How to Create an Amazon RDS: A Step-by-Step Guide

Amazon Relational Database Service(Amazon RDS):

• Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) makes it easy to set up, operate and scale relational databases in the cloud.

• It provides cost-efficient and resizable capabilities while automating time-consuming administration tasks such as hardware provisioning, database setup, patching, and backup.

• It frees you up to focus on your applications so that you can provide them with the fast performance, high availability, security and compatibility they need.

What is Amazon RDS?

• Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is a managed SQL database service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

• Amazon RDS supports an array of database engines to store and organize data.

• It also helps in relational database management tasks like data migration, backup, recovery and patching.

• Amazon RDS facilitates the deployment and maintenance of relational databases in the cloud.

• Cloud administrators use Amazon RDS to set up, operate, manage, and scale relational instances of cloud databases.

• Amazon RDS itself is not a database; It is a service used to manage relational databases.

How does Amazon RDS work?

• Databases store large amounts of data that applications can draw upon to help them perform various tasks.

• A relational database uses tables to store data and is called relational because it organizes data points with defined relationships.

• Administrators control Amazon RDS with the AWS Management Console, Amazon RDS API calls, or the AWS command-line interface.

• They use these interfaces to deploy database instances to which users can apply specific settings.

• Amazon provides several instance types with different resources, such as CPU, memory, storage options, and networking capability.

• Each type comes in a variety of sizes to suit the needs of different workloads.

• RDS users can use AWS Identity and Access Management to define and set permissions to access RDS databases.

What are the benefits of Amazon RDS?

• Easy to administer: Amazon RDS makes it easy to go from project conception to deployment. Use the Amazon RDS Management Console, the AWS RDS Command-Line Interface, or simple API calls to access the capabilities of a production-ready relational database in minutes. No need for infrastructure provisioning and no need for installing and maintaining database software.

• Highly scalable: You can scale your database's compute and storage resources with only a few mouse clicks or an API call, often with no downtime. Many Amazon RDS engine types allow you to launch one or more Read Replicas to offload read traffic from your primary database instance.

• Available and durable: Amazon RDS runs on the same highly reliable infrastructure used by other Amazon Web Services. When you provision a Multi-AZ DB Instance, Amazon RDS synchronously replicates the data to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone (AZ). Amazon RDS has many other features that enhance reliability for critical production databases, including automated backups, database snapshots, and automatic host replacement.

• Fast: Amazon RDS supports the most demanding database applications. You can choose between two SSD-backed storage options: one optimized for high-performance OLTP applications and the other for cost-effective general-purpose use. In addition, Amazon Aurora provides performance on par with commercial databases at 1/10th the cost.

• Secure: Amazon RDS makes it easy to control network access to your database. Amazon RDS also lets you run your database instances in Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), enabling you to isolate your database instances and connect to your existing IT infrastructure through an industry-standard encrypted IPsec VPN. Many Amazon RDS engine types offer encryption at rest and encryption in transit.

• Inexpensive: You pay very low rates and only for the resources you consume. In addition, you benefit from the option of On-Demand pricing with no up-front or long-term commitments or even lower hourly rates via our Reserved Instance pricing.

• Ease of use. Admins don't need to learn specific database management tools, and they also can manage multiple database instances using the management console. RDS is compatible with database engines that users may already be familiar with, such as MySQL and Oracle, and it automates manual backup and recovery processes.

• Cost-effectiveness. According to AWS, customers only pay for what they use. Also, the time spent maintaining instances is reduced because maintenance tasks, such as backups and patching are automated.'

What are the Drawbacks of Amazon RDS?

• Lack of root access. Because it is a managed service, users do not have root access to the server running RDS. RDS restricts access for certain procedures to those with advanced privileges.

• Downtime. Systems must go offline for some patching and scaling procedures, and the timing of these processes varies. With scaling, compute resources need a few minutes of downtime on average.

What are the Use cases of Amazon RDS?

• Web and mobile applications:Web and mobile applications built to operate at very large scales require databases with high throughput, massive storage scalability, and high availability. Amazon RDS meets the needs of such highly demanding applications with room for future growth. Since Amazon RDS has no licensing constraints, it fits the variable usage patterns of these applications perfectly.

• Airbnb:Airbnb chose Amazon RDS because it simplifies most of the time-consuming administrative tasks typically associated with databases. Airbnb uses Multi-Availability Zone (Multi-AZ) deployment to automate its database replication further and increase data durability. Airbnb was able to complete its entire database migration to Amazon RDS with only 15 minutes of downtime.

• eCommerce application:Amazon RDS provides small and large eCommerce businesses with a flexible, secure, highly scalable and low-cost database solution for online sales and retailing. Amazon RDS provides a managed database that helps eCommerce companies meet PCI compliance and focuses on creating high-quality customer experiences without worrying about managing the underlying database.

• Instacart:Instacart turned to Amazon RDS for its new same-day grocery delivery service to avoid the complexities of building a new production database from scratch. The company can now add millions of new items to its database each month, and its engineering team can focus on developing new features and improving the overall customer experience.

• Mobile and Online games:Mobile and online games require a database platform with high throughput and availability. Amazon RDS manages the database infrastructure, so game developers don't have to worry about provisioning, scaling, or monitoring database servers. Amazon RDS provides a familiar database engine that can rapidly increase capacity to meet user demand.

What is a Relational Database?

• Relational Databases are the databases that what most of us are all used to. It has been around since the 70's.

• Relational Database is like a spreadsheet such as Excel, etc.

