# Amazon RDS

> A ready-made relational database that AWS keeps patched, backed up and running.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: AWS
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-rds/
- In Spanish: [Amazon RDS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/amazon-rds/)

**RDS** (Relational database Service) gives you a database such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server or Oracle without installing or maintaining it yourself. You choose the engine and the size, and AWS hands you an address and a password. Your app connects with SQL exactly as it would to a database on your own server.

What you stop doing: installing updates, scheduling backups, replacing a failed disk, getting up at night when it crashes. RDS takes automatic backups, applies patches in a maintenance window you pick, and with **Multi-AZ** keeps a synchronized standby copy in another Availability Zone that takes over in a minute or two if the main one fails. **Aurora** is AWS's own engine, compatible with PostgreSQL and MySQL, built for more speed and resilience.

A typical example: an online shop keeps its customers, orders and products in a PostgreSQL database on RDS, and the developers never log into the database server, because there is none to log into. The trade-off is money: you pay for the instance every hour it runs, busy or idle, and it costs more than running the same engine yourself on Amazon EC2.

## An analogy

A rented office with cleaning, security and maintenance included. You bring your furniture (the data) and get to work; the landlord fixes the leaks and keeps a spare key in case you lose yours.

## Keep in mind

- Managed engines: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle and Aurora.
- Automatic backups let you restore to any point within the last 35 days.
- Multi-AZ keeps a standby copy that takes over if the main one fails.
- You still design the tables and write the queries; RDS only runs the server.

## Go deeper

- [What is Amazon RDS? (official docs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Welcome.html)
- [Amazon RDS](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/)

## Related terms

- [Database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/database/): An organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.
- [SQL](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/sql/): The language you use to ask a database questions.
- [Server](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/server/): A computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.
- [Oracle](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/oracle/): The company behind one of the most used business databases, now also a cloud provider.
- [Backup](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/backup/): A separate copy of your data, kept so you can get it back when the original is lost.
- [Regions and Availability Zones](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/regions-and-availability-zones/): Where AWS physically lives: cities worldwide, each split into separate data centers.
- [Amazon EC2](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-ec2/): Virtual computers you rent by the hour, in any size, and switch off when done.