Amazon Relational Database Service, or AWS RDS Migration, helps reduce application downtime by recording database changes. In contrast, the source database continues receiving transactions from applications. Even under complex circumstances, RDS Migration can effectively collect and duplicate data into multiple forms, supporting widely sold database engines like SQL Server or Oracle.
What Is AWS Database Migration Service?
What is AWS database migration service? AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) is a cloud service designed to facilitate the migration of various forms of data stores, relational databases, data warehouses, and NoSQL databases from one environment or configuration into AWS Cloud environments or vice versa. Your data can also be transferred between cloud environments like Amazon Web Services (AWS).
With AWS DMS, you can transfer and convert source schemas, identify source storage locations, and identify source data storage locations.
- Use DMS Fleet Advisor to locate your source data infrastructure. This tool generates an inventory of servers, databases, and schemas you can transfer onto AWS Cloud by gathering information from on-premise databases and analytics servers.
- DMS Schema Conversion can help you migrate between database engines with ease by automatically analyzing and converting source schemas for conversion to target engines using this service. Alternatively, download the AWS Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT).
- Once your source schemas have been converted to database code and the converted version to your target database, AWS DMS allows for easy data migrations by performing one-off or continuous changes between sources and targets. With its cost-effectiveness, speed to market, security features, and flexibility benefits of being part of AWS Cloud services AWS DMS may become invaluable.
AWS DMS is simply a server running replication software in the AWS Cloud. To instruct AWS DMS where to load or extract data, source/target connections must first be established; to move your files around, you then plan a job run on this server AWS DMS generates tables/primary keys not already present on targets if they don't already exist; alternatively, you may create target tables yourself using our Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT).
8 Pro Tips For Making An Amazon RDS Migration Go Smoothly
An AWS DMS server exists within the AWS Cloud that's optimized to run replication software, making data migration simple. To inform it where and how to load or extract information, first create source-target connections before planning migration tasks based on those. AWS DMS generates primary keys and tables if they don't already exist on target if no direct source connection has been made; otherwise, the target tables can be created manually by you or generated through its AWS Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT).
With that in mind, we offer advice to enable you to avoid some of the more prevalent problem spots.
RDS Tip #1: Treat Your Data Like It's Your Most Valuable Asset (Because It Probably Is.)
As data is often the cornerstone of business operations, organizations neglect backup strategies and procedures. Although data can often be the lifeblood of business operations, organizations must pay more attention to proper backup procedures and backup strategies. We understand this can be challenging with other tasks like planning a move looming over you; perhaps deferring backup systems makes sense, given all that needs to be accomplished for such an endeavor to go smoothly. At times like these, it might be tempting to postpone backing up company data in favor of other more pressing concerns. However, losing or corrupting it could have drastic repercussions that arise after relocation.
RDS Tip #2: Give Yourself Time To Migrate
Before embarking on any migrations, ensure your backups are reliable. At RDS, we manually verify backups at least weekly to ensure they have succeeded; before beginning migrations, ensure all backup methods have been thoroughly tested, as untested backups don't provide much value to organizations. Backups should constantly be tested to guarantee reliability, as untested ones will only help an organization a little in any event.
RDS Tip #3: More Data = More Time Migrating (Maybe A LOT More)
Before undertaking any move, ensure your backups are highly dependable. At RDS, we manually verify backups managed outside our platform have not failed at least weekly; ensure all methods for taking backups have been rigorously tested before beginning a move and regularly monitored; remember, though backups may be essential, untested ones don't provide much benefit.
When planning an RDS transfer, consideration of your database size is of utmost importance when conducting one successfully. Migrating less is easier and faster; keep this fact in mind, as it could aid your efforts further.
Considerations should also be given to your database size when planning an RDS migration process since moving fewer documents is usually more straightforward (and faster overall). Though obvious, remember this factor since you might find ways to help yourself along.
