- Log Shipping<\/li>
- SSRS, SSIS, SSAS, Data Quality Services, or\nMaster Data Services<\/li>
- Database Mail<\/li>
- Maintenance Plans<\/li>
- SQL Server Audit<\/li>
- FILESTREAM support<\/li>
- Policy-Based Management<\/li>
- Replication<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
RDS also has some limitations that don\u2019t exist with an\non-premise SQL Server. Let\u2019s look at a few:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- As of this post, Amazon only supports SQL\n2017 RTM, SQL Server 2016 SP2, SQL Server 2014 SP2, SQL Server 2012 SP4, and\nSQL Server 2008R2 SP3<\/li>
- You can only have a maximum of 30 databases\nper instance and 16TB of storage.<\/li>
- Linked Servers<\/li>
- Windows Authentication (must use AWS Managed\nMicrosoft AD)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Again, the full list can be found here: https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/AmazonRDS\/latest\/UserGuide\/CHAP_SQLServer.html<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pricing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you can verify that your environment will run\nproperly in RDS you\u2019ll need to look at the pricing model. When you setup RDS\nfor SQL Server, the software license is included. AWS used to have a program\ncalled \u201cBring your own license\u201d or \u201cBYOL\u201d, which allowed you to use a license\nthat was already bought from Microsoft via an agreement or other. This has been\nrumored to expire on June 30, 2019. The software license that is included means\nthat you don’t need to purchase SQL Server licenses separately. AWS holds the\nlicense for the SQL Server database software. Amazon RDS pricing includes the\nsoftware license, underlying hardware resources, and Amazon RDS management\ncapabilities. The pricing will depend on the selections such as size, edition,\netc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following editions are supported in RDS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Enterprise<\/li>
- Standard<\/li>
- Web<\/li>
- Express<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Notice, Developer Edition is not included with RDS and\nWeb Edition supports only public and internet-accessible webpages, websites,\nweb applications, and web services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instance\nType<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can also choose from On-demand or reserved\ninstances. On-Demand DB Instances let you pay for compute capacity by the hour\nyour DB Instance runs with no long-term commitments. This frees you from the\ncosts and complexities of planning, purchasing, and maintaining hardware and\ntransforms what are commonly large fixed costs into much smaller variable\ncosts. This is good for development environments where you can power on and off\nthe server as it\u2019s being used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reserved Instances give you the option to reserve a DB\ninstance for a one or three year term and in turn receive a significant\ndiscount compared to the On-Demand Instance pricing for the DB instance. Amazon\nRDS provides three RI payment options — No Upfront, Partial Upfront, All\nUpfront — that enable you to balance the amount you pay upfront with your\neffective hourly price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can see more about on-demand vs reserved instances\nand pricing here: https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/rds\/sqlserver\/pricing\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RDS provides a selection of instance types optimized to\nfit different relational database use cases. Instance types comprise varying\ncombinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity and give you the\nflexibility to choose the appropriate mix of resources for your database. Each\ninstance type includes several instance sizes, allowing you to scale your\ndatabase to the requirements of your target workload. View more details here: https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/rds\/instance-types\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Storage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another item to look at when planning your deployment is\nstorage. RDS uses Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes for database\nand log storage. Depending on the amount of storage requested, Amazon RDS\nautomatically stripes across multiple Amazon EBS volumes to enhance\nperformance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RDS offers three different storage types:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General Purpose SSD \u2013 also called gp2, this storage type\noffers cost-effective storage that can be used for a broad range of different\nworkloads. These volumes deliver single-digit millisecond latencies and the\nability to burst to 3,000 IOPS for extended periods of time. I would recommend\nputting small to medium sized databases on this type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Provisioned IOPS \u2013 This storage type is designed for I\/O\nintensive workloads, particularly database workloads that require low I\/O\nlatency and consistent throughput. This is also built on SSD and targeted for\nIO intensive, high performance databases. Cost wise, this is the highest of the\nthree storage types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Magnetic \u2013 This storage type is mostly used for backward\ncompatibility. Amazon recommends using gp2 or Provisioned IOPS for any new\nbuilds. This is ideal for test and dev environments when performance isn\u2019t a\nconcern. This is the cheapest of the three storage types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See more about storage here: https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/AmazonRDS\/latest\/UserGuide\/CHAP_Storage.html<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Network<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
One more item to consider when planning the deployment\nis network connectivity. Applications will more than likely need to connect to\nyour RDS environment so there are a few import concepts to look at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Availability Zones \u2013 this is simply a data center in an AWS region. The following AWS regions exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-1.png\")
<\/a>RDS Availability Zones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Virtual Private Cloud \u2013 also called VPC, this is an\nisolated virtual network that can span multiple Availability Zones. It\u2019s used\nto group different types of resources to the network that need to talk to each\nother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Virtual Private Cloud \u2013 also called VPC, this is an isolated virtual network that can span multiple Availability Zones. It\u2019s used to group different types of resources to the network that need to talk to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DB Subnet Group \u2013 this is a collection of subnets inside a VPC that contains the RDS instance addresses. See more about VPC and DB subnet groups here: https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/AmazonRDS\/latest\/UserGuide\/USER_VPC.WorkingWithRDSInstanceinaVPC.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Create\nSQL Server RDS via AWS Console<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that we\u2019ve outlined some of the deployment planning\ntasks, let\u2019s build an instance through the AWS console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once inside the console, we\u2019ll click on RDS under the Database heading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-2.png\")
<\/a>RDS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Once we are on the home page for RDS, we can click Create Database under Get Started. There\u2019s also info for Pricing and costs and some documentation on getting started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-3-1024x631.png\")
<\/a>RDS Homepage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Notice in the top right corner is the Availability Zone in which you are logged into. In my case, I\u2019m logged into US East (Ohio) since I\u2019m on the Central Time Zone and Ohio is located closer to me than any other zone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-4.png\")
<\/a>RDS Availability Zone (selected)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n Back to the Select Engine page. For this post, I\u2019m going to install Microsoft SQL Server Express, but you can see the other database engine platforms that are available and the associated editions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-5.png\")
<\/a>RDS Database Platforms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Next page we can see some of our database details. There are all items we discussed in the planning deployment section above. License model, DB engine version, DB instance class, Time Zone, Storage Type and allocated storage are all configurable on this page. Below are my selections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-6.png\")
<\/a>RDS SQL Instance Specifications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Scroll down to Settings header and configure the DB instance identifier, Master username and password. The DB instance identifier is a unique name for your DB instances across the current region. For this RDS instance I\u2019ll name it SQLFreelancer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-7.png\")
<\/a>RDS Database Identifiers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n On the Advanced Settings page we\u2019ll configure Network and Security, Windows Authentication, Database Options such as port number, Encryption (where available), Backup retention, Monitoring, Performance Insights, Maintenance options, and Deletion protection. I\u2019m going to choose all the defaults for this post, but this is a page where you want to make sure you choose what is best for your environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-8.png\")
<\/a>RDS Database Advanced Settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Once you are finished on the Advanced Settings page, click Create Database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-9.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nNow how easy was that? Creating a new DB instance took about 2 minutes. Once your instance is created let\u2019s click on View DB Instance details:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-10.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sqlfreelancer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Building-SQL-Server-RDS-11-1024x518.png\")
<\/a>