Note: To fix a critical bug we did out of cycle releases – 8.0.39, 8.4.2, 9.0.1

Building on the new LTS/Innovation release model

In previous blogs, MySQL announced plans to move to a new LTS/Innovation release model, planning a major LTS release every 2 years. For more details see MySQL Releases: Innovation and LTS. 

Since 8.4.x is an LTS series, the next major version is the 9.x Innovation series. During the innovation cycle, MySQL 9.x quarterly releases will include new features, deprecations and removals, and bug fixes. 

The 9.x releases also include Shell, Router, MySQL Connectors and Clients. There is also a release of VS Code for MySQL.   

MySQL DBAs, developers, and users should migrate to the latest 9.0 GA versions of the Connectors and Clients which support 9.0 Innovation. 8.4 LTS, and 8.0 releases.  

MySQL will continue to maintain a 3 month release cadence

In the October time frame expect

  • Bug and security fix only releases    
    • MySQL 8.4.2 LTS
    • MySQL 8.0.39
  • Innovation release 
    • MySQL 9.1.0 Innovation

MySQL Server 9.0.1 Innovation GA includes:

MySQL Server 8.4.2 LTS GA includes:

MySQL Server 8.0.39 GA includes:

Upgrade Guidance

  • Customers are encouraged to migrate from MySQL 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, or 8.3 to the 8.4 LTS.
  • Customers wanting to explore new capabilities and features are encouraged to upgrade from MySQL 8.4 LTS to 9.0 Innovation

MySQL Server 9.0 Highlights

Start of the 9.0 Innovation series

  • Initial release in preparation for adding new features in upcoming releases

New! Vector datatype

  • Supported in CREATE and ALTER Statements

New! MySQL Enterprise Edition: JavaScript Store Programs

  • Supports JavaScript based stored programs and functions
  • SQL can call JavaScript Store Programs
  • JavaScript Store Programs can call SQL
  • For more details see docs,  blog and video

Removal of SHA-1 based native_password

  • For years users have been warned that  SHA-1 hash is insecure
    • Since 2005
    • We released sha256 password over 9 years ago. It required additional complexity to deploy and was slower to authenticate.
  • In 2017, over 7 years ago, we released caching_sha2 
    • The caching_sha2_password provides improved performance with the highly secure SHA2
  • Before upgrading to 9.0
    • Alter users in 8.0 or 8.4 from mysql_native_password to caching_sha2_password 
           ALTER USER 'jeffrey'@'localhost'
           IDENTIFIED WITH caching_sha2_password BY 'new_password'
           PASSWORD EXPIRE INTERVAL 180 DAY
           FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS 3 PASSWORD_LOCK_TIME 2;

Moved to newer versions of various libraries and compilers

  • Linux 8 and 9 on GCC 13 
  • Boost 1.85

Upgrade Path

  • Users running MySQL 8.4 LTS can upgrade to 9.0 Innovation.  
  • For details see Upgrade Paths. 

We have also released the 9.0 versions of MySQL Clients, Tools, and Connectors.

  • Regardless of server version, always use the latest version of MySQL Clients, Tools, and Connectors.
  • These 9.0 clients, tools, and connectors support MySQL Server 8.0, 8.4 LTS, and 9.0 Innovation

As always, thank you for using MySQL.