• A Database consists of tables. For example, Excel is a spreadsheet that consists of a workbook, and inside the workbook, you have different sheets, and these sheets are made up of rows and columns.

Relational Database Types

SQL Server

• SQL Server is a Relational Database developed by Microsoft.

• SQL Server is easy to set up, operate, and scale the SQL Server deployments in the cloud.

• With the help of Amazon RDS, you can add multiple editions of SQL Server such as 2008 R2, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 in minutes with cost-effective and re-sizable compute capacity.

• It frees you from managing the time-consuming database administration tasks such as provisioning, backups, software

• patching, monitoring, and hardware scaling.

• It supports "License-included" licensing model. In this model, you do not have to purchase the Microsoft SQL Server licenses separately.

• Amazon RDS provides high availability of MS SQL Server using multi-availability zone capability, and this reduces the risk to set and maintain the database manually.

• It manages the provisioning of the database, version upgrades of MS SQL Server and disk storage management.

Some of the limitations are associated with the SQL Server:

• Each of the MS SQL Server instances has the availability of up to 30 databases.

• Amazon RDS does not support other MS SQL Server services such as SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), Data Quality Services (DQS) or Master Data Services (MDS) on the same server as Amazon RDS MS SQL Server DB instance.

• The maximum storage size for MS SQL Server Database Instance is 16 TB for General purpose SSD storage.

Oracle

• It is a very popular relational database.

• It is used by big enterprises but can be used by other businesses as well.

• Oracle is a Relational Database Management developed by Oracle.

• It is easy to set up, operate, and scale Oracle deployment in the cloud.

• You can deploy multiple editions of Oracle in minutes with cost-effective and re-sizable hardware capacity.

• Amazon RDS frees you from managing the time-consuming database administration tasks. You need to focus on the development part.

• You can run Oracle under two different licensing models, i.e., "License Included" and "Bring-Your-Own-License".

MySQL Server

• It is an open source relational database.

• It is free to download and use.

• It is very popular in the developer community.

• It is easy to set up, operate, and scale MySQL deployments in aws.

• You can deploy MySQL Servers in minutes with cost-effective and resizable hardware capacity.

• It frees you from managing the time-consuming database administrative tasks such as backups, monitoring, scaling and replication.

• An Amazon RDS supports MySQL versions such as 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, and 8.0 which means that the code, applications, and tools that you are using today can also be used with Amazon RDS.

PostgreSQL

• It is an open source Relational database for enterprise developers and start-ups.

• It is easy to set up, operate, and scale PostgreSQL deployments in the cloud.

• With Amazon RDS, you can scale PostreSQL deployments in aws cloud in minutes with cost-effective and resizable hardware capacity.

• It manages time-consuming administrative tasks such as PostgreSQL software installation, storage management, replication for high availability, and backups for disaster recovery.

• The code, applications, and tools that we use today can also be used with the Amazon RDS.

• With few clicks in AWS Management Console, you can deploy PostgreSQL database with automatically configured database parameters for on optimal performance.

Aurora

• It is a relational database, and closed source database engine.

• It is compatible with MySQL and delivers five times throughput of MySQL on the same hardware.

• It is also compatible with PostgreSQL and delivers three times throughput of PostgreSQL on the same hardware.

• Amazon RDS with Aurora manages the time-consuming administrative tasks such as software installation, patching, and backups.

• The main features of Aurora are fault-tolerant, distributed, a self-healing storage system that auto-scales upto 64 TB per database instance.

• It provides high-performance, availability, point-in-time recovery, continuous backed up to S3, and replication across three availability zones.

MariaDB

• MariaDB is an open source relational database developed by the developers of MySQL.

• It is easy to set up, operate, and scale MariaDB deployments in the aws cloud.

• With Amazon RDS, you can deploy MariaDB databases in minutes with cost-effective and resizable hardware capacity.

• It frees you from managing the time-consuming administrative tasks such as software installation, patching, monitoring, scaling, and backups.

• Amazon RDS supports MariaDB versions such as 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 means that the code, applications, and tools that you are using today can also be used with the Amazon RDS.

Step Of Creating an RDS Instance

Step 1: Creating an RDS instance.

• Click on the RDS service under Database.

• Click on the Dashboard appearing on the left side of the console, then click on the Create Database button.

• Choose the MySQL database

• Check the box of "Only enable options eligible for RDS Free Usage Tier", and then click on the Next.

  

• Specify DB details. Keep all the details as default. Enter the DB instance identifier which would be unique for all DB instances owned by your AWS account

• Configure advanced settings of your RDS instance. Keep all the settings as default except that you need to enter the database name.

• Click on the Create Database button.

Step 2: Creating an EC2 instance.

• Click on the EC2 service.

• Launch an instance.

• Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI).

• Choose an Instance type.

• Configure Instance details. Keep all the details as default.

• (Optional) Add EBS Volume.

• Add Tags.

• Configure Security group. Suppose I create a new group whose name is WebServer.

• Click on the Launch button.

Step 3: Installing MySQL .

• Install MySQL Client: $ sudo yum install mysql -y

• Connect to the RDS Instance: $ mysql -h <your-rds-endpoint > -P 3306 -u <username> -p.

• Perform database Operation by using SQl langauge.Such as create database,create table,retrive database.

Conclusion:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Relational Database Service (RDS) is a managed service that simplifies the process of setting up, operating, and scaling a relational database in the cloud.

If you have any questions, need clarifications, or want to discuss anything related to AWS technologies, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. Connect with me at Aditya Gadhave, and I'll be more than happy to assist you. 😊