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Upgrade checklist for 9.7

Thorough preparation and validation reduce risk more than any cutover tactic. Use this checklist to guide your upgrade from 8.4 to 9.7. Validate each item in staging before upgrading production.

Pre-upgrade checks

Complete these checks before starting the upgrade process.

Authentication and connectivity

Impact: MySQL 9.x and 9.7 remove the mysql_native_password plugin. The default_authentication_plugin system variable is not available. New accounts use caching_sha2_password. MySQL 9.x removes the server-side option to re-enable native-password authentication.

Action:

  • Inventory accounts and applications that still use mysql_native_password.

  • Verify that drivers and clients support caching_sha2_password and TLS when your environment requires encrypted connections.

  • Plan account migration to caching_sha2_password before cutover. MySQL 9.x does not provide temporary native-password compatibility on the server.

  • See Authentication methods.

Replication and operational scripts

Impact: 9.7 removes MASTER and SLAVE syntax. The removed syntax causes syntax errors at runtime. Use SOURCE and REPLICA commands instead.

Action:

  • Search scripts and update calls to use START REPLICA, SHOW REPLICA STATUS, and CHANGE REPLICATION SOURCE TO.

  • Validate Orchestrator and other HA tooling versions for 9.7 syntax.

  • Update Percona Toolkit calls. Replace pt-slave-find with pt-replica-find. Replace pt-slave-restart with pt-replica-restart. Remove pt-slave-delay usage.

  • See: Percona Toolkit updates for 9.7

Removed features and variables

Impact: 9.7 removes several legacy statements, status counters, variables, and functions.

Action:

  • Replace MASTER and SLAVE statements and counters with SOURCE and REPLICA equivalents.

  • Migrate from expire_logs_days to binlog_expire_logs_seconds.

  • Replace WAIT_UNTIL_SQL_THREAD_AFTER_GTIDS() with WAIT_FOR_EXECUTED_GTID_SET().

  • Remove dependencies on built-in memcached variables and APIs.

Reserved keywords in identifiers

Impact: New reserved words such as MANUAL, PARALLEL, QUALIFY, and TABLESAMPLE can break schemas and queries.

Action:

Schema constraints

Impact: 9.7 does not allow AUTO_INCREMENT on FLOAT or DOUBLE columns.

Action:

  • Identify any FLOAT or DOUBLE columns that use AUTO_INCREMENT. Convert these columns to integer types before upgrade.

Backup and recovery rehearsal

Action:

  • Take a hot backup with Percona XtraBackup. Document the restore steps and timings.

  • Restore the backup into a clean 9.7 environment. Validate server startup and the metadata upgrade.

  • See Backup and restore overview.

Behavior comparison and testing

Action:

  • Use pt-upgrade to compare query plans and behavior between 8.4 and 9.7.

  • Run application smoke and load tests against a restored 9.7 copy.

Rollback feasibility

Action:

  • Define a rollback path. For example, keep the 8.4 environment on standby. As an alternative, validate point-in-time recovery to 8.4-compatible readers when applicable.

  • Confirm cutover and rollback runbooks with approvers.

Post-upgrade validation

Run these checks immediately after upgrading from 8.4 to 9.7 and before widening traffic.

Connectivity and authentication

  • Verify application logins for every service account.

  • Confirm that new account creations default to caching_sha2_password.

Replication health (if applicable)

  • Confirm that SHOW REPLICA STATUS reports healthy IO and SQL threads.

  • Exercise planned failover and change-source procedures.

Spatial indexes

  • Re-create any spatial indexes dropped before the upgrade.

  • Run integrity checks such as CHECK TABLE ... EXTENDED. Run representative spatial queries to verify index health.

Workload and performance baselines

  • Re-run baseline queries and workload tests. Compare latency and throughput against the 8.4 baseline.

  • Review changes in 9.7 defaults that affect performance, including optimizer costing, redo and undo handling, and IO settings. Tune as needed.

Logs and observability

  • Review error logs and warnings after startup and during smoke tests.

  • Inspect Performance Schema metrics and application SLOs for regressions.

Backup and recovery

  • Take a fresh full backup with Percona XtraBackup.

  • Optional: run a spot restore test to validate recovery on 9.7.

Further reading