PostgreSQL 16 and 17 available, with their extensions
As we did with our runtime updates, we needed to rethink and improve the processes to support a new version within our managed database offering (DBaaS), enabling us to be more responsive. To achieve this, we first had to deal with issues relating to the maintenance of old versions and their dependencies, which were blocking us on a regular basis.
Then, we laid the groundwork for the future. Over the last few months, we have not only prepared our platform for PostgreSQL 16.8 and 17.4, but also for all the extensions we integrate or provide on-demand.
Only a few are no longer supported: plcoffee, plls, plv8 from PostgreSQL 16 and pgadmin from PostgreSQL 17.
Migrate in a single click
We’ve integrated this into our migration process. To migrate from a previous version of PosgreSQL to 16 or 17 on Clever Cloud, simply go to the add-on’s migration tool within the Console, choose the targeted version (the region and/or plan if you wish to change it as you go), wait a few minutes depending on the size of your database, which will be placed in read-only mode during the operation, and you’re done.
If an incompatible extension is used, the process will fail and your database will remain in its initial state.
Next steps
To prepare for the future, we announced that it will no longer be possible to deploy end-of-life versions of PostgreSQL (11 and 12) as of April 30. Existing databases will of course remain in place, but we encourage customers to update them as no new functionality or security patches are added.
Over the next few months, we’ll be finalizing the tooling that will enable us to make PostgreSQL database extensions configurable, with the objective of delivering this feature with version 18, scheduled for release in November.
This will enable us to offer it in a basic version initially, then allow you to activate extensions on-demand as and when they are updated and available for this new version.