Amazon RDS DB Snapshot Troubleshooter

Question

I have some DB snapshots that I took on Amazon RDS a couple of years ago. I try to restore these database snapshots, but when I select the snapshot and click "Restore from database snapshot", I get an error message:

"Unable to find version 5.1.42 for mysql"

At first I thought it was because I did not have an instance, so I went over to the DB instances running the DB instance and created the same size as this snapshot. However, the oldest MySQL that is available is 5.1.45, so I used. I was able to connect to it from my local machine, and I confirmed that there is no data in it.

Then I went back to my database snapshots and tried again, and I still get the same error, even if I now have a DB instance.

What do I need to do to restore this?

(I am doing all this from the aws web interface)

Answer 1

This is an “interesting” (and disturbing) problem - the “DB Engine Versioning” section of the MySQL Database Engine chapter in the Amazon RDS Technical FAQ seems to imply that restoring a snapshot that is not supported by MySQL may not actually be possible ( although this is not explicitly stated explicitly):

Does Amazon RDS provide recommendations for supporting new versions of MySQL and / or legacy versions of MySQL that are currently supported?

[...]

We intend to support major versions of MySQL, including MySQL 5.1, for 3 years after they are initially supported by Amazon RDS.

We intend to maintain small versions of MySQL versions (such as MySQL 5.1.45) for at least 1 year after they are initially supported by Amazon RDS.

After the major or minor version of MySQL has been "deprecated," we expect to provide a three-month grace period to start upgrading to a supported version before automatic updates are applied during your scheduled maintenance window.

[emphasis mine]

According to Unable to create an RDS instance on EU-west , MySQL 5.1.42 is deprecated as of May 24, 2011, so this three-month grace period has long passed.

Obviously, the apparent effect of this obsolescence that you encounter (i.e., the inability to restore accordingly obsolete images) will come as a surprise to many, so there may eventually be options to deal with this, but I'm afraid that you need to contact AWS for a solution, either directly or through the Amazon Relational Database Service Forum - please post your findings as an answer here, if possible, to the extent possible, I expect this problem to appear regularly over time .