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AWS RDS Basics

September 29, 2024
AWSRDSDatabase
Understanding the basics of AWS RDS
Table of Contents

Intro​

AWS RDS, or Amazon Relational Database Service, is a managed cloud service provided by Amazon Web Services that simplifies the setup, operation, and scaling of relational databases. It automates time-consuming administrative tasks such as hardware provisioning, database setup, patching, and backups. AWS RDS supports multiple database engines, including Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, and Microsoft SQL Server, allowing users to choose the database that best fits their application requirements. By handling the underlying infrastructure, AWS RDS enables developers and businesses to focus on optimizing their applications and innovation, while benefiting from high availability, security, and performance at scale.

Resources​

📘 AWS Docs > RDS > Using pgAdmin to connect to a RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance

DB Parameter Group​

A DB parameter group acts as a container for engine configuration values that are applied to one or more DB instances. These parameters configure settings like memory usage, cache sizes, timeouts, and other engine-specific options.

Why It Exists:

  • Customization: Allows you to fine-tune database engine settings to optimize performance for your specific workloads.
  • Consistency: Ensures that multiple DB instances use the same configuration parameters, making management easier.
  • Default Behavior: If you don't specify a parameter group, AWS assigns a default one based on the engine and engine version.

Database Access​

We can control the access to the Amazon RDS instance using security groups. A security group rule enables a specific source to access an Amazon RDS instance in an Amazon VPC that's associated with that security group.

You can add rules to the security group associated with the Amazon VPC to allow traffic that is related to the source to travel in and out of the DB instance.

When you set up the rule, you can specify an IP address, a range of IP addresses, or another security group in the VPC.

  • Security group is Stateful, Any changes applied to an incoming rule is automatically applied to an outgoing rule.
tip

If you are trying to connect to your database using a tool like pgAdmin and you are getting timeout issues. It likely means you have a security group issue and need to add an inbound rule authorizing your IP.

Network Access Control Lists (ACLs)​

Network ACLs act as a firewall for resources in a specific subnet in an Amazon VPC.

If you use ACLs in your Amazon VPC, be sure that they have rules to allow inbound and outbound traffic to and from the DB instance.

ACLs are stateless, and thus you must allow traffic in and out separately.

Network or Local Firewalls​

Be sure to check with your network administration to be sure that your network allows traffic to and from the DB instance.

  • Amazon RDS does not accept internet control message protocol (ICMP) traffic, including ping.

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