Introduction to Amazon Aurora Service

Amazon Aurora is a worldwide relational database system available for the cloud that is fully compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Amazon Aurora is an AWS relational database engine. The engine is MySQL-compatible, meaning you can use code, applications, and drivers used in MySQL-based databases in Aurora. You can use all this with minor or no changes. 

Aurora records a minimum of 10 GB and automatically scales up to a maximum of 64 TB. The service divides a database’s volume into 10 GB chunks distributed across multiple discs. Each chunk is replicated six times across three Amazon Web Services availability zones.

Amazon Aurora tries to recover data from another availability zone if data in one availability zone fails. However, Aurora is also self-healing, which means it automatically scans data blocks and discs for errors.

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But, before proceeding any further let’s go through the topics that we will be covering in this article.

1. Aurora architecture
2. Working of Aurora
3. Aurora DB Cluster
4. Features of Aurora
5. Pricing of Aurora
6. Limitations of Aurora
7. Frequently asked questions

Amazon Aurora architecture

Amazon Aurora architecture emphasizes reusing components, making them more efficient and faster. Aurora reuses central working systems such as recovery and query execution. This saves memory and increases system efficiency. Amazon Aurora reuses major working systems such as recovery and query execution. This saves memory and increases system efficiency. Aurora architecture saves storage and time, resulting in improved and efficient output. Amazon Aurora has received some new enhancements, such as:

1. To ensure safe backups, it uses virtual storage and creates various data clones.
2. Keeping a changelog on a remote disc and prioritizing data accessibility constraints
3. Using a primary-replica configuration.

Working of Aurora

Aurora database clusters comprise a primary database, an Aurora replica database, and a cluster volume to store the data for those instances. Amazon Aurora cluster volume is a virtual database storage volume that spans multiple availability zones to support global applications better. Each zone has a copy of the database cluster information.

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All read and write operations on a cluster volume are performed in the primary database. Each Aurora cluster will have one primary database instance. Aurora will switch to a replica in a fail-safe mode when a primary database is unavailable.

Replicas aid in lowering the read workload on the primary database. Aurora, too, can have a multi-master cluster. All database instances in multi-master replication would have read and write access. They are referred to as reader and writer database instances in AWS terminology.

Aurora, too, can have a multi-master cluster. All database instances in multi-master replication would have read and write access. They are referred to as reader and writer database instances in AWS terminology. The user can configure Amazon S3 to keep a backup of its database.

This guarantees the security of the user’s database even when the entire cluster is down. In the case of an unpredictable workload, users can use Aurora Serverless to automatically start scaling and shutting down the database to meet application demand.

Aurora DB Cluster

Amazon Aurora DB cluster is a virtual database storage volume that spans multiple availability zones. Each Amazon Aurora Database Cluster consists of two or more database instances and a cluster volume that primarily manages the data for those database instances. The two types of DB instances that comprise an Amazon Aurora Cluster are as follows:

Primary database instance: This type of database instance supports read and write operations. It is responsible for all data changes to the cluster volume. There is only one primary DB instance in each Aurora DB cluster.

Aurora Replica: Aurora Replica, unlike the primary DB instance, only supports read operations. It has the same storage volume as the primary DB instance. You can achieve high availability by locating Aurora Replicas in different availability zones.

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Features of Amazon Aurora

There are many features of Amazon Arora. Some of those features are:

Fully managed

 RDS fully manages Aurora. The user no longer has to be concerned about database management tasks such as hardware provisioning or backups. Aurora subsequently and constantly screens and backs up the database to Amazon S3. This enables precise point-in-time recovery.

Migration support

Amazon Aurora’s MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility makes it a compelling choice for database migrations to the cloud. Users who want to move from MySQL can find a list of tools and options in the migration documentation. The user can use the AWS Database Migration Service to migrate from commercial database engines for a safe and minimally impacted migration.

Security

Aurora, among other things, provides various levels of protection to the database to improve it. During an encoded Amazon Aurora occurrence, data in the underlying storage gets encrypted. For administration, you can use Key Management Service(KMS) and use SSL for data encryption in transit. There are also automatic reinforcements, snapshots, and replications within the same cluster.

Performance and expandability

AWS Aurora has five times the throughput of regular MySQL. This performance is comparable to enterprise databases but at a fraction of the cost. The user can scale database preparation up to and down for smaller to larger instance varieties according to the user’s needs. The user can scale scan capacity and performance by adding up to fifteen low latency scan replicas spread across three convenience Zones.

Accessibility and serviceability

Built for the cloud, AWS Aurora includes fault-tolerant and self-healing storage. It has a remarkable 99.99 percent accessibility. The cloud storage replicates the six copies of information across 3 Availability Zones. AWS Aurora continuously backs up data for safety and as a precaution against storage failure.

Compatibility with MySQL and PostgreSQL

The Amazon Aurora database engine is fully compatible with existing MySQL and PostgreSQL open source databases. And compatibility for new releases is added regularly. This means the user can use standard MySQL or PostgreSQL tools or previews to migrate MySQL or PostgreSQL databases to Aurora. It also implies that users who use code, applications, drivers, and tools with existing databases can also use it.

Pricing of Aurora

Amazon Aurora charges based on the amount of storage used by the user as well as the total number of operations performed. Data storage is charged per GB, whereas operations are set per million.

There is no upfront cost, but some features, such as Backtrack, Snapshot Export, data transfer out of Aurora, and Global Database, may incur additional charges. MySQL and PostgreSQL prices are interchangeable. 

There are three types of the pricing available:

1. On-Demand Instances
2. Database Storage and Input Outputs
3. Global Database

Limitations of Amazon Aurora

Some of the limitations of Amazon Aurora are:

1. At the moment, MySQL-5.6.10 is supported, so if a user requires new features or wishes to use an older version of MySQL, they will be unable to do so.
2. Because Aurora only encourages InnoDB at the moment, the user cannot use MyISAM tables.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the constraints of Aurora Serverless v1 DB clusters?
A1. Aurora Serverless v1 DB clusters have a limitation in that you cannot export Aurora Serverless v1 snapshots to Amazon S3 buckets.

Q2. Which features does Aurora offer that RDS does not?
A2. Aurora outperforms RDS in terms of availability and durability.

Q3. Is Aurora a component of RDS?
A3. Yes, Amazon Aurora is managed entirely by Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS).

If you want to learn more about AWS resources, you can refer to the following articles:

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