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differences MySQL aurora versionsAmazon Aurora with MySQL Compatibility comes in three editions which, at the time of writing, have quite a few differences around the features that they support.  Make sure you don’t assume the newer Aurora 2.x supports everything in Aurora 1.x. On the contrary, right now Aurora 1.x (MySQL 5.6 based) supports most Aurora features.  The serverless option was launched for this version, and it’s not based on the latest MySQL 5.7.  However, the serverless option, too, has its own set of limitations

I found a concise comparison of what is available in which Amazon Aurora edition hard to come by so I’ve created one.  The table was compiled based mostly on documentation research, so if you spot some mistakes please let me know and I’ll make a correction.

Please keep in mind, this is expected to change over time. For example Amazon Aurora 2.x was initially released without Performance_Schema support, which was enabled in later versions.

There seems to be lag porting Aurora features from MySQL 5.6 compatible to MySQL 5.7 compatible –  the current 2.x release does not include features introduced in Aurora 1.16 or later as per this document

A comparison table

MySQL 5.6 Based MySQL 5.7 Based Serverless MySQL 5.6 Based
Compatible to MySQL MySQL 5.6.10a MySQL 5.7.12 MySQL 5.6.10a
Aurora Engine Version 1.18.0 2.03.01 1.18.0
Parallel Query Yes No No
Backtrack Yes No No
Aurora Global Database Yes No No
Performance Insights Yes No No
SELECT INTO OUTFILE S3 Yes Yes Yes
Amazon Lambda – Native Function Yes No No
Amazon Lambda – Stored Procedure Yes Yes Yes
Hash Joins Yes No Yes
Fast DDL Yes Yes Yes
LOAD DATA FROM S3 Yes Yes No
Spatial Indexing Yes Yes Yes
Asynchronous Key Prefetch (AKP) Yes No Yes
Scan Batching Yes No Yes
S3 Backed Based Migration Yes No No
Advanced Auditing Yes Yes No
Aurora Replicas Yes Yes No
Database Cloning Yes Yes No
IAM database authentication Yes Yes No
Cross-Region Read Replicas Yes Yes No
Restoring Snapshot from MySQL DB Yes Yes No
Enhanced Monitoring Yes Yes No
Log Export to Cloudwatch Yes Yes No
Minor Version Upgrade Control Yes Yes Always On
Data Encryption Configuration Yes Yes Always On
Maintenance Window Configuration Yes Yes No

Hope this is helps with selecting which Amazon Aurora edition is right for you, when it comes to supported features.

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Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash