Managing an Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance - Amazon Relational Database Service
Pausing and resuming RDS Custom automationModifying an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instanceModifying the storage for an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instanceTagging RDS Custom for SQL Server resourcesDeleting an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instanceStarting and stopping an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

Managing an Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server supports a subset of the usual management tasks for Amazon RDS DB instances. Following, you can find instructions for the supported RDS Custom for SQL Server management tasks using the AWS Management Console and the AWS CLI.

Pausing and resuming RDS Custom automation

RDS Custom automatically provides monitoring and instance recovery for an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance. If you need to customize the instance, do the following:

  1. Pause RDS Custom automation for a specified period. The pause ensures that your customizations don't interfere with RDS Custom automation.

  2. Customize the RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance as needed.

  3. Do either of the following:

    • Resume automation manually.

    • Wait for the pause period to end. In this case, RDS Custom resumes monitoring and instance recovery automatically.

Important

Pausing and resuming automation are the only supported automation tasks when modifying an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance.

To pause or resume RDS Custom automation

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then choose the RDS Custom DB instance that you want to modify.

  3. Choose Modify. The Modify DB instance page appears.

  4. For RDS Custom automation mode, choose one of the following options:

    • Paused pauses the monitoring and instance recovery for the RDS Custom DB instance. Enter the pause duration that you want (in minutes) for Automation mode duration. The minimum value is 60 minutes (default). The maximum value is 1,440 minutes.

    • Full automation resumes automation.

  5. Choose Continue to check the summary of modifications.

    A message indicates that RDS Custom will apply the changes immediately.

  6. If your changes are correct, choose Modify DB instance. Or choose Back to edit your changes or Cancel to cancel your changes.

    On the RDS console, the details for the modification appear. If you paused automation, the Status of your RDS Custom DB instance indicates Automation paused.

  7. (Optional) In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then your RDS Custom DB instance.

    In the Summary pane, RDS Custom automation mode indicates the automation status. If automation is paused, the value is Paused. Automation resumes in num minutes.

To pause or resume RDS Custom automation, use the modify-db-instance AWS CLI command. Identify the DB instance using the required parameter --db-instance-identifier. Control the automation mode with the following parameters:

  • --automation-mode specifies the pause state of the DB instance. Valid values are all-paused, which pauses automation, and full, which resumes it.

  • --resume-full-automation-mode-minutes specifies the duration of the pause. The default value is 60 minutes.

Note

Regardless of whether you specify --no-apply-immediately or --apply-immediately, RDS Custom applies modifications asynchronously as soon as possible.

In the command response, ResumeFullAutomationModeTime indicates the resume time as a UTC timestamp. When the automation mode is all-paused, you can use modify-db-instance to resume automation mode or extend the pause period. No other modify-db-instance options are supported.

The following example pauses automation for my-custom-instance for 90 minutes.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds modify-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance \
    --automation-mode all-paused \
    --resume-full-automation-mode-minutes 90

For Windows:

aws rds modify-db-instance ^
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance ^
    --automation-mode all-paused ^
    --resume-full-automation-mode-minutes 90

The following example extends the pause duration for an extra 30 minutes. The 30 minutes is added to the original time shown in ResumeFullAutomationModeTime.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds modify-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance \
    --automation-mode all-paused \
    --resume-full-automation-mode-minutes 30

For Windows:

aws rds modify-db-instance ^
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance ^
    --automation-mode all-paused ^
    --resume-full-automation-mode-minutes 30

The following example resumes full automation for my-custom-instance.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds modify-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance \
    --automation-mode full \

For Windows:

aws rds modify-db-instance ^
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance ^
    --automation-mode full

In the following partial sample output, the pending AutomationMode value is full.

