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Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora is a fully managed, MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database engine that provides the performance and availability of high-end commercial databases at a much lower cost. Here’s what you should know about Amazon Aurora:

1. Compatibility with MySQL and PostgreSQL​

  • Aurora is designed to be compatible with both MySQL and PostgreSQL, which means you can use your existing tools, applications, and drivers with Aurora databases.
  • It supports MySQL 5.6, 5.7, and 8.0 as well as PostgreSQL versions 9.6, 10.x, 11.x, 12.x, and 13.x. However, there may be minor variations in features and extensions supported, so it's important to check compatibility before migrating.

2. High Performance and Scalability​

  • 5x Faster Than MySQL, 3x Faster Than PostgreSQL: Aurora is optimized for high performance, claiming speeds up to five times faster than standard MySQL and three times faster than standard PostgreSQL.
  • Auto-Scaling Storage: The storage for an Aurora database can automatically scale from 10 GB up to 128 TB, depending on the volume of your data. This auto-scaling feature means you only pay for the storage you actually use.
  • Read Replicas: Aurora allows you to create up to 15 read replicas across multiple Availability Zones to offload read traffic and increase read throughput. Replicas use a shared storage layer, reducing replication lag.
  • Aurora Serverless: Aurora offers an on-demand auto-scaling configuration called Aurora Serverless. It automatically starts, stops, and scales compute capacity based on application needs, making it ideal for infrequent, unpredictable, or variable workloads.

3. Fault Tolerance and High Availability​

  • Distributed, Fault-Tolerant Storage: Aurora’s storage layer is designed to be highly available and durable, automatically replicating data across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) within an AWS region. It maintains six copies of your data across three AZs.
  • Automatic Failover: Aurora automatically detects failures and performs failover in less than 30 seconds. You can set up Aurora Multi-AZ deployments for automatic failover between primary and replica instances to enhance high availability.
  • Self-Healing Storage: Aurora continuously monitors and repairs disk volume errors, ensuring that your data remains intact without requiring manual intervention.

4. Backups and Snapshots​

  • Continuous Backup: Aurora performs continuous backups of your database to Amazon S3, allowing you to restore to any point in time within a retention period of up to 35 days.
  • Manual Snapshots: You can take manual snapshots of your database at any time. These snapshots can be retained indefinitely and used to create new instances or clone the database.

5. Global Database for Multi-Region Deployment​

  • Aurora Global Database: Allows you to deploy a single Aurora database across multiple AWS regions. This setup is designed for high-performance, low-latency cross-region replication, with the ability to fail over to a secondary region in the event of a disaster.
  • Low Latency Reads: The Global Database architecture allows read queries in secondary regions, reducing latency for global applications.

6. Security Features​

  • Encryption at Rest and in Transit: Aurora supports encryption of your databases using AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to encrypt data at rest. It also supports SSL/TLS encryption for data in transit between the database and your applications.
  • Network Isolation: Deploy Aurora within an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) for network isolation. You can use VPC security groups and subnet groups to control inbound and outbound access to your Aurora instances.
  • Fine-Grained Access Control: Integrate with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access to database resources. With IAM database authentication, you can use IAM roles and policies to manage database credentials.

7. Automated Maintenance​

  • Patching and Updates: Aurora automatically manages software patching, ensuring that your database engine is always up to date with the latest security and bug fixes. You can define maintenance windows to control when updates occur.
  • Database Engine Upgrades: Aurora provides options for upgrading the database engine, allowing you to take advantage of new features while minimizing downtime.

8. Monitoring and Performance Insights​

  • Amazon CloudWatch: Aurora integrates with Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring metrics like CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network traffic. You can set alarms and create dashboards to track database health.
  • Performance Insights: With Amazon Aurora Performance Insights, you can visualize database performance, identify bottlenecks, and analyze queries. It provides an easy-to-use dashboard and supports both real-time and historical performance monitoring.
  • Enhanced Monitoring: Aurora provides detailed insights into your database's operating system metrics, such as CPU, memory, and I/O usage, which helps in deep performance analysis and troubleshooting.

9. Data Import and Export​

  • Data Migration: Aurora supports data migration tools such as AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to migrate databases from other engines like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server.
  • Bulk Import/Export: You can use Amazon S3 to import or export data in common formats like CSV, JSON, and Parquet into and out of your Aurora databases.

10. Integration with Other AWS Services​

  • Lambda and Aurora: Integrate with AWS Lambda to trigger actions based on database changes, enabling event-driven architecture within your application.
  • Amazon RDS Proxy: Aurora integrates with Amazon RDS Proxy, which helps manage database connections efficiently and enhances the scalability and availability of your applications.
  • AWS Secrets Manager: Use AWS Secrets Manager to securely manage and rotate credentials for your Aurora databases, improving security and compliance.

11. Cost Management​

  • Pay-as-You-Go Pricing: Aurora offers pay-as-you-go pricing for compute instances, storage, I/O, and backups. You only pay for the resources you use, making it a cost-effective option compared to commercial database engines.
  • Aurora Serverless: Aurora Serverless offers on-demand, pay-per-use pricing, ideal for intermittent, unpredictable workloads. It automatically adjusts capacity based on the current demand.
  • Reserved Instances: If you have predictable, steady workloads, you can purchase Reserved Instances for Aurora to save costs over the long term.

12. Stored Procedures, Triggers, and Extensions​

  • Aurora supports stored procedures, triggers, views, and other common database features in both MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible modes.
  • PostgreSQL Extensions: Aurora PostgreSQL supports many popular PostgreSQL extensions, such as pg_cron, PostGIS, and pg_stat_statements, allowing you to extend database capabilities.

13. Fault Isolation and Recovery​

  • Segmented Storage: Aurora’s architecture separates storage from compute. Data is stored in a distributed, fault-tolerant storage layer across multiple Availability Zones, ensuring durability and high availability.
  • Crash Recovery: Aurora's design includes crash recovery that allows automatic recovery in case of instance failure, minimizing downtime and data loss.

14. Cloning and Cross-Account Sharing​

  • Database Cloning: Aurora offers a fast, cost-effective way to clone your database, making it easy to create new instances for development, testing, or analytics without affecting the source database.
  • Cross-Account Snapshot Sharing: Aurora allows you to share database snapshots with other AWS accounts, enabling data distribution and collaboration across different environments.

15. Best Practices​

  • Use Read Replicas: For read-heavy workloads, use Aurora's read replicas to offload read operations from the primary instance, ensuring optimal performance.
  • Monitor Performance: Use CloudWatch, Enhanced Monitoring, and Performance Insights to monitor and tune database performance regularly.
  • Enable Backups: Take advantage of Aurora’s continuous backups and point-in-time restore capabilities to protect against data loss.