ApsaraDB for RDS offers four editions: Basic Edition, High-availability Edition, Cluster Edition, and Enterprise Edition. This topic describes the Basic Edition.

In the Basic Edition, your database system consists of only one primary instance, and computing is separated from storage. This edition is cost-effective.

Note In the Basic Edition, the primary instance does not have a secondary instance as its hot backup. If the primary instance breaks down unexpectedly, is executing specification changes, or is updating its version, your database service may be unavailable for a long period of time. If you have strict requirements for service availability, we recommend that you select the High-availability, Cluster, or Enterprise Edition. Alternatively, you can upgrade the edition of your RDS instance from Basic to High-availability. For more information, see Upgrade to High-availability Edition.

The following figure shows a comparison between the Basic and High-availability Editions.

Benefits

Performance

No extra performance overhead is incurred because your primary instance does not need to replicate data to a secondary instance. This makes the Basic Edition perform better than the High-availability and Enterprise Editions with the same instance configuration.

Reliability

  • Computing is separated from storage. This prevents data losses in the event of failures on compute nodes.
    Note If you set the Backup Frequency parameter to Every 30 Minutes, you can restore data to a point in time within the last 30 minutes in the event of SSD damages or other unexpected failures. This applies only when you are running SQL Server with the Basic Edition. For more information, see Back up an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
    Compute-storage separation
  • The ultra-large Apsara distributed storage system of Alibaba Cloud is used to maintain multiple data copies that help ensure reliability.

Cost-effectiveness

Only one primary instance is deployed. This reduces the overall database cost by 50% compared with the High-availability Edition.

Features

The Basic Edition supports basic features such as IP address whitelist, monitoring and alerting, and backup and restoration. The Basic Edition does not support the following features:

For more information about the features that are supported by the Basic Edition, see Overview of ApsaraDB for RDS editions.

Scenarios

  • Small-sized websites and applications

    The cost-effective Basic Edition relieves the need for database operation and maintenance (O&M). You can focus only on your business development.

  • Personal learning

    If you are new with databases, you can use the Basic Edition for testing and learning.

  • Research and development (R&D)

    The Basic Edition allows you to create and release RDS instances anytime and anywhere. This greatly improves R&D efficiency.

Get started with the Basic Edition

The Basic Edition is supported for MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. For more information about creating and connecting to an RDS instance that is running the Basic Edition, see the following topics:

Upgrade to High-availability Edition

FAQ

  • Why does it take a long time to upgrade the Basic Edition of my RDS instance?

    In the Basic Edition, your database system consists of only one primary instance. When you upgrade the Basic Edition, your database system checks whether the physical server that hosts the primary instance provides sufficient resources. If the physical server does not provide sufficient resources, your database system replicates data to another suitable physical server and switches your database service to that physical server. This process takes a long time. In certain circumstances, your database service may be unavailable for more than 30 minutes. We recommend that you select the High-availability Edition, Enterprise Edition, or Cluster Edition (AlwaysOn Edition). These editions use the high-availability architecture, which allows you to replicate data from a secondary instance without incurring interruptions to your database service.

  • Why does the Basic Edition provide only a small number of features? And which features are supported by the Basic Edition?

    The Basic Edition provides only one primary instance. Features that are supported by the High-availability Edition, Cluster Edition, and Enterprise Edition are unavailable in the Basic Edition. The Basic Edition is suitable only in a small number of business scenarios. For more information about the features that are supported by the Basic Edition, see the following topics:

    Note The Basic Edition is not supported for PPAS and MariaDB.