{
    "DBInstance": {
        "PubliclyAccessible": true,
        "MasterUsername": "admin",
        "MonitoringInterval": 0,
        "LicenseModel": "bring-your-own-license",
        "VpcSecurityGroups": [
            {
                "Status": "active",
                "VpcSecurityGroupId": "0123456789abcdefg"
            }
        ],
        "InstanceCreateTime": "2020-11-07T19:50:06.193Z",
        "CopyTagsToSnapshot": false,
        "OptionGroupMemberships": [
            {
                "Status": "in-sync",
                "OptionGroupName": "default:custom-oracle-ee-19"
            }
        ],
        "PendingModifiedValues": {
            "AutomationMode": "full"
        },
        "Engine": "custom-oracle-ee",
        "MultiAZ": false,
        "DBSecurityGroups": [],
        "DBParameterGroups": [
            {
                "DBParameterGroupName": "default.custom-oracle-ee-19",
                "ParameterApplyStatus": "in-sync"
            }
        ],
        ...
        "ReadReplicaDBInstanceIdentifiers": [],
        "AllocatedStorage": 250,
        "DBInstanceArn": "arn:aws:rds:us-west-2:012345678912:db:my-custom-instance",
        "BackupRetentionPeriod": 3,
        "DBName": "ORCL",
        "PreferredMaintenanceWindow": "fri:10:56-fri:11:26",
        "Endpoint": {
            "HostedZoneId": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO",
            "Port": 8200,
            "Address": "my-custom-instance.abcdefghijk.us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com"
        },
        "DBInstanceStatus": "automation-paused",
        "IAMDatabaseAuthenticationEnabled": false,
        "AutomationMode": "all-paused",
        "EngineVersion": "19.my_cev1",
        "DeletionProtection": false,
        "AvailabilityZone": "us-west-2a",
        "DomainMemberships": [],
        "StorageType": "gp2",
        "DbiResourceId": "db-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW",
        "ResumeFullAutomationModeTime": "2020-11-07T20:56:50.565Z",
        "KmsKeyId": "arn:aws:kms:us-west-2:012345678912:key/aa111a11-111a-11a1-1a11-1111a11a1a1a",
        "StorageEncrypted": false,
        "AssociatedRoles": [],
        "DBInstanceClass": "db.m5.xlarge",
        "DbInstancePort": 0,
        "DBInstanceIdentifier": "my-custom-instance",
        "TagList": []
    }

Modifying an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

Modifying an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance is similar to doing this for Amazon RDS, but the changes that you can make are limited to the following:

  • Changing the DB instance class

  • Changing the backup retention period and backup window

  • Changing the maintenance window

  • Upgrading the DB engine version when a new version becomes available

  • Changing the allocated storage, provisioned IOPS, and storage type

  • Changing the database port

  • Changing the DB instance identifier

  • Changing the master credentials

  • Allowing and removing Multi-AZ deployments

  • Allowing public access

  • Changing the security groups

  • Changing subnet groups

The following limitations apply to modifying an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance:

  • Custom DB option and parameter groups aren't supported.

  • Any storage volumes that you attach manually to your RDS Custom DB instance are outside the support perimeter.

    For more information, see RDS Custom support perimeter.

To modify an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases.

  3. Choose the DB instance that you want to modify.

  4. Choose Modify.

  5. Make the following changes as needed:

    1. For DB engine version, choose the new version.

    2. Change the value for DB instance class. For supported classes, see DB instance class support for RDS Custom for SQL Server

    3. Change the value for Backup retention period.

    4. For Backup window, set values for the Start time and Duration.

    5. For DB instance maintenance window, set values for the Start day, Start time, and Duration.

  6. Choose Continue.

  7. Choose Apply immediately or Apply during the next scheduled maintenance window.

  8. Choose Modify DB instance.

To modify an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance, use the modify-db-instance AWS CLI command. Set the following parameters as needed:

  • --db-instance-class – For supported classes, see DB instance class support for RDS Custom for SQL Server

  • --engine-version – The version number of the database engine to which you're upgrading.

  • --backup-retention-period – How long to retain automated backups, from 0–35 days.

  • --preferred-backup-window – The daily time range during which automated backups are created.

  • --preferred-maintenance-window – The weekly time range (in UTC) during which system maintenance can occur.