RDS Tip #4: Minimize Downtime But Set Realistic Goals
Migrations without downtime are possible but also present more significant challenges. Establishing realistic plans for rest is an effective strategy if budget allows. Expect funding for more significant downtime for larger datasets. Export/import is the easiest method, but testing the procedure first will provide an accurate estimation of early downtime estimates. Don't base goals solely around ideal circumstances; set reasonable expectations.
If an outage becomes intolerable, a live streaming replication cutover should be initiated immediately. There are various tools and alternatives for accomplishing this process, such as Oracle Data Pump, Postgres, MySQL, and Bucardo available; should native solutions prove unsuccessful, then Amazon Database Migration Service (abbreviated DMS) might provide another viable option.
Before beginning imports, switch off Multi-AZ, backups and replication otherwise broken databases might spread throughout your cloud infrastructure. After it has been imported successfully, enable all these features again.
RDS Tip #5: Version Considerations and Incompatibilities
Version consideration is one of the critical nuances associated with migrating to Aurora. We generally recommend adhering to major versions where feasible when conducting migrations; otherwise, expect additional time and effort due to version-specific quirks that arise during migrations. It may be beneficial to upgrade (or downgrade) your database before commencing migration work on Aurora.
When migrating from MySQL to RDS using native MySQL replication, your bin log must conform to RDS specifications for rollback operations to succeed. Also, ensure your backup point is up-to-date should this happen and any further source configuration changes (like bin log format and expire log numbers requiring a restart) have been made before initiating migration with Amazon DMS; otherwise, you could find yourself scrambling back afterward trying to make these adjustments quickly enough.
RDS is incompatible with many earlier workarounds and interim patches; for example, using superuser privileges is prohibited on RDS servers; to properly integrate MySQL on RDS, any operations that require superuser access must also be updated within your backup file if they involve MySQL processes.
RDS Tip #6: AWS DMS and the Quirks of Data Types
Database Migration Service (DMS), one of AWS's technologies, can be invaluable when functioning effectively. DMS works best when applied to small datasets that only contain limited types of data types; DMS can then be used to migrate them between platforms but be mindful that when trying to standardize column data types using DMS, it may instead change them.
RDS Tip #7: Look Into Existing Licensing, Tools, and Third Party Product Roadblocks
License difficulties must be adequately planned for. Otherwise, they can present significant obstacles during the migration or unanticipated costs that might come back to haunt a company unexpectedly. Because licensing can be expensive, moving to the cloud doesn't come quickly from businesses like Oracle. We strongly suggest you "BYOL (bring your license), rather than waste your money purchasing new licenses, instead spend enough time performing an in-depth total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis to assess which licensing strategy offers optimal cost efficiency before purchasing anything new.
As for using tools or applications in the cloud, be wary when considering RDS. There is no operating system present on its database server and thus you are unable to use tools or apps within it directly. Instead, these will need to be set up somewhere else, like an EC2 instance, before any procedures referring to executable files can make use of them, something typically required when working with Microsoft and Oracle databases.
RDS Tip #8: Get the RDS Support You Need
RDS and DMS from Amazon Web Services feature managed products that offer many advantages to novice migrants. Many may attempt to save themselves by using only AWS developer assistance alone; our experience shows this will likely not suffice in many instances. Invest in AWS Business Level Support right from the beginning to save time and hassle; it's well worth any additional expenses you might face during migration.
Conclusion
Transitioning to RDS may involve an initial learning curve. Still, its long-term advantages for your firm cannot be overstated. By adopting RDS, you can expect reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), more uptime, better performance, and cost-effective backup solutions with RDS compared to an EC2 instance running the database software you might be more familiar with; any added expenses should easily be outweighed by time saved managing an up-and-running, correctly backed-up database, synced with replicas and monitored instance; so don't put off taking this opportunity take it. You won't regret taking time on the learning curve. Contact us as we are the best Amazon Web Services Company.
