RDS Basic Edition - Product Introduction| Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

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

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

Note The Basic Edition does not provide a secondary RDS instance as a hot standby for the primary RDS instance. If the primary RDS instance unexpectedly exits, your database service may be unavailable for a long period of time. If you change the specifications or upgrade the database engine version of the primary RDS instance, your database service may also be unavailable for a long period of time. If you require high service availability, we recommend that you do not select the Basic Edition. For example, you can select the High-availability Edition. Some primary RDS instances support the upgrade from the Basic Edition to the High-availability Edition. For more information, see Upgrade an RDS instance to the High-availability Edition.

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

Benefits

Performance

The primary RDS instance does not need to replicate data to a secondary RDS instance. Therefore, no extra performance overheads are caused. When the same instance configuration is used, the Basic Edition provides higher performance than the High-availability Edition and the Enterprise Edition.

Reliability

Computing is separated from storage. This prevents data losses in the event of failures on the compute nodes.

Note If you set the Backup Frequency parameter to Every 30 Minutes, you can restore data to a specific point in time that is within the last 30 minutes in the event of SSD damages or other unexpected faults. This applies when you are using the SQL Server database engine with the Basic Edition. For more information, see Back up an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
The ultra-large Apsara distributed storage system of Alibaba Cloud is used to store multiple data copies. This ensures the reliability of your database service.

Cost-effectiveness

The Basic Edition reduces your overall costs by about 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:

Primary/secondary switchover
Cross-zone migration
Log management
Read-only instance

Note If the primary RDS instance runs the PostgreSQL database engine, all the created read-only RDS instances run the Basic Edition. However, if the primary RDS instance runs the PostgreSQL database engine with the Basic edition, no read-only RDS instances can be created.

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

Scenarios

Small-sized websites and applications
The Basic Edition is cost-effective and relieves the need for database operations and maintenance (O&M). You can focus only on your business development.
Personal learning
If you are new to ApsaraDB RDS, you can use the Basic Edition for testing and learning.
Research and development (R&D) and testing
The Basic Edition allows you to create and release RDS instances based on your business requirements. This significantly improves R&D and testing efficiency.

Create an RDS instance

For more information about how to create an RDS instance that runs the Basic Edition, see the following topics:

Get started with the Basic Edition

The Basic Edition is supported for MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. For more information about how to create and connect to an RDS instance that runs the Basic Edition, see the following topics:

Upgrade an RDS instance to the High-availability Edition

If an RDS instance runs MySQL 5.7, you can upgrade its edition from Basic to High-availability by changing the instance specifications. For more information, see Change the specifications of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
If an RDS instance runs SQL Server, you can upgrade its edition from Basic to High-availability by using the ApsaraDB RDS console. For more information, see Upgrade an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance from Basic Edition to High-availability Edition.

FAQ

Why does it require a long period of time to upgrade or change the specifications of my RDS instance that runs the Basic Edition?
In the Basic Edition, your database system consists of only one primary RDS instance. When you upgrade or change the specifications of the primary RDS instance, ApsaraDB RDS checks whether the physical host where the primary RDS instance resides can provide sufficient resources. If the physical server cannot provide sufficient resources, ApsaraDB RDS migrates the data of your database system to another suitable physical host and switches your database service over to the physical host. This process interrupts your database service. In extreme circumstances, your database service may be unavailable for more than 30 minutes. We recommend that you select the High-availability, Enterprise, or Cluster Edition. These editions are based on the high-availability architecture. This architecture allows you to replicate data from the secondary RDS instance during an upgrade or a specification change. This minimizes the downtime of your database system. For more information, see High-availability Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Cluster Edition.
Why does the Basic Edition provide only a small number of features? And which features are provided in the Basic Edition?
The Basic Edition provides only one primary RDS instance. Therefore, the features that are supported in 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 in the Basic Edition, see the following topics:
Note The Basic Edition is not supported for PPAS or MariaDB.