Create a MySQL RDS from Scratch

Introduction

This article describes how to create an RDS MySQL instance from scratch using the AWS console. It also describes some of the properties required to obtain a functional instance.

Objective

Create a MySQL instance from scratch on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using RDS.

Pre-requisite

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

Steps to create a MySQL RDS Instance

Before starting, consider the following points:

• We will use the default VPC, so we don’t need to setup one
• Following the best practices, the RDS instance must not publicly accessible but for the purposes of this article it will be created public

1. Database Creation Method and Engine Version

Go to AWS console and navigate to RDS service, from the left panel select the “Databases” option and tap on the “Create database” button, then the create database page should be displayed. Leave the “Standard Create” option chosen and change to MySQL as the engine.

For the engine version, we will work with the 8.0.16 but if you need a specific version for compatibility reasons feel free to change it. Next, dropdown the “Version” options and choose “MySQL 8.0.16”

2. Template

Depending on the chosen option, in the next section, the default settings will be shown. To continue, select the “Dev/Test” option.

3. Settings

Specify the following properties:

• DB instance identifier: Set name to identify the DB instance
• Master username: A username that will be used to connect to the DB instance
• Auto-generate a password: Disable the option
• Master password: Choose a password to the user-specified above
• Confirm password: Retype the password

4. DB instance size and Storage

According to the computational, network, and memory capacity of the DB instance, select the “Burstable classes (includes t classes)” option and choose “db.t2.micro”. For the storage section, we can leave the default values.

5. Availability & durability

The “Multi-AZ deployment” option helps to maintain a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone, nevertheless, for the purpose of this article select "Do not create a standby instance".

6. Connectivity

In the “Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)” choose the Default VPC and drop down “Additional connectivity configuration” options:

• Subnet group: The DB subnet group for the VPC, select the Default option
• Publicly accessible: Choose “Yes”
• VPC security groups: Create a new VPC security group
• New VPC security group name: Choose a name to identify the new security group
• Availability zone: Select “No Preference”
• Database port: The port that will be used for connection to the DB. Leave in the default value “3306”

7. Database authentication

We use the password created in step 3 as an authentication method, thus selecting the “Password authentication” option.

The “Additional configuration” section can stay as default.

8. Create Database

One more time review the RDS instance configuration and once validated tap on “Create database” button, the instance creation process will immediately run and after a few minutes it should be ready.

Now is possible to connect to the database through a MySQL client, just use the generated endpoint as the "host" in the process of creation of the database, as well as the username and password.