Create an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance - ApsaraDB RDS

You can create an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance in the ApsaraDB RDS console or by calling an API operation. This topic describes how to create an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance in the ApsaraDB RDS console.

Prerequisites

The AliyunRDSFullAccess policy is attached to the RAM user that you use to create the RDS instance. For more information, see Use RAM for resource authorization.

Create an RDS instance

Step 1: Configure basic settings

Go to the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.

Configure the Billing Method parameter.


Billing method	Description	Benefit
Subscription	A subscription RDS instance is an instance for which you pay an upfront fee. If you want to use an RDS instance for a long period of time, we recommend that you select the Subscription billing method. If you select the subscription billing method, configure the Duration parameter in the lower-left corner of the page.	In most cases, the subscription billing method is more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go billing method for long-term usage. Alibaba Cloud provides lower prices for longer subscription durations.
Pay-as-you-go	You are charged on an hourly basis for a pay-as-you-go RDS instance based on your actual resource usage. If you want to use an RDS instance for a short period of time, we recommend that you select the Pay-As-You-Go billing method. You can create a pay-as-you-go RDS instance. After you confirm that the new RDS instance meets your business requirements, you can change the billing method of the RDS instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.	You can release a pay-as-you-go RDS instance based on your business requirements. The billing cycle of a pay-as-you-go RDS instance immediately stops after you release the RDS instance.
Serverless	If you want to run scheduled tasks, your business workloads frequently change, or the business workloads are fully managed or do not require O&M, we recommend that you select Serverless. Note For more information about how to create a serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance, see Create a serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance. For more information about serverless RDS instances, see Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances.	If you select serverless, you are charged based on your consumption of resources for workloads. This can help reduce costs.

Note You can view the price in the lower-right corner of the page. The price is displayed only after you configure all required parameters.

Configure the Region parameter.
Select the region in which you want to create the RDS instance. We recommend that you select the region of the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance on which your application is deployed. If the RDS instance and the ECS instance reside in different regions, you cannot connect these instances over an internal network. In this case, these instances cannot deliver optimal performance.
Note
- After an RDS instance is created, you cannot change the region of the RDS instance. If an ECS instance connects to an RDS instance over an internal network, make sure that the RDS instance and the ECS instance reside in the same region.
- If your application is deployed on an on-premises server or on-premises computer, we recommend that you select a region that is near your on-premises server or on-premises computer. This way, you can use the public endpoint of the RDS instance to connect to the RDS instance from your application.

Configure the Database Engine, Edition, Architecture, and Storage Type parameters.

Configure the Database Engine parameter.
Select Microsoft SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, and SQL Server 2019 are supported.
Note
- The available database engines and versions vary based on the region that you select.
- RDS instances that run SQL Server Basic and SQL Server Web can reside in the classic network and virtual private clouds (VPCs). RDS instances that run other SQL Server editions can reside only in VPCs, and you must configure the VPC and vSwitch of Primary Node parameters.

Configure the Edition parameter.


RDS edition	Description	Benefit
Basic	In RDS Basic Edition, the database system consists of only a primary RDS instance.	RDS Basic Edition is cost-effective and is suitable for learning and testing scenarios. Note RDS instances that run RDS Basic Edition require a long period of time to restart or recover from faults.
High-availability	This is the recommended RDS edition. In RDS High-availability Edition, the database system consists of a primary RDS instance and a secondary RDS instance. The primary and secondary RDS instances work in high availability mode. You can create read-only RDS instances and attach the read-only RDS instances to the primary RDS instance.	RDS High-availability Edition is suitable for production environments and is suitable for more than 80% of business scenarios.

Note

The available RDS editions vary based on the region and database engine that you select.
For more information, see Overview of ApsaraDB RDS editions.

Configure the Storage Type parameter.


Item	ESSD
Scalability	You can increase the storage capacity up to 32 TB. No transient connections occur during storage capacity expansion. You can upgrade, downgrade, create, or release the RDS instance in minutes. Automatic storage expansion is supported.
Performance	PL1<PL2<PL3 An enhanced SSD (ESSD) of performance level 2 (PL2) delivers twice the IOPS and throughput of an ESSD of PL1. An ESSD of PL3 delivers IOPS that is up to 20 times the IOPS delivered by an ESSD of PL1. An ESSD of PL3 also delivers throughput that is up to 11 times the throughput delivered by an ESSD of PL1.
Backup	A backup can be completed within minutes or seconds. The highest backup frequency is one backup every 15 minutes.

Note

If you set the Edition parameter to High-availability and select the ESSD storage type, you can select Disk Encryption to enhance the security of your data. For more information, see Configure disk encryption for an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
For more information about storage types, see Storage types.

Select a zone for the RDS instance.Then, configure the Deployment Method parameter.
- Select a zone.
  - All zones in a region provide the same services.
  - If the RDS instance resides in the same zone as the ECS instance on which your application is deployed, these instances can deliver optimal performance. If the RDS instance and the ECS instance reside in different zones in the same region, the performance of the RDS instance and the ECS instance is slightly lower than the performance of the RDS instance and the ECS instance that reside in the same zone.
- Select a deployment method.
  - Multi-zone Deployment: This is the recommended deployment method. The primary RDS instance and the secondary RDS instance reside in different zones to provide cross-zone disaster recovery.
    If you set the Deployment Method parameter to Multi-zone Deployment, you must configure the Zone of Primary Node and Zone of Secondary Node parameters.
  - Single-zone Deployment: The primary RDS instance and the secondary RDS instance reside in the same zone.
    If you set the Edition parameter to Basic, only the Single-zone Deployment method is supported.
  Note
  If your database system consists of primary and secondary RDS instances, we recommend that you select Multi-zone Deployment to implement cross-zone disaster recovery.
  If Sold Out appears in the upper-right corner of a zone name, this zone does not have sufficient resources. In this case, you must switch to another zone.

