Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) is AWS's fully managed database platform supporting six engines: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Aurora. RDS eliminates database administration overhead by automating provisioning, patching, backups, replication, and failover, while providing enterprise features like Multi-AZ deployments for high availability, read replicas for horizontal scaling, and point-in-time recovery for disaster protection. The critical architectural insight: RDS separates compute (instance) from storage (EBS volumes that auto-scale to 64 TB), enabling independent scaling and supporting both provisioned instances for predictable workloads and Aurora Serverless v2 that auto-scales from 0.5 to 128 ACUs for variable demand—though choosing the right deployment model, storage type, and capacity planning directly impacts both performance and monthly costs by 40-70%.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 17 focused tables and 79 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
Table 1: Database Engine Options
The engine you pick decides everything downstream—pricing, replication limits, and which advanced features you get. The two Aurora variants are AWS's own rewrites of MySQL and PostgreSQL with much higher throughput and 6-way storage replication, while the four "community" engines (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB) and the two commercial ones (Oracle, SQL Server) run the stock database with RDS automation bolted on. Watch the licensing column closely: Oracle and SQL Server bring license-included versus BYOL trade-offs that the open-source engines simply don't have.
| Engine | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
aws rds create-db-cluster --engine aurora-mysql--engine-version 8.0.mysql_aurora.3.05.2 | • AWS-designed engine with 5x MySQL throughput and distributed storage that auto-replicates data 6 ways across 3 AZs • supports up to 15 read replicas and global databases | |
aws rds create-db-cluster --engine aurora-postgresql--engine-version 15.4 | • AWS-designed engine with 3x PostgreSQL throughput and PostGIS extension support • compatible with standard PostgreSQL client tools and extensions | |
aws rds create-db-instance --engine mysql--engine-version 8.0.35 | • Community MySQL on RDS with automated backups and up to 5 read replicas • license-included pricing and InnoDB as default storage engine | |
aws rds create-db-instance --engine postgres--engine-version 16.1 | • Open-source PostgreSQL with advanced features like JSONB, CTEs, and materialized views • supports logical replication and 40+ extensions |