AWS RDS

AWS RDS

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) provides managed relational databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Aurora. RDS handles provisioning, patching, backups, and failover.

Table of Contents

• Core Concepts
• Common Patterns
• CLI Reference
• Best Practices
• Troubleshooting
• References

Core Concepts

DB Instance Classes

Storage Types

Multi-AZ Deployments

• Multi-AZ Instance: Synchronous standby in different AZ
• Multi-AZ Cluster: One writer, two reader instances (Aurora-like)

Read Replicas

Asynchronous copies for read scaling. Can be cross-region.

Common Patterns

Create a PostgreSQL Instance

AWS CLI:

# Create DB subnet group
aws rds create-db-subnet-group \
  --db-subnet-group-name my-db-subnet-group \
  --db-subnet-group-description "Private subnets for RDS" \
  --subnet-ids subnet-12345678 subnet-87654321

# Create security group (allow PostgreSQL from app)
aws ec2 create-security-group \
  --group-name rds-postgres-sg \
  --description "RDS PostgreSQL access" \
  --vpc-id vpc-12345678

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id sg-rds12345 \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 5432 \
  --source-group sg-app12345

# Create RDS instance
aws rds create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --db-instance-class db.t3.medium \
  --engine postgres \
  --engine-version 16.1 \
  --master-username admin \
  --master-user-password 'SecurePassword123!' \
  --allocated-storage 100 \
  --storage-type gp3 \
  --db-subnet-group-name my-db-subnet-group \
  --vpc-security-group-ids sg-rds12345 \
  --multi-az \
  --backup-retention-period 7 \
  --storage-encrypted \
  --no-publicly-accessible

boto3:

import boto3

rds = boto3.client('rds')

response = rds.create_db_instance(
    DBInstanceIdentifier='my-postgres',
    DBInstanceClass='db.t3.medium',
    Engine='postgres',
    EngineVersion='16.1',
    MasterUsername='admin',
    MasterUserPassword='SecurePassword123!',
    AllocatedStorage=100,
    StorageType='gp3',
    DBSubnetGroupName='my-db-subnet-group',
    VpcSecurityGroupIds=['sg-rds12345'],
    MultiAZ=True,
    BackupRetentionPeriod=7,
    StorageEncrypted=True,
    PubliclyAccessible=False
)

Create Read Replica

aws rds create-db-instance-read-replica \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres-replica \
  --source-db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --db-instance-class db.t3.medium \
  --availability-zone us-east-1b

Take a Snapshot

aws rds create-db-snapshot \
  --db-snapshot-identifier my-postgres-snapshot-2024-01-15 \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres

Restore from Snapshot

aws rds restore-db-instance-from-db-snapshot \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres-restored \
  --db-snapshot-identifier my-postgres-snapshot-2024-01-15 \
  --db-instance-class db.t3.medium \
  --db-subnet-group-name my-db-subnet-group \
  --vpc-security-group-ids sg-rds12345

Point-in-Time Recovery

aws rds restore-db-instance-to-point-in-time \
  --source-db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --target-db-instance-identifier my-postgres-pitr \
  --restore-time 2024-01-15T10:30:00Z \
  --db-instance-class db.t3.medium

Modify Instance

# Change instance class (with downtime)
aws rds modify-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --db-instance-class db.m6g.large \
  --apply-immediately

# Scale storage (no downtime)
aws rds modify-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --allocated-storage 200 \
  --apply-immediately

Connect with IAM Authentication

import boto3
import psycopg2

rds = boto3.client('rds')

# Generate auth token
token = rds.generate_db_auth_token(
    DBHostname='my-postgres.abc123.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com',
    Port=5432,
    DBUsername='iam_user',
    Region='us-east-1'
)

# Connect
conn = psycopg2.connect(
    host='my-postgres.abc123.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com',
    port=5432,
    database='mydb',
    user='iam_user',
    password=token,
    sslmode='require'
)

CLI Reference

Instance Management

Backups

Replicas

Best Practices

Security

• Never make publicly accessible — use VPC and security groups
• Enable encryption at rest (KMS) and in transit (SSL)
• Use IAM authentication for application access
• Store credentials in Secrets Manager with rotation
• Use parameter groups to enforce SSL

# Enforce SSL in PostgreSQL
aws rds modify-db-parameter-group \
  --db-parameter-group-name my-pg-params \
  --parameters "ParameterName=rds.force_ssl,ParameterValue=1,ApplyMethod=pending-reboot"

Performance

• Right-size instances — monitor CPU, memory, IOPS
• Use gp3 for cost-effective performance
• Enable Performance Insights for query analysis
• Use read replicas for read scaling
• Optimize queries — check slow query log

High Availability

• Enable Multi-AZ for production
• Use Aurora for mission-critical workloads
• Configure appropriate backup retention
• Test failover periodically
• Monitor replication lag for replicas

Cost Optimization

• Use Reserved Instances for steady-state workloads
• Stop dev/​test instances when not in use
• Delete old snapshots regularly
• Right-size instance classes

Troubleshooting

Cannot Connect

Causes:

1. Security group not allowing access
2. Instance not in VPC subnet
3. SSL required but not used
4. Wrong endpoint/​port

Debug:

# Check security group
aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-ids sg-rds12345

# Check instance status
aws rds describe-db-instances \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --query "DBInstances[0].{Status:DBInstanceStatus,Endpoint:Endpoint}"

# Test connectivity from EC2
nc -zv my-postgres.abc123.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com 5432

High CPU/​Memory

Debug:

# Enable Enhanced Monitoring
aws rds modify-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --monitoring-interval 60 \
  --monitoring-role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/​rds-monitoring-role

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

Solutions:

• Scale up instance class
• Optimize slow queries
• Add read replicas
• Check for locking/​blocking

Storage Full

Symptom: Instance becomes unavailable

Prevention:

# Enable storage autoscaling
aws rds modify-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier my-postgres \
  --max-allocated-storage 500

# Set CloudWatch alarm
aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \
  --alarm-name "RDS-Storage-Low" \
  --metric-name FreeStorageSpace \
  --namespace AWS/​RDS \
  --dimensions Name=DBInstanceIdentifier,Value=my-postgres \
  --statistic Average \
  --period 300 \
  --threshold 10000000000 \
  --comparison-operator LessThanThreshold \
  --evaluation-periods 2 \
  --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:alerts

Replication Lag

Monitor:

aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
  --namespace AWS/​RDS \
  --metric-name ReplicaLag \
  --dimensions Name=DBInstanceIdentifier,Value=my-postgres-replica \
  --start-time $(date -d '1 hour ago' -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) \
  --end-time $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) \
  --period 60 \
  --statistics Average

Causes:

• Replica instance too small
• Heavy write load
• Network issues
• Long-running queries on replica

References

• RDS User Guide
• RDS API Reference
• RDS CLI Reference
• boto3 RDS