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Launch MySQL Instance on RDS

RDS is Relation Database Service running on AWS. It has a lot of advanced features such as Backup, Snapshots and Multi AZ Replication. In this document, We will have a look a MySQL Database Instance on AWS RDS.

First of you should log into the AWS Account and navigate RDS page. Then just click on Create Database in the top right corner.

RDS Page

2. Choose The Engine

Once you open the create database window, You need to select the Database Engine. RDS supports 6 database engines.

  • Amazon Aurora - High performance MySQL / Postgress compatible database engine.
  • MySQL - Standard MySQL database engine (Community Edition).
  • MariaDB - Standard MariaDB database engine (Community Edition).
  • PostgreSQL - Standard PosgreSQL ORDMS engine.
  • Oracle - Multi Edition compatible Oracle database engine.
  • SQL Server - Microsft SQL Server (2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017).

In our case, We need MySQL

Select database engine

3. Select The Template

Templates are just preset configurations that will be applied to rest of the section. But still you can customize it. There are 3 templates.

  • Production - Configurations for highly available production workload database.
  • Dev/Test - Configurations for testing or development purpose.
  • Free Tier - Cost and performance optimized low level limited configurations for AWS Free Tier.

Select template

4. Setup Identifier & Credentials

This section has the settings for the instance credentials.

  • DB Instance Identifier - It's just the name of the instance. Will be shown in RDS page.
  • Master Username - It's the username of MySQL Root account.
  • Master Password - It's the password of MySQL Root account.

Select identifier and username password

5. Select The DB Instance Class

In AWS instances are classfied based on vCPUs, Memory and other factors. You need to choose the correct instance type that suits to your requirement.

Checkout all the AWS RDS Instance types here

Select instance class

6. Choose The Storage

Once you selected the instance class, You need to choose the Storage Type, Capacity and Autoscale options.

  • Storage Type - Type of the disk. There are 3 options General Purpose (SSD), Provisioned IOPS (SSD) and Magnetic.
  • Allocated Storage - Capicity of the disk in GiB
  • Storage Autoscaling - If the instance running out of storage, It will automatically scale up the capacity.
  • Maximum Storage Threshold - Maximum storage threshold required by planned workload of the DB.

Select storage type

7. Setup Availability & Durability

This option is important to production databases to increase the availability.

  • Create a Standby Instance - Will replicate database across Multiple Availability Zones.

enable multi az

8. Configure Instance Connectivity

In this section you need to configure the network of your instance. By default the RDS instance will be created in the Default VPC.

  • Virtual private cloud (VPC) - The VPC where you need to create the instance. Instead of default, You can create new VPC.
  • Subnet Group - The Subnet in VPC where you want to place this instance. Default VPC will have default Subnet.
  • Public Access - If you enable this, The instance can be accessed from the outside of the VPC. Otherwise, The instances inside the VPC can access the instance.
  • VPC Security Group - This controls the Incomming Traffic of the VPC. You can use default one or you can create new.
  • Availability Zone - The AZ where you want to place the instance. AZs are based on Regions.

configure connectivity

9. Save & Launch The Instance

Once you configure all the required settings. You can launch the database by clicking on Create Database. It may take few mins to be provisioned.

10. Connect The Database

Once your database created. You can see a lot of information about the instance. In Connectivity & Security section you can find the Endpoint and port to access your database.

Then you can connect your database through your Application, MySQL Client or MySQL CLI

>> mysql -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD -h ENDPOINT

instance connectivity