Posted On: Oct 29, 2018
Amazon RDS for MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and Oracle now allow you to stop and start database instances that are running in a Multi-AZ configuration. This makes it easy and affordable to use databases for development and test purposes that match the configuration of your production databases but are not required to be running all of the time.
Stopping and starting a database instance requires just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, or a single call using the AWS API or AWS Command Line Interface, and takes just a few minutes. While your database instance is stopped, you are charged for provisioned database storage and backup storage, but not for database instance hours.
While a database instance is stopped, Amazon RDS does not delete any of your automatic backups or transaction logs. This means you can do a point-in-time restore to any point within your specified automated backup retention window, even after an instance is re-started. Starting an instance restores it to the same configuration as it had when stopped, including its endpoint, DB parameter group, security group, and option group membership.
You can stop a database instance for up to 7 days at a time. After 7 days, it will be automatically started. For more details on stopping and starting a database instance, please refer to Stopping and Starting a DB Instance in the Amazon RDS User Guide.