---
title: "Upgrade managed engines before standard · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/cost-and-ownership/managed-engine-support
updated: 2026-10-21
licence: "CC BY 4.0"
licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
---

# Upgrade managed engines before standard support ends

For AI agents: the [site map](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) lists everything here, and this page sits under [Cost and ownership](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/cost-and-ownership.md).

By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers). Updated 2026-10-21.

- ID: INF-60
- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Cost and ownership](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/cost-and-ownership)
- Rule: Keep every managed database engine and Kubernetes cluster on a version in standard support. Start each upgrade at least 90 days before its end of standard support.
- How: Cloud providers keep old versions running past that date, but they charge for it. Amazon RDS moves a database into paid Extended Support by itself. Amazon EKS gives each version 14 months of standard support, then 12 months of extended support at an extra cost per cluster hour. When extended support ends, the provider upgrades the engine by itself, at a time you do not choose. Read the end dates from the provider and put them in the same calendar as [Leave runtimes that are out of support](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/stack/languages-and-runtimes/end-of-life-runtimes). Test each upgrade on staging first, as [Change staging before production](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/environments/promote-infrastructure-changes) says. Turn off automatic enrolment, so a missed date fails loudly instead of adding to the bill. A database you run yourself follows [upgrade the database before its support ends](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/data/operations/supported-versions).
- Check: A monthly script lists every managed database and cluster with its version and end of standard support date. None runs in extended support, and none is within 90 days of the date without an open upgrade ticket.

## Examples

**Using these examples:** they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses.

### Terraform example

```hcl
resource "aws_db_instance" "orders" {
  identifier               = "orders"
  engine                   = "postgres"
  engine_version           = "17"
  engine_lifecycle_support = "open-source-rds-extended-support-disabled"
}

resource "aws_eks_cluster" "shop" {
  name    = "shop"
  version = "1.37"
  upgrade_policy {
    support_type = "STANDARD"
  }
}
```

### Shell example

```sh
aws eks describe-cluster-versions --query 'clusterVersions[].[clusterVersion, status, endOfStandardSupportDate]' --output table
aws rds describe-db-instances --query 'DBInstances[].[DBInstanceIdentifier, EngineVersion, EngineLifecycleSupport]' --output table
```

## Sources

- [Amazon RDS Extended Support](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/extended-support.html)
- [Kubernetes version lifecycle on Amazon EKS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/kubernetes-versions.html)

## Related rules

- [Leave runtimes that are out of support](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/stack/languages-and-runtimes/end-of-life-runtimes) in Software choices
- [Change staging before production](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/environments/promote-infrastructure-changes) in Infrastructure
- [Upgrade the database before its support ends](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/data/operations/supported-versions) in Data

**For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `<a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/cost-and-ownership/managed-engine-support">Agent Wranglers infrastructure playbook</a>`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.

- Previous: [Buy commitment discounts for steady use](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/cost-and-ownership/commitment-discounts)
- [Cost and ownership](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/infrastructure/cost-and-ownership)