AWS: Clone RDS for separate EB instance - amazon-web-services

I want to create a copy of my production environment to use for staging on AWS. I'm using Rails with RDS.
I found this information on how to restore from an RDS Snapshot but I want it to be restored to a new RDS, essentially get a clone of the database. Then I want to use this db copy with a clone of an EB instance which I will configure similarly to the production server but with the staging environment.
Is there a way I can clone my whole db volume and use it as a new volume with the second EB instance?

The flow is to take a snapshot
Then from Action click Restore Snapshot option
And a new independent instance is created from the same snapshot

Related

Cloning one of the Database in AWS RDS in order to get a test DB

I am quiet new to AWS and trying to learn things. I currently have a live production environment and trying to create a test environment. I was able to create an image of an ec2 instance in AWS using the 'Create Image' option in the 'Actions'. Now I am trying to create an image/ duplicate of the RDS Database in AWS in a similar way. Is there any easy way to clone the database so that I don't change any data in the original database and perform modifications only in the test database. Thanks for all your help.
Probably worth reading up on creating snapshots and restoring from a snapshot.
To give you a quick summary; you will take a snapshot of your production RDS DB instance. Then you will launch a new DB instance from this snapshot.
As long as you don't need to launch the new instance in a separate AWS Account, the documentation should tell you all you need to know.

Amazon RDS: Backup and restore into new database on existing DB instance

I have a database hosted on Amazon RDS , which i need to take backup and create new database out of it. Being new, not sure how to do it. Tried doing from SSMS but it didnt work.
This is one of the top google results but there is some outdated information here.
You can enable sql native backup / restore for sql server in RDS, backup a single database to S3 and then restore that database to the same RDS instance with a new database name.
Steps for environment setup and performing the backup/restore:
Create an S3 bucket to store your native backups.
Enable Sql native backup by configuring a new option group for your RDS instance and adding the "SQLSERVER_BACKUP_RESTORE" option.
Executing a series of procedures in SSMS to run the backup and restore tasks:
exec msdb.dbo.rds_backup_database
#source_db_name='database_name', #s3_arn_to_backup_to='arn:aws:s3:::bucket_name/file_name_and_extension',
#overwrite_S3_backup_file=1;
exec msdb.dbo.rds_restore_database
#restore_db_name='database_name',
#s3_arn_to_restore_from='arn:aws:s3:::bucket_name/file_name_and_extension';
exec msdb.dbo.rds_task_status #db_name='database_name'
Note: I cannot find any announcement about removing this prior limitation:
You can't restore a backup file to the same DB instance that was used to create the backup file. Instead, restore the backup file to a new DB instance.
However, as of today, I can confirm restoring a native backup to the same instance works as you would expect.
You can do this in couple of easy steps using AWS console as well
Take RDS database snapshot. You might have already RDS snapshots. Check in AWS Console --> RDS --> Snapshots.
If you do not have snapshot, then RDS Instances --> Select the required instance--> Click on "Instance Action"--> Take Snapshot.
Then next Item is you have to create new RDS instance from this snapshot.
Go snapshots--> Select the snapshot you want to create instance. --> Click on "Snapshot actions" --> Restore snapshot.
In restore screen, for "DB Instance Identifier*", enter the name of new RDS instance.
There are certain restriction in restoring from snapshot like you can not change the size of the DB, version of software etc. New instance inherit these attributes from original database.
Take a look at the documentation for creating a DB snapshot and restoring from a DB snapshot.
I suppose you use SQL server RDS.
It is not clear if you want to restore database to the same instance or not.
Restoring backup on same instance under different name is not available in Amazon RDS
You can't restore a backup file to the same DB instance that was used to create the >backup file. Instead, restore the backup file to a new DB instance.
Troubleshooting part at
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/SQLServer.Procedural.Importing.html#SQLServer.Procedural.Importing.Native.Using.Poll
Also SQL Server native backup is not supported from SSMS in Amazon RDS since it requires to choose location for backup but in RDS you could not access OS resources.
There are few options:
1) Create another instance from snapshot,
2) if there are many databases and you want to restore only one, you need to enable SQLSERVER_BACKUP_RESTORE and use rds_backup_database to create a backup and rds_restore_database to restore it.
Prerequisite are to have S3 bucket and IAM account has access to S3 bucket
Steps should be:
change parameter SQLSERVER_BACKUP_RESTORE in option group. Be careful, it might require server reboot.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Appendix.SQLServer.Options.BackupRestore.html
call rds_backup_database in msdb database. Required parameters are database name and S3 bucket, optional are if you want to encrypt backup, overwrite backup with same name in S3 bucket, and back up type full or differential
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/SQLServer.Procedural.Importing.html#SQLServer.Procedural.Importing.Native.Using.Backup
Output of the procedure is task id and it can be used to check status of backup task.
exec msdb..rds_task_status #task_id= 5
After backup has been created, login to another instance and run rds_restore_database. Parameters are name of the database to restore and S3 bucket where the backup is located.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/SQLServer.Procedural.Importing.html#SQLServer.Procedural.Importing.Native.Using.Restore
If you want you can download backup file from S3 and restore it to SQL server on premise.
3) And the longest one if you want to have both database on same instance, to script database, create under different name and export data to the new database
The whole process is described here
UPDATE: Amazon allowed to restore database on the same instance where backup was created.
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/10/amazon-rds-for-sql-server-enhances-backup-and-restore-capabilities/

