Instance Usage Suggestions

DB Instance Types

Primary/Standby
- A primary/standby pair provides an HA architecture. It is suitable for production databases of large and medium enterprises in the Internet, Internet of Things (IoT), retail e-commerce sales, logistics, gaming, and other sectors.
- When a primary instance is being created, a standby instance is provisioned along with it to provide data redundancy. The standby instance is invisible to you after being created.
- If a failover occurs due to a primary instance failure, your database client will be disconnected for a short period of time. The client needs to be able to reconnect to the instance.
Single
- A single-node architecture is more cost-effective than primary/standby pairs.
- It is only recommended for development and testing of microsites, and small and medium enterprises, or for learning about RDS.
- If a fault occurs on a single instance, the instance cannot recover in a timely manner.
Read replica
RDS for MariaDB supports single read replicas.

If the replication between a read replica and the DB instance is abnormal, it can take a long time to rebuild and restore the read replica (depending on the data volume).

Instance Classes

Dedicated
The instance has dedicated CPU and memory resources to ensure stable performance. The performance of a dedicated instance is never affected by other instances on the same physical machine. This instance class is good when performance stability is important.
General-purpose
CPU resources are shared with other general-purpose DB instances on the same physical machine. CPU usage is maximized through resource overcommitment. This instance class is a cost-effective option and suitable for scenarios where performance stability is not critical.

Configure RDS for MariaDB parameters for your workloads.
Keep an appropriate number of active connections.
Periodically release persistent connections because maintaining them may generate a large cache and use up memory.

Select primary/standby DB instances for production databases.
Deploy primary and standby instances in different AZs.
Create read replicas and enable read/write splitting for workloads involving frequent read/write operations.
Change instance classes during off-peak hours.
Select an instance class and storage space appropriate to your workloads.
After scaling up your primary DB instance, scale up its read replicas in a timely manner to prevent service exceptions caused by insufficient storage of read replicas.

Perform manual backups during off-peak hours and change the backup time window (default setting: 01:00-02:00 (GMT+08:00)) for automated backup as required.
Set the backup cycle to All for DB instances that process many write requests every day.
Configure a backup retention period suited to your service demands. The default value is 7 days.
If a DB instance is deleted, its automated full backups and binlog backups are also deleted. Perform manual backup for all data before deleting a DB instance.
Configure a custom recycling policy to ensure that any instances that are deleted by mistake can be rebuilt.

Periodically check slow query logs and error logs to identify problems in advance.
Periodically check the resource usage of DB instances. If the resources are insufficient, scale up the resources in a timely manner.
Monitor instance metrics. If any metric is beyond its expected range, address related issues as soon as possible.
Run the SELECT statement before deleting or modifying a record.

Prevent your database from being accessed from the Internet. If you want to allow the access from the Internet, bind an EIP to your DB instance and configure a whitelist.
Use SSL to connect to your DB instance.

Parent topic: Suggestions on Using RDS for MariaDB