Pre-upgrade validation checks for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server

Pre-upgrade validation checks are now generally available for Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server, helping you proactively validate major version upgrade (MVU) readiness before initiating the actual upgrade process. With the general availability of this update, you can now run these checks from both the Azure portal and Azure CLI using the new --validate-only option. With pre-upgrade validation checks, you can independently run upgrade compatibility validations and identify potential blockers ahead of time, helping reduce failed upgrade attempts and improve operational predictability. The validation process checks your server against Azure PostgreSQL upgrade policies and PostgreSQL pg_upgrade --check compatibility requirements, surfacing actionable guidance for issues such as unsupported extensions, replication slots, prepared transactions, configuration mismatches, and other upgrade constraints. By shifting validation from inline execution during upgrade to a proactive pre-flight step, this capability helps improve first-time upgrade success rates, reduce troubleshooting effort, and simplify upgrade planning for production workloads. You can resolve identified issues, rerun validations as needed, and proceed with the upgrade only when your environment is ready. [Learn more.](https://aka.ms/pg-flex-upgrade-checks)