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2.2.2 Ensure the Auto Minor Version Upgrade feature is enabled for RDS instances

Information

Ensure that RDS database instances have the Auto Minor Version Upgrade flag enabled to automatically receive minor engine upgrades during the specified maintenance window. This way, RDS instances can obtain new features, bug fixes, and security patches for their database engines.

AWS RDS will occasionally deprecate minor engine versions and provide new ones for upgrades. When the last version number within a release is replaced, the changed version is considered minor. With the Auto Minor Version Upgrade feature enabled, version upgrades will occur automatically during the specified maintenance window, allowing your RDS instances to receive new features, bug fixes, and security patches for their database engines.

Solution

From Console:

 - Log in to the AWS management console and navigate to the RDS dashboard at

https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/

.
 - In the left navigation panel, click Databases
 - Select the RDS instance that you want to update.
 - Click on the Modify button located at the top right side.
 - On the Modify DB Instance: <instance identifier> page, In the Maintenance section, select Auto minor version upgrade and click the Yes radio button.
 - At the bottom of the page, click Continue and check Apply Immediately to apply the changes immediately, or select Apply during the next scheduled maintenance window to avoid any downtime.
 - Review the changes and click Modify DB Instance The instance status should change from available to modifying and back to available. Once the feature is enabled, the Auto Minor Version Upgrade status should change to Yes

From Command Line:

 - Run the describe-db-instances command to list all RDS database instance names available in the selected AWS region:

aws rds describe-db-instances --region <region-name> --query 'DBInstances[*].DBInstanceIdentifier' <xhtml:ol start="2"> - The command output should return each database instance identifier.
 - Run the modify-db-instance command to modify the configuration of a selected RDS instance. This command will apply the changes immediately. Remove --apply-immediately to apply changes during the next scheduled maintenance window and avoid any downtime:

aws rds modify-db-instance --region <region-name> --db-instance-identifier <db-instance-identifier> --auto-minor-version-upgrade --apply-immediately <xhtml:ol start="4"> - The command output should reveal the new configuration metadata for the RDS instance, including the AutoMinorVersionUpgrade parameter value.
 - Run the describe-db-instances command to check if the Auto Minor Version Upgrade feature has been successfully enabled:

aws rds describe-db-instances --region <region-name> --db-instance-identifier <db-instance-identifier> --query 'DBInstances[*].AutoMinorVersionUpgrade' <xhtml:ol start="6"> - The command output should return the feature's current status set to true indicating that the feature is enabled and that the minor engine upgrades will be applied to the selected RDS instance.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/19631

Item Details

Category: RISK ASSESSMENT, SYSTEM AND INFORMATION INTEGRITY

References: 800-53|RA-5, 800-53|SI-2, 800-53|SI-2(2), CSCv7|3.5

Plugin: amazon_aws

Control ID: f51f7fc4468367f93984d1ac34361ec9b9a0d417dac62197779676260aeaefa6