Configure the Instance Type parameter.

Configure the Category parameter. You can select General-purpose or Dedicated.


Instance family	Description	Benefit
General-purpose	A general-purpose RDS instance occupies all the allocated memory and I/O resources. A general-purpose RDS instance shares CPU and storage resources with other general-purpose RDS instances that are deployed on the same host.	General-purpose RDS instances are cost-effective.
Dedicated	A dedicated RDS instance occupies all the allocated CPU, memory, storage, and I/O resources. Note The dedicated host instance family is the highest configuration of the dedicated instance family. A dedicated host RDS instance occupies all CPU, memory, storage, and I/O resources of the host on which the RDS instance is deployed.	A dedicated RDS instance provides higher performance and higher stability. Note An RDS instance that runs RDS Basic Edition does not support the dedicated instance family.

Configure detailed specifications, such as the number of CPU cores, memory capacity, maximum number of connections, and maximum IOPS.
Note For more information, see Primary ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance types.

Configure the Capacity parameter.
The storage capacity of the RDS instance. The storage capacity is used to store data files, system files, archived log files, and transaction files. The valid values of the Capacity parameter vary based on the values of the Storage Type and Instance Type parameters that you specify. You can adjust the storage capacity at a step size of 5 GB.
Note If you select the local SSD storage type, the storage capacity of the RDS instance may vary based on the instance type. If you select the standard SSD or ESSD storage type, the storage capacity of the RDS instance does not vary based on the instance type. For information about how to connect to a host, see Primary ApsaraDB RDS instance types.
Optional. If you set the Billing Method parameter to Subscription, configure the Duration parameter based on your business requirements.
In the lower-right corner of the page, click Next: Instance Configuration.

Step 2: Configure advanced settings

Configure the Network Type parameter.
1. The network type is fixed as VPC.
2. Configure the VPC and vSwitch of Primary Node parameters.
  We recommend that you select the same VPC in which your ECS instance resides for the RDS instance. If the RDS instance and the ECS instance reside in different VPCs, these instances cannot communicate over an internal network.
  Note
  You can connect the RDS instance and the ECS instance over an internal network even if the instances use different vSwitches in the same VPC.
  If you set the Deployment Method parameter to Multi-zone Deployment in the Basic Configurations step, you must also configure the vSwitch of Secondary Node parameter.
3. Configure the Add to Whitelist parameter to specify whether to add the CIDR block of the selected VPC to a whitelist of the RDS instance.
  If you select Yes for the Add to Whitelist parameter, the ECS instances that reside in the selected VPC can access the RDS instance.
  Note If you select No for the Add to Whitelist parameter, you can configure a whitelist after the RDS instance is created. For more information, see Configure an IP address whitelist for an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
4. Configure the Port parameter.
  Valid values: 1000 to 5999. You can initialize the port when you create the RDS instance.
Configure the Release Protection parameter.
If you set the Billing Method parameter to Pay-As-You-Go, you can select Release Protection to prevent the RDS instance from being released due to unintended operations. For more information, see Enable or disable the release protection feature for an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
Configure the Resource Group parameter.
Use the default resource group or select a custom resource group based on your business requirements.
Configure the Privileged Account parameter.
You can create a privileged account when you create the RDS instance. If you select Later, you can create a privileged account after the RDS instance is created.
Note
- Each RDS instance can have only one privileged account. The privileged account cannot be deleted.
- For more information about privileged accounts and how to create privileged accounts, see Create a database and an account on an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
In the lower-right corner of the page, click Next: Confirm Order.

Step 3: Confirm the order

Confirm the configuration of the RDS instance in the Parameters section, configure the Purchase Plan and Duration parameters, read and select Terms of Service, and then click Pay Now. You must configure the Duration parameter only if you select the subscription billing method for the RDS instance.
Note If you select the subscription billing method for the RDS instance, we recommend that you select Auto-Renew Enabled. This way, you can prevent interruptions to your workloads even if you forget to renew the RDS instance.
View the RDS instance.
Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides. Then, find the RDS instance based on the Creation Time.
Note ApsaraDB RDS requires 1 to 10 minutes to create an RDS instance. You can refresh the page to view the new RDS instance.

What to do next

FAQ

After I submit the order for purchasing an RDS instance, why does the ApsaraDB RDS console not respond and why am I unable to find the RDS instance that is in the Creating state?


Cause	Description	Suggestion
Incorrect region	The RDS instance does not reside in the region that you selected in the top navigation bar of the ApsaraDB RDS console.	In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides.
Insufficient resources	The zone that you selected cannot provide sufficient resources. If the RDS instance still cannot be created, you can go to the Orders page in the Billing Management console to view the refund.	Select a different zone and try again.
RAM policies that do not allow users to create unencrypted RDS instances	RAM policies that do not allow users to create unencrypted RDS instances are attached to a RAM user. If you use the credentials of the RAM user to create an RDS instance that uses local SSDs, the RDS instance cannot be created. When you create an RDS instance that uses local SSDs, you cannot enable disk encryption. If you use the credentials of the RAM user to create an RDS instance that uses standard SSDs or ESSDs and you do not enable disk encryption for the RDS instance, the RDS instance cannot be created. For more information, see Use RAM policies to manage the permissions of RAM users on ApsaraDB RDS instances.	When you create an RDS instance, select the standard SSD or ESSD storage type, select Disk Encryption, configure the Key parameter, and then try again.

References

For more information about how to create an RDS instance by calling an API operation, see Create an instance.
For more information about how to create an RDS instance that runs a different database engine, see the following topics: