to make a separate new database service that is cloned from the current one's backups.
EOL Announcements for major versions
Cassandra
Current Cassandra releases as well as older, maintained releases can be found here.
Grafana®
The most recent information about Grafana® releases can be on their official page.1
Kafka
Cloud Databases for Kafka major.minor version will reach EOL approximately one year after it's made available on Cloud Databases. For example:
Kafka versions, features, and bug fixes can be viewed on their official downloads page.
MongoDb
MongoDB EOL will coincide with the official MongoDB Lifecycle schedule.
MySQL
MySQL EOL will coincide with the official MySQL Lifecycle schedule for Linux.
OpenSearch
OpenSearch EOL will coincide with the official OpenSearch versioning.
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL EOL will coincide with the official PostgreSQL versioning policy.
Caching
Caching EOL will coincide with the official Redis Community Releases policy.
Go further
For more information and tutorials, please see our other Managed Databases & Analytics or Platform as a Service guides. You can also explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.
[1]: The Grafana Labs Marks are trademarks of Grafana Labs, and are used with Grafana Labs’ permission. We are not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Grafana Labs or its affiliates.