🌩️ Day 27 of #90DaysOfCloud — Deploying a Managed MariaDB Database with AWS RDS

Today we explored one of AWS’s most powerful and time-saving services — Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service). By the end of the session, we deployed a MariaDB instance, connected from EC2 and a local client, and understood key features like backups, monitoring, and snapshots.

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📖 What Is AWS RDS?

Amazon RDS is a fully managed relational database service that allows developers to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud with minimal management effort.

✅ Key Benefits:

• Automated backups and patching

• Built-in high availability with Multi-AZ

• Easy scaling (vertically or via read replicas)

• Integrated monitoring via CloudWatch

• Supports multiple engines: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, Aurora

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🔧 Today’s Focus: Deploying MariaDB on RDS

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🧰 Tools & Services Used:

• AWS RDS (MariaDB)

• Amazon EC2 (Linux for testing connectivity)

• AWS VPC, Security Groups

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🪜 Step-by-Step RDS Setup (MariaDB)

✅ Step 1: Navigate to RDS

• Go to AWS Console → Services → RDS

• Click Create Database

✅ Step 2: Choose Engine

• Select MariaDB

• Engine version: Choose latest stable (e.g., MariaDB 10.6+)

✅ Step 3: Set Up Database

• DB Identifier: cloud-mariadb-db

• Master Username: admin

• Master Password: StrongPassword123

⚠️ Save these credentials safely.

✅ Step 4: Instance Settings

• DB instance class: db.t3.micro (Free tier)

• Storage: General Purpose (SSD), 20 GiB

• Enable autoscaling: Optional

✅ Step 5: Connectivity

• VPC: Choose default or custom

• Subnet group: Default

• Public access: Yes (for now; restrict in prod)

• VPC security group: Create new or use existing

  ✅ Allow port 3306 for:

  • Your IP (if connecting locally)

  • EC2 security group (for internal access)

✅ Step 6: Additional Configurations

• Backup: Enable automated backups (7 days)

• Monitoring: Enable Enhanced Monitoring (optional)

• Maintenance: Default settings

Click Create Database and wait 5–10 mins ⏳

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🌐 Step 7: Connect to RDS from EC2

bashCopyEdit# From EC2 instance (Amazon Linux)
sudo yum install mariadb -y

# Connect using the endpoint provided
mysql -h <RDS-ENDPOINT> -P 3306 -u admin -p

You’ll be prompted for the password → StrongPassword123

✅ Once connected:

sqlCopyEditCREATE DATABASE test_db;
USE test_db;
CREATE TABLE users (id INT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(50));
INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'Alice'), (2, 'Bob');
SELECT * FROM users;

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🔒 Step 8: Secure Access

• Remove public access if not needed

• Use IAM Database Authentication (optional)

• Enable Multi-AZ for production setups

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🧠 Why Use RDS Over EC2-Hosted DB?

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📸 Useful Screenshots to Include (Add in your blog):

✅ Best Practices

• Use parameter groups for tuning

• Enable CloudWatch alarms

• Rotate passwords securely

• Use RDS Snapshots before risky operations

• Disable public access for production

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📅 What’s Next?

Tomorrow is Day 28, and we’ll begin an exciting hands-on project:

🎯 Designing and Deploying a 3-Tier Web Architecture on AWS

We’ll integrate:

• Frontend (Web/App Layer)

• Backend (Logic Layer)

• Database (Data Layer – RDS)

Using EC2, ALB, Auto Scaling Groups, and RDS — to simulate real-world, scalable cloud architecture.

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📌 Summary

In today’s lab, I learned how to:

• Deploy a fully managed MariaDB instance using Amazon RDS

• Connect to it securely from EC2

• Run queries, create tables, and manage databases

• Compare RDS vs EC2-managed DBs

• Set up automated backups and monitoring