  • --apply-immediately – Use --apply-immediately to apply the storage changes immediately.

    Or use --no-apply-immediately (the default) to apply the changes during the next maintenance window.

Modifying the storage for an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

Modifying storage for an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance is similar to modifying storage for an Amazon RDS DB instance, but you can only do the following:

  • Increase the allocated storage size.

  • Change the storage type. You can use available storage types such as General Purpose or Provisioned IOPS. Provisioned IOPS is supported for the gp3, io1, and io2 Block Express storage types.

  • Change the provisioned IOPS, if you're using the volume types that support Provisioned IOPS.

The following limitations apply to modifying the storage for an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance:

  • The minimum allocated storage size for RDS Custom for SQL Server is 20 GiB, and the maximum supported storage size is 16 TiB.

  • As with Amazon RDS, you can't decrease the allocated storage. This is a limitation of Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes. For more information, see Working with storage for Amazon RDS DB instances

  • Storage autoscaling isn't supported for RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instances.

  • Any storage volumes that you manually attach to your RDS Custom DB instance are not considered for storage scaling. Only the RDS-provided default data volumes, i.e., the D drive, are considered for storage scaling.

    For more information, see RDS Custom support perimeter.

  • Scaling storage usually doesn't cause any outage or performance degradation of the DB instance. After you modify the storage size for a DB instance, the status of the DB instance is storage-optimization.

  • Storage optimization can take several hours. You can't make further storage modifications for either six (6) hours or until storage optimization has completed on the instance, whichever is longer. For more information, see Working with storage for Amazon RDS DB instances

For more information about storage, see Amazon RDS DB instance storage.

For general information about storage modification, see Working with storage for Amazon RDS DB instances.

To modify the storage for an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases.

  3. Choose the DB instance that you want to modify.

  4. Choose Modify.

  5. Make the following changes as needed:

    1. Enter a new value for Allocated storage. It must be greater than the current value, and from 20 GiB–16 TiB.

    2. Change the value for Storage type. You can choose from the available General Purpose or Provisioned IOPS storage types. Provisioned IOPS is supported for the gp3, io1, and io2 Block Express storage types.

    3. If you're specifying a storage type that supports Provisioned IOPS, you can define the Provisioned IOPS value.

  6. Choose Continue.

  7. Choose Apply immediately or Apply during the next scheduled maintenance window.

  8. Choose Modify DB instance.

To modify the storage for an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance, use the modify-db-instance AWS CLI command. Set the following parameters as needed:

  • --allocated-storage – Amount of storage to be allocated for the DB instance, in gibibytes. It must be greater than the current value, and from 20–16,384 GiB.

  • --storage-type – The storage type, for example, gp2, gp3, io1, or io2.

  • --iops – Provisioned IOPS for the DB instance. You can specify this only for storage types that support Provisioned IOPS (gp3, io1, and io2).

  • --apply-immediately – Use --apply-immediately to apply the storage changes immediately.

    Or use --no-apply-immediately (the default) to apply the changes during the next maintenance window.

The following example changes the storage size of my-custom-instance to 200 GiB, storage type to io1, and Provisioned IOPS to 3000.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds modify-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance \
    --storage-type io1 \
    --iops 3000 \
    --allocated-storage 200 \
    --apply-immediately

For Windows:

aws rds modify-db-instance ^
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance ^
    --storage-type io1 ^
    --iops 3000 ^
    --allocated-storage 200 ^
    --apply-immediately

Tagging RDS Custom for SQL Server resources

You can tag RDS Custom resources as with Amazon RDS resources, but with some important differences:

  • Don't create or modify the AWSRDSCustom tag that's required for RDS Custom automation. If you do, you might break the automation.

  • The Name tag is added to RDS Custom resources with prefix value of do-not-delete-rds-custom. Any customer-passed value for the key is overwritten.

  • Tags added to RDS Custom DB instances during creation are propagated to all other related RDS Custom resources.

  • Tags aren't propagated when you add them to RDS Custom resources after DB instance creation.

