AWS Database Blog

Category: RDS for MySQL

The performance increase is one of the crucial reasons to stay current with the latest releases.

Upgrading from Amazon RDS for MySQL version 5.5

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL 5.5 major version is reaching end of life, and it’s recommended to upgrade to newer supported major versions. Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) provides newer versions of databases so you can keep your DB instances up to date. These versions include bug fixes, security enhancements, and […]

The following diagram illustrates this architecture.

Best practices for using a MySQL read replica to upgrade an Amazon RDS for MySQL database

December, 2022: Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) now supports Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments to help you with safer, simpler, and faster updates to your Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS databases. Blue/Green Deployments create a fully managed staging environment that allows you to deploy and test production changes, keeping your current production database safe. Learn […]

Recap of Amazon RDS and Aurora features launched in 2019

Updated 04/2022 to reflect product changes. Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient and resizable capacity. At the same time, it automates time-consuming administration tasks such as hardware provisioning, database setup, patching, and backups. It frees you to […]

Running sysbench on RDS MySQL, RDS MariaDB, and Amazon Aurora MySQL via SSL/TLS

sysbench is an ideal tool for running synthetic benchmarking on MySQL compatible databases. The Amazon Aurora Performance Assessment Technical Guide helps you assess the performance of Amazon Aurora MySQL by using sysbench. However, if you want to run sysbench on MySQL-compatible databases running on RDS or Aurora via SSL/TLS, you also need to consider some […]

Migrating mission-critical SaaS production workloads to Aurora MySQL from RDS Classic

Sumo Logic started around the same time as the AWS stack was starting to mature. The company initially chose infrastructure that was tried and tested, but also cutting-edge at the time, namely Amazon RDS for MySQL instances. However, over time, that choice started to cost us a significant number of developer hours. Developers spent time […]

How to determine whether Kaigen (Japan era name transition) affects your MySQL compatible engines running on RDS

If you have software or systems that support Japanese customers, and if your software or systems need to display a Japan era name, you may need to make changes to display the new name. The new Japan era name comes into effect on May 1, 2019, when the current Japanese Emperor abdicates. In this blog […]

Best practices for configuring parameters for Amazon RDS for MySQL, part 3: Parameters related to security, operational manageability, and connectivity timeout

August 2025: This post was reviewed for accuracy. In the previous blog post of this series, I discuss MySQL parameters used to optimize replication in Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL and best practices related to them. In today’s post, I discuss the most important and commonly used MySQL parameters for implementing various […]

Best practices for configuring parameters for Amazon RDS for MySQL, part 2: Parameters related to replication

This blog post was last reviewed or updated May, 2022. In the previous blog post of this series, I discuss MySQL parameters used to tune and optimize Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL performance and best practices related to them. In today’s post, I discuss the most important MySQL parameters used for replication […]

Best practices for configuring parameters for Amazon RDS for MySQL, part 1: Parameters related to performance

This blog post was last reviewed or updated January, 2025. With Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL, you can deploy scalable MySQL servers in minutes with cost-efficient and resizable hardware capacity. Amazon RDS frees you up to focus on application development by managing time-consuming database administration tasks including backups, software patching, monitoring, scaling, […]

How to use CloudWatch metrics to decide between General Purpose or Provisioned IOPS for your RDS database

July 2023: This post was reviewed for accuracy. In this blog post, I talk about how you can use Amazon CloudWatch metrics to understand when you might benefit from provisioned IOPS, also known as IO1 volumes, for highest performance mission-critical database workloads. I start by setting up a test case that simulates a nonbursting consistent […]