AWS RDS

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) takes care of provisioning, patching, backups, and failover for relational databases. Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora.

Core Concepts

DB Instance — an isolated database environment in the cloud
Multi-AZ — synchronous standby replica in another AZ for high availability
Read Replica — asynchronous copy for read scaling
Parameter Group — engine configuration settings
Subnet Group — defines which subnets RDS can use
Aurora — AWS-native engine, MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible, 5x faster

Provisioning a Database

# Create a DB subnet group
aws rds create-db-subnet-group \
  --db-subnet-group-name app-db-subnets \
  --db-subnet-group-description "Private subnets for RDS" \
  --subnet-ids subnet-aaa subnet-bbb subnet-ccc

# Launch a PostgreSQL instance with Multi-AZ
aws rds create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-prod \
  --db-instance-class db.r6g.large \
  --engine postgres \
  --engine-version 15.4 \
  --master-username appuser \
  --master-user-password "$(aws secretsmanager get-random-password --password-length 32 --query RandomPassword --output text)" \
  --allocated-storage 100 \
  --storage-type gp3 \
  --multi-az \
  --db-subnet-group-name app-db-subnets \
  --vpc-security-group-ids sg-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --backup-retention-period 14 \
  --preferred-backup-window "03:00-04:00" \
  --preferred-maintenance-window "sun:05:00-sun:06:00" \
  --storage-encrypted \
  --tags Key=Env,Value=prod

Aurora Cluster

# Create an Aurora PostgreSQL cluster
aws rds create-db-cluster \
  --db-cluster-identifier app-aurora-prod \
  --engine aurora-postgresql \
  --engine-version 15.4 \
  --master-username appuser \
  --master-user-password "$DB_PASSWORD" \
  --db-subnet-group-name app-db-subnets \
  --vpc-security-group-ids sg-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --backup-retention-period 14 \
  --storage-encrypted \
  --serverless-v2-scaling-configuration MinCapacity=0.5,MaxCapacity=16

# Add writer and reader instances to the cluster
aws rds create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier app-aurora-writer \
  --db-instance-class db.serverless \
  --engine aurora-postgresql \
  --db-cluster-identifier app-aurora-prod

aws rds create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier app-aurora-reader \
  --db-instance-class db.serverless \
  --engine aurora-postgresql \
  --db-cluster-identifier app-aurora-prod

Read Replicas

# Create a read replica in same region
aws rds create-db-instance-read-replica \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-read-1 \
  --source-db-instance-identifier app-db-prod \
  --db-instance-class db.r6g.large

# Create cross-region read replica for DR
aws rds create-db-instance-read-replica \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-read-eu \
  --source-db-instance-identifier arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:123456789:db:app-db-prod \
  --db-instance-class db.r6g.large \
  --region eu-west-1

# Promote replica to standalone (for migration or DR)
aws rds promote-read-replica --db-instance-identifier app-db-read-eu

Snapshots and Recovery

# Create a manual snapshot
aws rds create-db-snapshot \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-prod \
  --db-snapshot-identifier app-db-pre-migration-$(date +%Y%m%d)

# Restore from snapshot (creates a new instance)
aws rds restore-db-instance-from-db-snapshot \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-restored \
  --db-snapshot-identifier app-db-pre-migration-20240115 \
  --db-instance-class db.r6g.large \
  --db-subnet-group-name app-db-subnets \
  --vpc-security-group-ids sg-0123456789abcdef0

# Point-in-time recovery
aws rds restore-db-instance-to-point-in-time \
  --source-db-instance-identifier app-db-prod \
  --target-db-instance-identifier app-db-pitr \
  --restore-time "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z" \
  --db-instance-class db.r6g.large

# List automated snapshots
aws rds describe-db-snapshots \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-prod \
  --snapshot-type automated \
  --query 'DBSnapshots[].[DBSnapshotIdentifier,SnapshotCreateTime,Status]' \
  --output table

Parameter Groups

# Create custom parameter group
aws rds create-db-parameter-group \
  --db-parameter-group-name app-postgres15 \
  --db-parameter-group-family postgres15 \
  --description "Custom params for app"

# Tune parameters for performance
aws rds modify-db-parameter-group \
  --db-parameter-group-name app-postgres15 \
  --parameters \
    "ParameterName=shared_buffers,ParameterValue={DBInstanceClassMemory/4},ApplyMethod=pending-reboot" \
    "ParameterName=max_connections,ParameterValue=200,ApplyMethod=pending-reboot" \
    "ParameterName=log_min_duration_statement,ParameterValue=1000,ApplyMethod=immediate"

Monitoring

# Enable Performance Insights
aws rds modify-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-prod \
  --enable-performance-insights \
  --performance-insights-retention-period 7

# Check instance status and endpoints
aws rds describe-db-instances \
  --db-instance-identifier app-db-prod \
  --query 'DBInstances[0].[Endpoint.Address,DBInstanceStatus,AllocatedStorage,MultiAZ]' \
  --output table

Best Practices

Always enable Multi-AZ for production databases
Use Aurora Serverless v2 for unpredictable workloads
Store credentials in AWS Secrets Manager with automatic rotation
Set backup retention to at least 7 days; test restores periodically
Use read replicas to offload reporting and analytics queries
Enable Performance Insights and Enhanced Monitoring
Use parameter groups to tune engine settings per workload
Place RDS in private subnets; never expose to the public internet

aws-rds