Hi Andrew,

My main concern is that the enwiki_p replica
at enwiki.analytics.db.svc.eqiad.wmflabs is currently on 10.11.13 and I'm
not aware of plans to upgrade it. Tools like ours (mwcurator/WP1) connect
to both the wiki replica and our Trove, and I'm wondering what the
implications of running on different versions would be.

Answering my own questions in public:

1) My general expectation is that newer versions of database software are
backwards compatible from an API perspective, and that differences are
adding features and optimizations.
2) Keeping in mind the above, I believe both the official MariaDB connector
Python library, as well as pymysql (which is what we actually use) support
both versions.
3) Having multiple versions for dev environment is not necessary simply
because our databases in dev are containerized. And even then, it would
only be a concern for the most paranoid of development postures, which we
don't take.

The other thing I worry about is that 10.5 is EOL, and 10.6 is only
supported until July 2026, like you mentioned. In my experience, EOL is a
phrase that makes SREs jumpy. I know you are planning on continuing to
operate existing versions *for now* but I wonder if there is a forced
migration somewhere on the horizon (see what I did there?). I'm thinking of
the debian upgrades which were fairly painful for us (though those I
understand as being more critical).

Finally, as a data point for your team, WP1 performs nightly external
backups of our Trove database external to Horizon. I don't know if I should
be mentioning that because we might get in trouble for resource usage 😅.
We have successfully run restore operations in the form of yearly exercises.

Thanks as always,
-Travis

On Fri, Mar 27, 2026 at 6:20 AM Andrew Bogott via Cloud-announce via Cloud <
[email protected]> wrote:

> tl;dr: new trove database versions are coming! Existing trove db servers
> will continue to run as before. Please provide feedback about the specifics.
>
> --
>
> Sometime in the next few weeks I'd like to make a few updates to the
> databases supported on cloud-vps. Unless you have your own private
> database, toolforge users can ignore this email. If you ever visit the
> 'databases' tab in Horizon please read on!
>
> Right now we support the following database engines:
>
>   mariadb10.5.10 (21 instances)
>   mysql5.7.29 (4 instances)
>   postgresql 12.7 (13 instances)
>
> I propose to deprecate all three of those engines, and replace them with:
>
>   mariadb12.2.2
>   postgres18
>
> Here's how that would look, from a user standpoint:
>
> 1) **Any existing database instances will continue to run and operate in
> Horizon as before.**
>
> 2) It will no longer be possible to create new database instances with the
> deprecated engines.
>
> 3) It will no longer be possible to restore backups of databases using the
> old engine without admin intervention -- if we do this, I will be on hand
> to do manual restores if necessary. This restriction is bound up with #2
> above; either both rules stay or both rules go. [0]
>
> 4) There will be no automatic or in-place upgrade path provided from old
> version to new version. Any upgrades, if needed, will have to be performed
> 'by hand' with something like an outside-of-openstack dump and restore.
> This pains me but I've spent some time testing and the internal storage
> formats are too different for a smooth transition.
>
> 5) It will no longer be possible to create new mysql databases. Mysql is
> not very popular, and as far as I know only provides a functional subset
> of mariadb.
>
> I'm making a lot of assumptions about you, the users, in this proposal, so
> please speak up if (for example) you perform frequent backup restores, or
> have a use case that requires mysql. You can respond to this email, or
> follow up on the associated phab task[1].
>
> If this email provokes only silence or agreement, then I will make these
> changes on or near April 20.
>
> [0] Currently only a total of 9 trove backups exist (and only 4 in the
> last year), so I suspect no one is really relying on this service on the
> regular.
> [1] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T420737
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Cloud-announce mailing list -- [email protected]
> List information:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/cloud-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/
> _______________________________________________
> Cloud mailing list -- [email protected]
> List information:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/cloud.lists.wikimedia.org/
>
_______________________________________________
Cloud mailing list -- [email protected]
List information: 
https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/cloud.lists.wikimedia.org/

Reply via email to