Cost-Effective Disaster Recovery Options for AWS RDS Databases

When planning a cost-saving disaster recovery (DR) solution for your AWS RDS database, it’s essential to consider options that provide the best balance of Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO), cost, and scope. Here are a few solutions, compared below:

In this guide, we’ll focus on the Automated Backups option. In January 2024, AWS introduced a significant enhancement for RDS disaster recovery: cross-region replication of automated backups. This new feature, supported by most AWS regions, simplifies recovery in case of regional outages, providing seamless disaster recovery capabilities.

Key Benefits of Cross-Region Automated Backups

• Disaster Recovery: Cross-region automated backups allow customers to restore their database to a specific point in time in a secondary region if the primary region becomes unavailable.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Pricing is based on the storage equivalent of Amazon S3 and data transfer rates across regions. Customers only pay for the storage and data transfer associated with the backup replication.

Note: Within the same region, automated backups are enabled by default for RDS instances.

How to Set Up Cross-Region Automated Backups with KMS Encryption

To enable cross-region automated backups, follow these steps:

1. Create a Multi-Region KMS Key in the Target Region:

   • In the AWS KMS Console, go to the target region where you want the backups replicated.
   • Create a new KMS key and enable multi-region functionality.
   • Assign Administrator and User roles as needed to control access to the key.

2. Configure Automated Backups on the Source Database:

   • In the AWS RDS Console for your source region, navigate to the Automated Backups section.
   • Select the relevant DB instance, click on Actions, and choose Enable Cross-Region Automated Backups.
   • Provide the ARN of the KMS key created in step 1 to secure your backups in the target region.

1. Verify Replication:
   • In the target account’s RDS console, navigate to Automated Backups. You should now see the cross-region replication process started for the selected database.

This setup ensures that your RDS backups are securely replicated across regions, providing a robust and cost-effective disaster recovery solution. With cross-region automated backups, you’re well-prepared to restore your database in an alternative region with minimal downtime.

For more details on configuring cross-region backups, consult the AWS RDS documentation.

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