When the current proxy configuration no longer fits your workload—because the specifications do not meet your business requirements or a large number of proxy nodes remain idle—you can switch the proxy type, adjust its CPU specifications, or change the number of proxy nodes without interrupting existing sessions.
When to make changes
Consider adjusting your database proxy configuration when you observe:
Many idle proxies: the current number of proxies exceeds demand, and you want to reduce overhead.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure that you have:
Database proxy enabled on the RDS instance. For more information, see Enable the database proxy feature.
What this operation changes
| Setting | Changeable here |
|---|---|
| Proxy type (general-purpose or dedicated) | Yes |
| Proxy specifications (CPU cores) | Yes |
| Number of proxy nodes | Yes |
Session behavior during a change
When a change takes effect, new sessions are routed to proxies with the updated configuration. Sessions on the original proxies are retained for up to 8 hours and go offline within the first maintenance window after that period. Idle connections on the original proxies are closed immediately.
We recommend performing changes during off-peak hours and making sure your application can automatically reconnect to the database service.
Choose proxy type and specifications
Each proxy node has a fixed unit specification of 2 CPU cores. The total specification equals the number of nodes multiplied by 2.
Example: 3 proxy nodes = 2 x 3 = 6 CPU cores total.
Capacity limits by proxy type
| Proxy type | Maximum specification |
|---|---|
| General-purpose | 16 CPU cores |
| Dedicated | 32 CPU cores |
Recommended number of proxy nodes
| Proxy type | Formula | Rounding |
|---|---|---|
| General-purpose | (Primary instance CPU cores + all read-only instance CPU cores) / 4 | Round up |
| Dedicated | (Primary instance CPU cores + all read-only instance CPU cores) / 8 | Round up |
Example: A primary RDS instance that runs RDS High-availability Edition with 8 CPU cores and one read-only instance with 4 CPU cores on a dedicated proxy:
(8 + 4) / 8 = 1.5 → rounded up to 2 proxy nodes → 2 x 2 = 4 CPU cores total.
For more information on the differences between general-purpose and dedicated database proxies, see What are database proxies?.
Change the database proxy configuration
Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region where the RDS instance resides. Find the instance and click its ID.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Database Proxy.
In the Basic Information section, click Modify Configuration.
In the dialog box that appears, configure Proxy Type and Proxy Specifications.
Configure Change Time and click OK.
API reference
| Operation | Description |
|---|---|
| ModifyDBProxyInstance | Changes the number of database proxies |
| DescribeDBProxy | Queries the details of a database proxy |