What Is FlexusRDS?

Huawei Cloud Flexus is a next-generation out-of-the-box cloud service family designed for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and developers. Huawei Cloud Flexus RDS (FlexusRDS) is a product in the Huawei Cloud Flexus family.

Based on the open-source MySQL kernel, FlexusRDS is a lightweight relational database service developed for startups and individuals. It allows you to easily set up and manage DB instances and frees you to focus on your core business.

How to Use FlexusRDS

A web-based management console is provided for you to manage your FlexusRDS DB instances.

FlexusRDS supports MySQL 8.0 and 5.7. For details about how to buy a FlexusRDS DB instance, see Buying and Connecting to a FlexusRDS Instance.

For more information, see the community documentation at https://dev.mysql.com/doc/.

Basic Concepts

DB Instance
The smallest management unit of FlexusRDS is a DB instance. A DB instance is an isolated database environment on the cloud. You can create and manage FlexusRDS DB instances on the console.
DB Engine
FlexusRDS supports the MySQL DB engine.

DB Instance Type

FlexusRDS DB instances are classified into single instances and primary/standby instances.

**Table 1** DB instance types
Type	Description	Notes
Single	Uses a single-node architecture. It is less expensive than a primary/standby DB pair.	If a fault occurs on a single-node instance, the instance cannot recover in a timely manner.
Primary/Standby	Uses an HA architecture. The primary and standby instances share the same IP address and can be deployed in different AZs.	When a primary instance is being created, a standby instance is provisioned synchronously to provide data redundancy. The standby instance is invisible to you after being created. If the primary instance fails, a failover occurs, during which database connection is interrupted. If there is a replication delay between the primary and standby instances, the failover takes an extended period of time. The client needs to be able to reconnect to the instance.

Instance Class

You can choose one of several database plans based on the vCPUs, memory, storage, and DB instance type you require. The following database plans are available:

**Table 2** Database plans
Instance Class	DB Instance Type
Standard 2U4G, 120 GB of storage	Single
Standard 2U8G, 240 GB of storage	Single
Standard 4U8G, 240 GB of storage	Single
High-availability 2U4G, 120 GB of storage	Primary/Standby
High-availability 2U8G, 240 GB of storage	Primary/Standby
High-availability 4U8G, 240 GB of storage	Primary/Standby

Automated Backup
Automated backup is enabled by default when you create a FlexusRDS DB instance. The backup policy cannot be modified after instance creation.
Manual Backup
Manual backups are user-initiated full backups of DB instances. You can download and delete manual backup as needed. Or if you want, you can keep the manual backups until you unsubscribe from your instance.

Differences Between FlexusRDS and RDS for MySQL

**Table 3** Differences between FlexusRDS and RDS for MySQL
Item	FlexusRDS	RDS for MySQL
Instance class	Minimum: 2 vCPU and 4 GB of memory Maximum: 4 vCPU and 8 GB of memory	More high instance classes are supported. For details, see RDS for MySQL Instance Classes.
Scalability	Read replicas are not supported. The storage can autoscale up to 4 TB for an instance.	Up to five read replicas can be added for a DB instance. The time required for adding read replicas depends on the data volume. Adding read replicas require additional storage. The storage can autoscale up to 4 TB for an instance.
Backup and restoration	Data can be restored to a specific point in time using full backups and binlog playback. Data can be restored to a new DB instance or the original DB instance.	Data can be restored to a specific point in time using full backups and binlog playback. Data can be restored to a new DB instance, the original DB instance, or any existing DB instance other than the original one. Database- and table-level recovery to any point in time is supported.
DB engine version	MySQL 5.7 and 8.0	MySQL 5.6, 5.7, and 8.0
Operation logs	Operation logs can be viewed on the FlexusRDS console.	Operation logs cannot be viewed on the RDS console. For details about task records, see Task Center.

Product Advantages

Quick Setup
You can create a FlexusRDS DB instance anytime you want to on the console. You are advised to use Data Admin Service (DAS) to connect to your DB instance. DAS enables you to manage databases on a web-based console and provides you with database development, O&M, and intelligent diagnosis to make it easy to use and maintain your databases.
Solid Reliability
FlexusRDS automatically backs up data every day and stores backups as packages in Object Storage Service (OBS). Automated backups are retained for seven days and can be used to restore data within that period. This can meet your requirements for data restoration in most cases.

Point-in-time recovery (PITR) is supported. You can restore data to a new or original instance.
Storage Autoscaling
Storage autoscaling is disabled by default. You can enable it after purchasing a DB instance. With storage autoscaling enabled, FlexusRDS automatically scales up the storage of your instance when the storage usage reaches your preset limit. You can configure the upper limit and increment for autoscaling to keep up with your workload growth at a low cost.
High Security
FlexusRDS is protected by multiple layers of firewalls to defend against various malicious attacks, such as DDoS attacks and SQL injections.
Simplified O&M
With a web-based console, you can reboot DB instances, reset passwords, modify parameters, view error logs and slow query logs, and restore data. Instance metrics like CPU usage, IOPS, connections, and storage usage are monitored in real time, and an alarm is reported once any of the metrics becomes abnormal. You can always keep aware of your instance health.