For general information about resource tagging, see Tagging Amazon RDS resources.

Deleting an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

To delete an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance, do the following:

  • Provide the name of the DB instance.

  • Choose or clear the option to take a final DB snapshot of the DB instance.

  • Choose or clear the option to retain automated backups.

You can delete an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance using the console or the CLI. The time required to delete the DB instance can vary depending on the backup retention period (that is, how many backups to delete), how much data is deleted, and whether a final snapshot is taken.

Warning

Deleting a RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance will permanently delete the EC2 instance and the associated Amazon EBS volumes. You shouldn’t terminate or delete these resources at any time, otherwise, the deletion and the final snapshot creation may fail.

Note

You can't create a final DB snapshot of your DB instance if it has a status of creating, failed, incompatible-create, incompatible-restore, or incompatible-network. For more information, see Viewing Amazon RDS DB instance status.

Important

When you choose to take a final snapshot, we recommend that you avoid writing data to your DB instance while the DB instance deletion is in progress. Once the DB instance deletion is initiated, data changes are not guaranteed to be captured by the final snapshot.

To delete an RDS Custom DB instance

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then choose the RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance that you want to delete. RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instances show the role Instance (RDS Custom for SQL Server).

  3. For Actions, choose Delete.

  4. To take a final snapshot, choose Create final snapshot, and provide a name for the Final snapshot name.

  5. To retain automated backups, choose Retain automated backups.

  6. Enter delete me in the box.

  7. Choose Delete.

You delete an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance by using the delete-db-instance AWS CLI command. Identify the DB instance using the required parameter --db-instance-identifier. The remaining parameters are the same as for an Amazon RDS DB instance.

The following example deletes the RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance named my-custom-instance, takes a final snapshot, and retains automated backups.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:

aws rds delete-db-instance \
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance \
    --no-skip-final-snapshot \
    --final-db-snapshot-identifier my-custom-instance-final-snapshot \
    --no-delete-automated-backups

For Windows:

aws rds delete-db-instance ^
    --db-instance-identifier my-custom-instance ^
    --no-skip-final-snapshot ^
    --final-db-snapshot-identifier my-custom-instance-final-snapshot ^
    --no-delete-automated-backups

To take a final snapshot, the --final-db-snapshot-identifier option is required and must be specified.

To skip the final snapshot, specify the --skip-final-snapshot option instead of the --no-skip-final-snapshot and --final-db-snapshot-identifier options in the command.

To delete automated backups, specify the --delete-automated-backups option instead of the --no-delete-automated-backups option in the command.

Starting and stopping an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance

You can start and stop your RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance. The same general requirements and limitations for RDS for SQL Server DB instances apply to stopping and starting your RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instances. For more information, see Stopping an Amazon RDS DB instance temporarily.

The following considerations also apply to starting and stopping your RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance:

  • Modifying an EC2 instance attribute of an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance while the DB instance is STOPPED isn't supported.

  • You can stop and start an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance only if it's configured for a single Availability Zone. You can't stop an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance in a Multi-AZ configuration.

  • A SYSTEM snapshot will be created when you stop an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance. The snapshot will be automatically deleted when you start the RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance again.

  • If you delete your EC2 instance while your RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance is stopped, the C: drive will be replaced when you start the RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance again.

  • The C:\ drive, hostname, and your custom configurations are persisted when you stop an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance, as long as you don't modify the instance type.

  • The following actions will result in RDS Custom placing the DB instance outside the support perimeter, and you're still charged for DB instance hours:

    • Starting the underlying EC2 instance while Amazon RDS is stopped. To resolve, you can call the start-db-instance Amazon RDS API, or stop the EC2 so the RDS Custom instance returns to STOPPED.

    • Stopping underlying EC2 instance when the RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance is ACTIVE.

For more details about stopping and starting DB instances, see Stopping an Amazon RDS DB instance temporarily, and Starting an Amazon RDS DB instance that was previously stopped.