Day 6: Amazon RDS – Managed Databases, Multi-AZ, Backups, and Security
Day 6 of my 90-day AWS challenge: how Amazon RDS runs relational databases for you, the difference between Multi-AZ and read replicas, how backups work, and how I launched a private database and cleaned it up.
Recap of Day 5
Yesterday I learned how a VPC organizes networking, including private subnets for databases. Today I'm launching that database with Amazon RDS.
What is Amazon RDS?
RDS (Relational Database Service) is a managed service for running relational databases in the cloud. AWS handles the hardware, operating system, patching, and backups, so I can focus on my schema and queries instead of server maintenance.
Supported engines: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora.
What AWS manages vs. what I manage
| AWS manages | I manage |
|---|---|
| Hardware and OS | Database schema and queries |
| Database software patching | Users and permissions inside the database |
| Automated backups | Network access (security groups) |
| Failover for Multi-AZ setups | Choosing the right instance size |
Multi-AZ vs. Read Replicas
| Multi-AZ | Read replica | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | High availability and failover | Better read performance |
| How it works | A standby copy in another Availability Zone takes over automatically if the primary fails | Extra copies that serve read-only queries |
| Can it serve traffic? | The standby does not serve traffic | Yes, for reads |
Backups
- Automated backups with point-in-time recovery, kept for a retention period you choose
- Manual snapshots that stay until you delete them
Security basics
- Place the database in a private subnet and turn off public access
- Use a security group that allows the database port (e.g., 3306 for MySQL) only from the application's security group
- Enable encryption at rest
- Never hard-code database passwords in code
What I practiced today
- Opened the RDS console and chose Create database
- Picked MySQL and the Free tier template
- Selected my VPC, kept public access off, and set the security group
- Reviewed the backup and storage settings
- Deleted the database after practicing
Key takeaways
- RDS saves time by managing patching, backups, and failover
- Multi-AZ is for availability; read replicas are for performance
- Keep databases private, and delete practice databases to avoid charges
- Since I work with Java and SQL, my next step is connecting to RDS from a Java app using JDBC
Up next: Day 7
A week-one recap and a mini review of EC2, S3, VPC, and RDS together.
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