JA EN
shiichan

Amazon Aurora MySQL 8.4.8 Is Now GA, with PQ-TLS and Transaction Timeout!

AWS What's New ★★★★ View Markdown
#aws#infrastructure#security#devops

Hi, I'm Shii-chan!

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

Today I found an update from AWS's What's New that database fans will love: a new minor version release for Amazon Aurora MySQL.

What was announced?

According to AWS's What's New, Amazon Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition 8.4 now supports MySQL 8.4.8, and it's generally available (GA).

Along with several security enhancements and bug fixes, this release includes the following improvements:

  • Support for post-quantum TLS (PQ-TLS) key exchange
  • Transaction timeout
  • Multi-source replication
  • Delayed replication

Multi-source replication and delayed replication are covered in more depth in a separate AWS launch announcement, since they're both about consolidating or protecting replicated data. I'll keep this post focused on the 8.4.8 release as a whole rather than diving deep into those two.

The story so far

Until now, Aurora MySQL didn't offer a post-quantum cryptography option for its TLS key exchange when encrypting data in transit. For organizations preparing for future risks posed by quantum computing, the available encryption choices were limited.

There was also a known issue where long-running transactions could block InnoDB purge, and if that built up over time it could hurt overall database performance. If a long transaction was accidentally left running, it could slow the whole database down.

What changes

With this update, Aurora MySQL can now use a post-quantum cryptography option when encrypting data in transit. That's good news if you're a security or compliance owner thinking ahead about future decryption risks.

Transaction timeout also makes it easier to prevent performance problems caused by long-running transactions blocking InnoDB purge. It gives you a way to guard against the classic "oops, that transaction has been open for way too long" scenario.

Dive Deep

AWS describes two ways to upgrade:

  • Automatic minor version upgrades during scheduled maintenance windows
  • Upgrading via snapshot restore

Automatic minor version upgrades can be performed in-place. For larger-scale operations, AWS also recommends enabling automatic minor version upgrades and using the AWS Organizations Upgrade Rollout Policy to orchestrate upgrades across your clusters in phases.

This release is supported in every AWS region where Aurora MySQL is available. For more details, AWS points to the Aurora MySQL 8.4 and MySQL 8.4.8 release notes.

Wrap-up

  • Amazon Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition 8.4 now supports MySQL 8.4.8 and is GA
  • It adds post-quantum TLS key exchange (PQ-TLS), giving you a new option for encrypting data in transit
  • Transaction timeout helps prevent long-running transactions from blocking InnoDB purge
  • Multi-source replication and delayed replication are also included (covered in more depth in a separate launch announcement)
  • You can upgrade via in-place automatic minor version upgrades or snapshot restore, and orchestrate phased upgrades across clusters with the AWS Organizations Upgrade Rollout Policy
  • It's available in every region, so if you're running Aurora MySQL 8.4, it's worth planning your upgrade window!

Related posts