Starting December 4, 2025 (Singapore Time), DuckDB-based analytical primary instances are available for ApsaraDB RDS.
Release date
December 4, 2025 (Singapore Time)
Introduction
DuckDB-based analytical primary instances deeply integrate the DuckDB engine into the MySQL kernel. With columnar storage and vectorization at their core, these instances improve analytical query performance by over 100 times compared to the MySQL InnoDB engine. They also use columnar storage compression to reduce storage costs. These instances retain all basic features of RDS for MySQL and are compatible with the MySQL ecosystem. You can use them just like regular RDS for MySQL instances to benefit from powerful transaction support and real-time data analytics, which helps accelerate data-driven decisions for your business.
Advantages
High-performance analytics: The built-in DuckDB engine supports features such as columnar storage, vectorized execution, efficient memory management, and parallel processing. These features improve complex query performance by over 100 times compared to standard MySQL.
Highly compatible with MySQL: The instance is fully compatible with the MySQL protocol, syntax, and data types. It supports transactions at the Snapshot Isolation level and uses MySQL binary logging (binlog) for data replication between primary and secondary instances to ensure data reliability and consistency.
Low storage cost: The columnar storage technology is used to provide a high data compression ratio. A DuckDB-based analytical primary instance uses over 50% less disk space than an instance that uses the InnoDB engine.
Secure and reliable: The instance uses a cluster architecture that supports automatic failover to ensure business continuity. The kernel is crash-safe to ensure data durability in extreme scenarios. The instance also supports a reliable backup and recovery mechanism that lets you perform a point-in-time restore.
Simple architecture: The instance uses the same database kernel as RDS for MySQL and has no external component dependencies.
Deployment modes
Major engine version: MySQL 8.0.
Billing method: Pay-as-you-go and subscription.
Edition: Based on the RDS Cluster Edition architecture with one primary node and multiple secondary nodes. This architecture supports automatic failover. All secondary nodes are read-only. You can add or remove nodes as needed.
Storage type: Premium ESSD (storage capacity range: 20 GB to 128,000 GB).
Differences between DuckDB-based analytical primary instances and read-only instances
DuckDB-based analytical primary instance
Definition: A standalone database instance that is similar to a regular RDS for MySQL primary instance. This type is available for RDS Cluster Edition and deployed with multiple standby nodes that can handle read requests.
Core features:
It retains all basic features of a regular RDS for MySQL instance and is compatible with related tools and ecosystems. For more information, see Overview of a DuckDB-based analytical primary instance.
It deeply integrates the DuckDB analytical engine into the MySQL kernel. It uses columnar storage and vectorization as its core technologies to provide both strong support for transactions and high-performance complex analytical processing capabilities.
DuckDB-based analytical read-only instance
Definition: A type of read-only instance that is attached to a regular RDS for MySQL instance that runs High-availability Edition.
Core features:
Seamless data flow: It uses native replication based on binary logging (binlog) to automatically synchronize data and transform table schemas. This eliminates the need to maintain a separate data synchronization link.
Integrated HTAP: It supports analytical requests through direct connections to the DuckDB-based analytical read-only instance or by automatically routing requests to the instance through a database proxy. This architecture provides integrated hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP) capabilities. This ensures the transactional processing (TP) performance of the primary instance and improves the efficiency of data analytics.
Comparison item | DuckDB-based analytical primary instance | DuckDB-based analytical read-only instance | RDS for MySQL read-only instance | OLAP database | |
Scenario | Complex analytic queries | Complex analytic queries | Transaction processing | Complex analytic queries | |
Analytic query performance | Strong | Strong | Weak | Strong | |
Data synchronization method | DTS data synchronization link | Native replication based on binary logging | Native replication based on binary logging | DTS data synchronization link | |
MySQL compatibility | Data type | Fully compatible | Fully compatible | Fully compatible | Incompatible (requires field mapping) |
SQL syntax | Highly compatible (> 99.9%) | Highly compatible (>99.9%) | Fully compatible | Incompatible (requires SQL rewrite) | |
DDL | Highly compatible | Highly compatible (supports automatic rebuilding) | Fully compatible | Partially compatible | |
O&M costs | Low | Low | Low | High | |
Deployment model | Standalone deployment | Attached to a regular RDS for MySQL instance | Attached to a regular RDS for MySQL instance | Standalone deployment | |
Supported edition | Cluster Edition | High-availability Edition | Basic Edition, High-availability Edition | - | |
Billing
Billing for DuckDB-based analytical primary instances is the same as for standard RDS for MySQL instances. The cost is affected by factors such as the product series, instance type, storage class, and storage size. For specific pricing, see the buy page.
Create a DuckDB-based analytical primary instance
For more information, see Create and connect to a DuckDB-based analytical primary instance.
References
Instance types for DuckDB-based analytical primary instances
Synchronize data from an RDS for MySQL instance to a DuckDB-based analytical primary instance
Release or unsubscribe from a DuckDB-based analytical primary instance
Change the configuration of a DuckDB-based analytical primary instance
Set the parameters of a DuckDB-based analytical primary instance