Chapter 11. Using a relational database service: RDS
This chapter covers
- Launching and initializing relational databases with RDS
- Creating and restoring database snapshots
- Setting up a highly available database
- Tweaking database performance
- Monitoring databases
Relational databases are the de facto standard for storing and querying structured data, and many applications are built on top of a relational database system such as MySQL. Typically, relational databases focus on data consistency and guarantee ACID database transactions (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability). A typical task is storing and querying structured data like the accounts and transactions in an accounting application.
If you want to use a relational database on AWS, you have two options:
- Use the managed relational database service Amazon RDS, which is offered by AWS.
- Operate a relational database yourself on top of virtual machines.
The Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) offers ready-to-use relational databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, and Microsoft SQL Server. If your application supports one of these relational database systems, the migration to Amazon RDS is easy.
Beyond that, AWS offers its own engine called Amazon Aurora, which is MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible. If your application supports MySQL or PostgreSQL, the migration to Amazon Aurora is easy.