Create a testing copy for EC2 + EB instance

I've my application setup on AWS (EB and EC2). My database is PostgreSQL and it is stored in the EBS service provided by AWS.
I'm going to push a major change to my application (including invasive migrations), to ensure that I don't end up losing data I want to create a copy of my whole application and update the code for that.
The steps I have till now:
Clone an EB instance
Create a snapshot of my EBS and use that to create a new volume
Update the configuration settings of my EB instance to point to the new volume and deploy the new code to the EB instance
I can't find proper documentation for how to do these things on AWS so I'm looking for some confirmation about the steps I have ensure that I don't end up wrecking something.
So the way it works, you create snapshot, create a new EC2 with Disk restored from that snapshot and you have a new EC2 running instance with same DB.
But I would suggest if possible stop the postgresql or the instance before taking a snapshot, this will ensure the state of the DB is intact.
The two EC2 instances will have no relation and changes made in one DB will not impact the other.

Restoring an Elastic Beanstalk RDS

When rebuilding an elastic beanstalk environment, EB automatically recreates a new and associated RDS instance.
Once associated, RDS instances cannot be dissociated from an EB environment.
I have a snapshot of the previous RDS prior to the rebuild.
You cannot restore RDS snapshots to an existing RDS instance.
How then, can I rebuild the environment with my desired snapshot attached? Or, how can I use my existing snapshot, or how can I migrate the existing snapshot data to the new database (I tried a data export with create schema's but lacked permissions on the import). Any appropriate but ideally simple option will do.
If you have a snapshot of your RDS DB, you can create a new environment with it. For this, you need to specify the DBSnapshotIdentifier option setting.
Create a file .ebextensions/rds_builder.config in the root of your project
Add the following:
option_settings:
aws:rds:dbinstance:
DBSnapshotIdentifier: <snapshot ID here>
EDIT:
You can also create a new environment using a saved configuration template of the present one. It is likely that this saved template will contain information in the aws:rds:dbinstance (since you have associated your present environment with an RDS), so you would need to basically modify this bit to point to your snapshot. This should work, and is probably the better approach.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk Backup & Recovery

I am new to AWS EB and I am trying to figure out how to backup and restore an entire EB environment. I created an AMI based on the EC2 instance generated by EB, and took a snapshot of RDS, also created by EB.
The problem I have is, how do I restore it, assuming that this is the correct approach of backup. Also, I am doing it manually, shouldn't there be an automated way of doing this within EB? By the way, when I created the AMI, it destroyed the source and the EB just created a new EC2 instance without all my changes.
How do I save & restore configuration changes to my application that impact both filesystem and database?
Unfortunately, Amazon AWS Elastic Beanstalk (EB) does not support restoring databases that contain live data, if those databases were created with EB. If you reload (AKA AWS "deploy") the EB saved configuration, you get a blank database!
I called them and they told me to create the RDS DB separately and update the application code to connect to the DB once you know it's name. If you restore the RDS DB it will have a new name too! So you have to update your code again to connect to it.
Also, if you code and environment is fine, but you want to restore your database, again it will have a new name and you will need to change your code.
How to change your code easily and automatically deploy it is a whole other question for which I don't have an answer yet.
So basically the RDS DB provisioning within Elastic Beanstalk has very limited uses, maybe coding and debugging and testing, but not live production use. :(
This is as of Jan 2015.
First go into your EB environment and save the current config. You should go to a running EC2 instance created by EB and make an Image. Then use that new AMI ID by going to the EB configuration and setting it. It will rebuild the environment tearing down all running instances and creating new ones.
For your RDS instance you should make a backup and restore with a new instance name as the docs say you will lose it if the environment is destroyed. You should probably just manually set the environment variables like RDS does and setup the proper security groups between RDS and EC2.
One option I think could work is just renaming the RDS instance name as the environment seems to break and then destroy the environment and create a new one with an attached RDS instance and then destroy that one and rename the old one to the new one's name which may work.
As always make proper backups before proceeding with any of these ideas.