This topic provides an overview of ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL and introduces related terms.

ApsaraDB RDS is a stable, reliable, and scalable online database service that is built on top of the Apsara Distributed File System and high-performance SSDs of Alibaba Cloud. ApsaraDB RDS supports the MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB database engines. ApsaraDB RDS provides a complete suite of solutions for various scenarios, such as disaster recovery, backup, restoration, monitoring, and migration, to facilitate database O&M. For more information about the benefits of ApsaraDB RDS, see Competitive advantages of ApsaraDB RDS instances over self-managed databases.

If your workloads are complex, you can purchase a support plan to obtain exclusive support provided by instant messaging (IM) enterprise groups, technical account managers (TAMs), and service managers.

For more information about ApsaraDB RDS, visit the ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL product page .

Declaration

Some features or functions that are described in this document may be unavailable. The specific terms and conditions in your commercial contract shall prevail. This document serves as a user guide that is for reference only. Content in this document is provided without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied.

RDS MySQL

ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL is developed based on a branch of MySQL source code and provides excellent performance. ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL is a tried and tested solution that handled large volumes of concurrent traffic during Double 11. ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL provides basic features such as whitelist configuration, backup and restoration, Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), data migration, and management of instances, accounts, and databases. ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL also provides the following advanced features:

  • ApsaraDB MyBase dedicated clusters: An ApsaraDB MyBase dedicated cluster consists of multiple hosts, such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances of the ecs.i2.xlarge instance type and ECS Bare Metal instances. You can deploy RDS instances on these hosts based on your business requirements. For more information, see What is ApsaraDB MyBase?
  • Read-only RDS instances: If the primary RDS instance is overwhelmed by a large number of read requests, your workloads may be interrupted. In this case, you can create one or more read-only RDS instances to offload read requests from the primary RDS instance. For more information, see Create a read-only ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance. Read-only RDS instances help increase the read capability of your database system and the throughput of your application.
  • Read/write splitting: The read/write splitting feature provides a read/write splitting endpoint. This endpoint connects to the primary RDS instance and all of the read-only RDS instances to establish an automatic read/write splitting link. For more information, see Read/write splitting. An application can connect to the read/write splitting endpoint to read and write data. Write requests are forwarded to the primary RDS instance while read requests are forwarded to read-only RDS instances based on their weights. To increase the reading capability of your database system, you need to only add more read-only RDS instances.
  • Database proxy: A database proxy uses dedicated computing resources to provide more advanced features, such as read/write splitting, short-lived connection optimization, and transaction splitting. For more information, see What are database proxies?
  • Database Autonomy Service (DAS): DAS supports intelligent diagnostics and optimization based on various metrics. These metrics include SQL execution performance, CPU utilization, input/output operations per second (IOPS) utilization, memory usage, storage usage, number of connections, locks, and hotspot tables. DAS allows you to identify existing and potential issues that may compromise the health of your database system. For more information, see DAS overview. DAS also provides details and solutions for the identified issues. This facilitates instance maintenance.

ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL supports only two storage engines: InnoDB and X-Engine. For more information, see Features of ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances.

Basic terms

  • Instance: An RDS instance is a database process that consumes independent physical memory resources. You can specify a specific memory size, storage capacity, and database type for an RDS instance. The performance of an RDS instance varies based on the specified memory size. After an RDS instance is created, you can change its specifications or delete the instance.
  • Database: A database is a logical unit that is created on an RDS instance. One RDS instance can have multiple databases. Each database must have a unique name on the RDS instance on which the database created.
  • Region and zone: Each region is a physical data center. Each region has multiple isolated locations known as zones. Each zone has its own independent power supply and network. For more information, see Global infrastructure of Alibaba Cloud.

General terms

TermDescription
On-premises databaseA database that is deployed in a data center or a database that is not deployed on an ApsaraDB RDS instance.
ApsaraDB RDS for XX (XX represents one of the following database engines: MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB.)ApsaraDB RDS with a specific database engine. For example, ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL indicates an ApsaraDB RDS instance that runs MySQL.