Amazon has announced managed databases for Lightsail, their lightweight and simplified virtual private server offering. The addition of managed databases intends to allow the creation of these databases on the Lightsail platform with a minimal amount of work and removes several everyday maintenance tasks from the user.
Managed databases provide the means for several common maintenance and security tasks right from the Lightsail console, for example, creating and recovering backups and snapshots, as well as troubleshooting issues right from the browser using logs and metrics. Initially, the introduction of managed databases comes with support for MySQL 5.6 and 5.7, while PostgreSQL 9.6 and 10 support will come later. The service competes with offerings like Azure Database from Microsoft and Cloud SQL from Google, and is now available in all regions where Lightsail is currently available.
Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-managed-databases-for-amazon-lightsail/
With this new service, Amazon is looking to simplify creating and maintaining databases, as highlighted by Jeff Bar, chief evangelist for AWS, where he also walks through the process of creating a new managed database:
Today we are making Lightsail even more useful by giving you the ability to create a managed database with a couple of clicks. This has been one of our top customer requests and I am happy to be able to share this news.
Lightsail provides a simplified platform for creating and managing VPS offerings, bills on an hourly basis, and comes with a virtual machine, SSD-based storage, data transfer, DNS management, a static IP, and of course now also includes a managed database. Moreover, Lightsail offers various templates including WordPress, Joomla, Magento and others, catering to the quick and effortless setup for a hosted environment. Several plans are available for Lightsail, each with its characteristics and constraints.
- Memory ranging from 512 MB to 8 GB.
- Processors with one to eight cores.
- A solid-state drive with 20 to 640 GB of storage.
- Data transfer allowances of 1 to 7 TB.
- Prices from $3.50 to $160 per month.
Managed databases also come in several tiers, with additional features for the higher priced plans such as increased compute and memory, options for high availability and data encryption.
Source: https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/
The costs of the managed databases come on top of those in the chosen Lightsail plan, allowing to mix and match these two. According to Gladys Rama, senior site editor at RCPmag.com, these tiered plans enable users to pick the option which best suits their needs.
Customers can choose among several plans for the configuration and price point that best suits their needs.
Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge the limitations and considerations when working with managed databases on Lightsail, to attain an optimal implementation of this new service.
- Engine Versions Managed databases support the two latest versions of MySQL, the same goes for other database engines as they are made available.
- High Availability In production, recommended to enforce the High Availability option to maintain a database footprint that spans two zones. In case switching between Standard and High Availability is needed, you can accomplish this through the usage of snapshots.
- Scaling Storage Realize scaling to a larger database instance by creating and restoring a snapshot.
- Data Transfer Data transfer to and from Lightsail instances in the same AWS region does not count against the usage that included in the plans.
