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AWS Solutions Architect · Lesson

RDS Engines and Instance Classes

Compare MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Aurora, and select the right instance class for your workload.

Introduction to Amazon RDS Engines

Amazon RDS supports six database engines: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora. Each engine is a fully managed version of the open-source or commercial database you already know. AWS handles patching, backups, and failover so you can focus on your application logic.

Choosing the right engine depends on your existing application requirements, licensing costs, and the features each engine provides. Aurora is AWS's cloud-native option built for performance and availability.

MySQL and PostgreSQL on RDS

MySQL is the world's most popular open-source relational database and is a natural fit for web applications and CMSs. PostgreSQL offers advanced SQL compliance, strong JSONB support, and powerful extension ecosystem, making it popular for analytics and geospatial workloads.

Both engines on RDS support automated backups, Multi-AZ deployments, and Read Replicas. PostgreSQL Read Replicas can span across regions, while MySQL supports up to 15 cross-region replicas with Aurora MySQL.

# Creating an RDS MySQL instance via CLI
aws rds create-db-instance \
  --db-instance-identifier mydb \
  --db-instance-class db.t3.micro \
  --engine mysql \
  --master-username admin \
  --master-user-password MyPass123! \
  --allocated-storage 20

All lessons in this course

  1. RDS Engines and Instance Classes
  2. Multi-AZ and Automated Backups
  3. Read Replicas for Read Scaling
  4. RDS Security: Encryption and Parameter Groups
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