aws-rds

AWS RDS

Deploy and manage Amazon RDS relational databases with production-grade backups, replication, monitoring, and security.

When to Use This Skill

• Provisioning a managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, or SQL Server database
• Setting up Multi-AZ deployments for high availability
• Creating read replicas for horizontal read scaling
• Configuring automated backups, snapshots, and point-in-time recovery
• Tuning database parameters for performance
• Migrating from self-managed databases to RDS
• Monitoring database performance and setting up alarms

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI v2 installed and configured
• IAM permissions: rds:*, ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups, ec2:DescribeSubnets, kms:*, cloudwatch:*
• A VPC with at least two subnets in different AZs (for subnet group)
• Security group allowing database port access from application subnets only

Create a DB Subnet Group

# Create a subnet group spanning two AZs
aws rds create-db-subnet-group \
  --db-subnet-group-name production-db-subnets \
  --db-subnet-group-description "Production database subnets" \
  --subnet-ids subnet-private-a subnet-private-b

# List subnet groups
aws rds describe-db-subnet-groups \
  --query "DBSubnetGroups[].{Name:DBSubnetGroupName,VPC:VpcId,Status:SubnetGroupStatus}" \
  --output table

Create a Production Database

# Create a PostgreSQL 16 Multi-AZ instance
aws rds create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier production-api-db \
  --db-instance-class db.r6g.large \
  --engine postgres \
  --engine-version 16.4 \
  --master-username appadmin \
  --manage-master-user-password \
  --allocated-storage 100 \
  --max-allocated-storage 500 \
  --storage-type gp3 \
  --storage-encrypted \
  --kms-key-id alias/rds-key \
  --vpc-security-group-ids sg-db-access \
  --db-subnet-group-name production-db-subnets \
  --db-name appdb \
  --backup-retention-period 14 \
  --preferred-backup-window "03:00-04:00" \
  --preferred-maintenance-window "sun:05:00-sun:06:00" \
  --multi-az \
  --auto-minor-version-upgrade \
  --deletion-protection \
  --copy-tags-to-snapshot \
  --monitoring-interval 60 \
  --monitoring-role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/rds-monitoring-role \
  --enable-performance-insights \
  --performance-insights-retention-period 7 \
  --enable-cloudwatch-logs-exports '["postgresql","upgrade"]' \
  --tags '[
    {"Key":"Environment","Value":"production"},
    {"Key":"Team","Value":"backend"},
    {"Key":"Backup","Value":"daily"}
  ]'

# Wait for instance to become available
aws rds wait db-instance-available --db-instance-identifier production-api-db

# Get connection endpoint
aws rds describe-db-instances \
  --db-instance-identifier production-api-db \
  --query "DBInstances[0].Endpoint.{Address:Address,Port:Port}" \
  --output table