Appendix A. Upgrading MySQL
Upgrading is a trade-off between stability1 and features. You should consider this when choosing to upgrade. One of the best parts about using MySQL is its wide installation base. This means you get the benefit of so many other people testing and using MySQL. If you upgrade to too new of a version, you may unknowingly introduce a bug or regression into your environment. If you stay too far behind, you may be experiencing nonobvious bugs or won’t be able to take advantage of a feature that has been optimized for performance.
Why Upgrade?
Deciding to go forward with a version upgrade can be a risky process. It usually involves backing up all your data, testing the changes, and then running the upgrade process. Before we go into the details, it’s important to understand why you might want to upgrade.
There are a number of reasons to upgrade:
- Security vulnerabilities
- It has become less likely over the years, but it is still possible that people discover security vulnerabilities in MySQL. You or your security team may assess these and determine that you should perform an upgrade.
- Known bugs
- When encountering an unknown or unexplainable behavior in production, we recommend finding what version of MySQL you’re running and then read the release notes for the subsequent versions to the latest. It is entirely possible you’ll discover the situation you’re experiencing is actually a software bug in MySQL. If your issue is covered, you may find the need to upgrade ...
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