Create a MySQL RDS Backup and Restore

Introduction

This article describes how to create an RDS MySQL backup and restore it from the backup using the Amazon Web Services console.

Objective

Create a MySQL RDS backup and restore on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Pre-requisite

• You will need to get an account at AWS
• Basic knowledge of AWS services

Before we begin

Before starting, consider the following points:

• We will use the default VPC, so we don’t need to setup one
• An RDS instance must already be created (To create a new RDS instance, please refer to this article)
• Following the best practices, the RDS instance must not publicly accessible but for the purposes of this article it will be created public

Steps to create a MySQL RDS Backup

Creation of Database snapshot

Go to AWS console and navigate to RDS service, from the left panel select the “Databases” option. Select the database that you want to backup and click on “Actions” then on “Take snapshot” (Fig. 1).

In the next screen, just type a name for the snapshot and finally click on “Take Snapshot” (Fig. 2)

Next, you will be redirected to the Snapshots dashboard, it will show you the information of your snapshot, and the status will be “creating” (fig. 3).

After a few minutes, your snapshot will be created (the time it takes to create the snapshot depends on the size of your database).

Note: if your database is configured to Multi-AZ you will not suffer any I/O suspension since the backup is taken on the standby, otherwise you may suffer this issue.

Stpes To Restore a MySQL RDS Instance From a Snapshot

Restore from an existing snapshot

In RDS service click on Snapshots from the left menu.

Here will be listed all the snapshots that you have taken (fig. 3), select the one that you want to restore, and click on “Actions” and then on “Restore Snapshot” (fig. 4).

You will be redirected to the Restore DB Instance screen (it is really similar from where you created a new instance) and you have to input the characteristics and settings for the instance that will be created from the snapshot.

When you are satisfied with the specifications click on “Restore DB Instance”.

After this, you will be redirected to the Databases section and it will show that the new instance is being created, after a few minutes the instance will be up and running.