Amazon RDS & Aurora Flashcards
What does RDS stand for?
Relational database service
What language does RDS use?
SQL
Which databases are offered in RDS?
Postgres SQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL, Aurora
True or False: RDS is a managed service?
True
True or False: RDS performs backups automatically and keeps them forever.
RDS does perform automated backups, but they are not kept indefinitely.
Can you make copies of snapshots cross-region?
Yes
Where can you perform monitoring of your RDS instance?
CloudWatch
True or False: RDS does not support multi-AZ deployments
False
When you deploy an RDS instance, which items are you responsible for?
A. Manage Hardware
B. Manage Operating System
C. Manage DB Application
Amazon takes care of each one of these items for you when hosted on RDS.
If you host your database on an EC2 instance, then you would be responsible for all of these items.
What are some of the advantages using RDS over hosting your database on an EC2 instance?
Hint: What is AWS looking for here?
- Automated provisioning, OS patching
- Continuous backups
- Restore to specific timestamp
- Monitoring Dashboards
- Read replicas for improved read performance
- Multi-AZ for disaster recovery
- Maintenance windows, chosen by you, where AWS does the maintenance automatically.
- Scaling, both vertical and horizontal
- Storage backed by EBS (gp2 or io 1)
True or False: You can SSH into your underlying DB instance?
False
When you create an RDS instance, what selections can you make to reduce the cost?
- Instance Type
- Database Engine type
- DB instance class (how much CPU, memory, IO)
- Reserved instance, deep discounts for 1 or 3 year contracts.
What is the difference between on-demand and reserved pay models?
On-Demand is a pay for compute capacity per hour, paying at the standard or contract rate.
Reserved offers deep discounts if you sign a 1 or 3 year contract for your database instance
How does RDS use storage?
EBS storage for OS, backups, snapshots exported to S3
True or False: When using RDS, you are billed per 1000 requests?
False, it is billed per million requests
What are the three class types you can choose from when creating an RDS instance.
Standard
Memory-optimized
Burstable performance
When using the burstable instance class, how do you obtain CPU credits?
You get credits when you underutilize the CPU.
When using the Burstable instance class, how long can does one credit allow you to remain at 100% CPU core utilization?
1 minute
What types of storage can you choose for RDS?
General Purpose Storage
Provisioned IOPS
General Purpose SSD storage for RDS is best for production heavy workloads
False
General Purpose SSD provides you with these specs:
1. Baseline 3 IOPS/GB
2. Volumes below 1TB can burst to 3,000 IOPS
3. Best for variable workloads
4. Best used for small or medium sized DB’s in Dev and Test environments
When you need high-performance, high IOPS workloads, which storage is best suited for your RDS needs?
Provisioned IOPS
Which RDS storage types support Auto Scaling?
Both General Purpose (GP2) and Provisioned IOPS (IO1)
What events trigger an auto-scaling event in RDS?
Workload and utilization nears provisioned capacity
True or False: You can use a single parameter group for different RDS instances.
False.
You must have a different Parameter group based on each type of database engine (this includes different versions of the same database type (MS Sql server 2013 vs 2019)
How do you creat a custom parameter group for your RDs instance?
You must create a new parameter group, which will copy the settings of the base group for that version, then you can make changes based on your needs
True or False: When you create an RDS parameter group, you can use this throughout your entire account, including different AWS regions?
False, you can only use the parameter group in the region it was created.
When you update a parameter group, what option always requires that the settings are applied immediately?
Dynamic parameters always trigger an immediate update to the database.
What status is shown when you change a static parameter on an RDS instance before it is rebooted?
Pending-Reboot.
Static changes require a DB reboot before the settings are applied.
When an RDS instance is in the state of pending-reboot, does the instance get restarted during the next maintenance window?
No, not automatically. You must reboot manually to change the status.
What are option groups used for?
Configuring optional features offered by the DB engine
What is the default setting for backup retention days in RDS?
7 days
When setting up your RDS instance, if you choose the option for Log Exports, where do those logs get exported to?
Cloudwatch
