MySQL 8.0: Prepare your old Drupal

Post en français ici.

TL;DR: Older versions of Drupal does not work with MySQL 8.0. Update now.

---

Brace yourself, MySQL 8.0 is coming soon on the databases delivered with your web hostings, also called "SharedSQL" (more info soon). After my post on old Wordpress, this one is about old Drupal.

**Issue**

Whether you installed it yourself or using the one-click modules (CMS pre-installed by OVHcloud), if your Drupal is older than 5 years, you may be impacted by the MySQL 5.7 to 8.0 upgrade. This post is for you!

MySQL 8.0 support for Drupal depends on the Drupal major version:

* Drupal 6 is no longer supported since February 2016 (source). As MySQL 8.0 came long after that, Drupal 6 does not support MySQL 8.0. Same for the versions older than Drupal 6.
* Drupal 7, that will no longer be supported on January 2025 (source), supports MySQL 8.0 since version 7.76 (source).
* Drupal 8 supports MySQL 8.0 since version 8.6.0 (source).
* All versions of Drupal 9, 10 and 11 support MySQL 8.0.
* Drupal 11 no longer support MySQL 5.7 ; MySQL 8.0 is mandatory (source).

**Solution**

In 1 word: upgrade.

If you use…

* Drupal 6 or lower, then a major upgrade to Drupal 7 minimum is required. My advise would be to use the last Drupal 7 version: the 7.100 (source) ; There is no added value of using an older one
* Drupal 7 < 7.76, then upgrade to the latest Drupal 7: the version 7.100.
* Drupal 8 < 8.6.0, then upgrade to the latest Drupal 8: the version 8.9.20 (source).
* Drupal 7 >= 7.76, Drupal 8 >= 8.6.0, Drupal 9 or 10, you're good. 😎 🍸 🏖

Last, if you want to upgrade to Drupal 11, you can do it right now if you use a Web Cloud Database (CloudDB), but you have to wait if you use a SharedSQL.

Mikaël