This topic describes RDS Basic Edition.

RDS Basic Edition is an inexpensive database solution that features decoupled compute and storage resources. RDS Basic Edition instances are deployed in a standalone architecture.

Important RDS Basic Edition does not provide a secondary instance that serves as a hot standby. When your RDS Basic Edition instance unexpectedly fails or you change the specifications or upgrade the database engine of the instance, your database service may become unavailable for an extended period of time. If you require high availability for your databases, we recommend that you select other RDS editions (such as RDS High-availability Edition) instead of RDS Basic Edition. Alternatively, you can upgrade your RDS instance from RDS Basic Edition to RDS High-availability Edition for instances of specific database engines. For more information, see Upgrade the edition of an RDS instance from RDS Basic Edition to RDS High-availability Edition.

The following figure shows a comparison between RDS Basic Edition and RDS High-availability Edition.

Benefits

Performance

The primary RDS instance does not need to replicate data to a secondary RDS instance. Therefore, no extra performance overheads are caused. When the same instance configuration is used, RDS Basic Edition provides higher performance than RDS High-availability Edition.

Reliability

  • Compute resources are decoupled from storage resources. This can prevent data loss when compute nodes fail.
    Note For example, if you set the log backup frequency to Every 30 Minutes for an RDS Basic Edition instance that runs SQL Server, you can restore data to a specific point in time that is within the last 30 minutes when the database fails due to cloud disk failure or other factors. For more information, see Back up an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
    Decoupled compute and storage resources
  • The reliability of your database service is ensured by the ultra-large Apsara distributed operating system of Alibaba Cloud that keeps multiple copies of your data.

Costs

RDS Basic Edition costs around 50% less than RDS High-availability Edition.

Features

RDS Basic Edition provides basic features, like IP address whitelist, monitoring and alerting, and backup and restoration. RDS Basic Edition does not provide the following features:

For more information about the features that are supported by RDS Basic Edition, see Overview of ApsaraDB RDS editions.

Scenarios

  • Small-sized websites and applications

    You can offload routine O&M tasks to Alibaba Cloud and focus on developing your applications.

  • Individual use

    RDS Basic Edition is suitable for first-time users who want to try out Alibaba Cloud's database offerings.

  • Research and development (R&D) and testing

    RDS Basic Edition features lightning-fast provision, allowing you to flexibly scale your database with your business requirements. This significantly improves R&D and testing efficiency.

Create an RDS Basic Edition instance

For more information about how to create RDS Basic Edition instances, see the following topics:

Get started with RDS Basic Edition

RDS Basic Edition supports MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. For more information about how to create and connect to RDS Basic Edition instances, see the following topics:

Upgrade the edition of an RDS instance from RDS Basic Edition to RDS High-availability Edition

You can upgrade the edition of an ApsaraDB RDS instance that runs MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server on RDS Basic Edition to RDS High-availability Edition. For more information, see the following topics:
Note Downgrade from RDS High-availability Edition to RDS Basic Edition is not supported.

FAQ

  • Why do database engine upgrades or specification changes on RDS Basic Edition instances take a long time to complete?

    RDS Basic Edition instances are deployed in a standalone architecture. When you upgrade the database engine or change the specifications of your RDS instance, ApsaraDB RDS checks whether the physical server on which the primary RDS instance resides can provide sufficient resources. If the physical server cannot provide sufficient resources, ApsaraDB RDS migrates the data of your database system to another physical server and switches your database service over to the new physical server. During the switch, you will lose connectivity to your RDS instance. In extreme circumstances, this interruption can last more than 30 minutes. We recommend that you select RDS Enterprise Edition or RDS Cluster Edition. These editions are based on the high-availability architecture. This architecture allows you to replicate data from the secondary RDS instance without impacts your workloads. This minimizes the downtime of your database system. For more information, see RDS High-availability Edition or RDS Cluster Edition.

  • Why does RDS Basic Edition provide fewer features than the other editions? Which features are provided in RDS Basic Edition?

    RDS Basic Edition provides only one primary RDS instance. Therefore, the features that are supported by RDS High-availability Edition and RDS Cluster Edition are unavailable in RDS Basic Edition. RDS Basic Edition is suitable in a small number of business scenarios. For more information about the features that are supported in RDS Basic Edition, see the following topics:

    Note RDS Basic Edition is not supported by ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instances.