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RDS

By · Reviewed & last updated · Part of AWS Tutorial

RDS is managed relational databases. AWS handles backups, patching, replicas, multi-AZ failover, and the boring ops; you pay per instance-hour + storage. Postgres, MySQL, Aurora, SQL Server, Oracle all supported.

Provision + connect + maintain

EXAMPLE
# 1) Create a small Postgres instance
aws rds create-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier myapp-pg \
    --engine postgres \
    --engine-version 16 \
    --db-instance-class db.t4g.micro \
    --allocated-storage 20 \
    --master-username app \
    --master-user-password "$DB_PASSWORD" \
    --backup-retention-period 14 \
    --storage-encrypted \
    --publicly-accessible false \
    --vpc-security-group-ids sg-abc123

# 2) Find the endpoint
aws rds describe-db-instances \
    --db-instance-identifier myapp-pg \
    --query 'DBInstances[0].Endpoint.Address'

# 3) Connect (from inside the VPC)
psql "postgresql://app:$DB_PASSWORD@myapp-pg.xxxx.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:5432/postgres"

# 4) Schedule snapshots & multi-AZ for prod
aws rds modify-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier myapp-pg \
    --multi-az \
    --apply-immediately

# 5) Restore from a snapshot (point-in-time)
aws rds restore-db-instance-to-point-in-time \
    --source-db-instance-identifier myapp-pg \
    --target-db-instance-identifier myapp-pg-restored \
    --restore-time 2026-06-07T13:00:00Z

# 6) Aurora Serverless v2 — autoscale by ACUs (useful for spiky workloads)
aws rds create-db-cluster \
    --engine aurora-postgresql \
    --serverless-v2-scaling-configuration MinCapacity=0.5,MaxCapacity=8

Why it matters

Read replicas absorb read load and let you fail over with seconds of downtime. Multi-AZ is for resilience; replicas are for performance — pick both for production.

Tip: Tweak the snippet with Try it Yourself », then sit the quiz at the bottom of the page.

Example

Example
# Managed MySQL / Postgres / SQL Server / MariaDB / Oracle.
# Automatic backups + multi-AZ.
Try it Yourself »

Exercise

Managed relational DB service is…

Discussion

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