ApsaraDB RDS:Create and delete a GAD instance group

Limits

When you create a GAD instance group, you must use an existing RDS instance that meets the following requirements as the primary instance of the GAD instance group. If no RDS instance meets these requirements, you must create an RDS instance before creating a GAD instance group. For more information, see Create an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.

• Billing method: The RDS instance uses the subscription or pay-as-you-go billing method.

• RDS edition: The RDS instance runs RDS High-availability Edition or RDS Cluster Edition.

• Database engine and engine version: The RDS instance runs MySQL 5.7 or MySQL 8.0.

• Instance type: The RDS instance uses an instance type that provides specifications higher than 2 cores and 4 GB.

• Storage capacity: The storage capacity of the RDS instance is greater than 50 GB.

• Regional Limitations:

  The primary and secondary instances must be deployed in different regions. Currently, the active geo-redundancy and DR features support the same regions, as listed below:

  • Mainland China: China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Shenzhen), China (Guangzhou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Heyuan), China (Chengdu)

  • China (Hong Kong)

  • Regions outside China: Thailand (Bangkok), South Korea (Seoul), Philippines (Manila), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London)

Usage notes

• An RDS instance can be added to only one GAD instance group as the primary or secondary instance.

• A GAD instance group can contain only one primary instance and up to four secondary instances.

Billing rules

The fees for a GAD instance group include the fee for the new RDS instance and the fee for the DTS data synchronization tasks. If you use an existing RDS instance to create a GAD instance group, no fees are generated for the existing RDS instance. If you want to use a new RDS instance to create a GAD instance group, fees are generated for the new RDS instance. For more information, see Billing rules.

Create a GAD instance group

1. On the Global Active Instances page, click Create Instance Group.

2. In the Create Global Active Instance Group dialog box, configure the following parameters:

   Parameter	Description
   Instance Group Name	The name of the instance group. We recommend that you specify an informative name. Naming conventions: The name must start with a letter or Chinese character and can contain digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-). It must be 2 to 126 characters in length.
   Instance Group Type	The type of the instance group. You can select a type as needed: Disaster Recovery: This option is suitable for cross-region DR and DR drills. If you select this option, the instance group consists of one primary instance and multiple secondary instances, supports primary/secondary switchovers, and uses one-way or two-way data synchronization between primary and secondary instances. LIve More: This option is suitable for cross-region multi-node read and write requests. If you select this option, the instance group consists of one primary instance and multiple secondary instances and uses two-way data synchronization between the primary and secondary instances to meet the requirements for the high concurrency of read and write requests and low access latency. For a detailed description of disaster recovery and multi-active types and their scenarios, see Global Multi-Active Database.
   Region Of Primary Instance	The region in which the primary instance resides. If you want to use a different region, change the region in the upper part of the ApsaraDB RDS console.
   Primary Instance	The RDS instance that you want to use as the primary instance in the specified region. If no primary instance is available in the current region, click Create Primary Instance to go to the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.

3. Click OK. You can view the created instance group on the Global Active Instances page. You can add a secondary instance to the instance group.

Delete a GAD instance group

1. Go to the Global Active Instances page.

2. Find the instance group that you want to delete and click Delete in the Actions column.

   Note

   If the Delete button is dimmed, the GAD instance group still contains a secondary instance. In this case, you must remove the secondary instance from the instance group.

3. Read the message that appears and click OK to delete the instance group.

FAQ

Q: Can I select a Serverless instance as the primary instance when creating an instance group?

A: You cannot directly set a Serverless instance as the primary instance when creating an instance group. However, RDS MySQL supports creating a Serverless secondary instance in both Disaster Recovery and Active Redundancy instance groups.

For Disaster Recovery instance groups, you can indirectly achieve the goal of using a Serverless instance as the primary instance by following these steps:

1. Create a Serverless secondary instance.

2. Then use the primary/secondary switchover feature to promote the Serverless secondary instance to be the primary instance of the group.

References

• Global Active-Active Database

• Create or delete a secondary instance

• View a instance group

• Perform primary/secondary switchovers for DR