Amazon RDS - Online only when needed? - amazon-web-services

Question

I had a question about Amazon RDS. I only need the database online for about 2 hours a day but I am dealing with quite a large database at around 1gb.
I have two main questions:
Can I automate bringing my RDS database online and offline via scripts to save money?
When I put a RDS offline to stop the "work hours" counter running and billing me, when I bring it back online will it still have the same content (i.e will all my data stay there, or will it have to be a blank DB?). If so, is there any way around this rather than backing up to S3 and reimporting it every time?

Answer 1

If you wish to do this programatically,
Snapshot the RDS instance using rds-create-db-snapshot http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/CommandLineReference/CLIReference-cmd-CopyDBSnapshot.html
Delete the running instance using rds-delete-db-instance http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/CommandLineReference/CLIReference-cmd-DeleteDBInstance.html
Restore the database from the snapshot using rds-restore-db-instance-from-db-snapshot http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/CommandLineReference/CLIReference-cmd-RestoreDBInstanceFromDBSnapshot.html
You may also do all of this from the AWS Web Console as well, if you wish to do this manually.

Answer 2

You can start EC2* instances using shell scripts, so I guess that you can as well for RDS.
(see http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS....html)
But unlike EC2*, you cannot "stop" an RDS instance without "destroying" it. You need to create a DB snapshot when terminating your database. You will use this DB snapshot when re-starting the database.
*EC2 : Elastic Computing, renting a virtual server or a server.

Answer 3

Here's a script that will stop/start/reboot an RDS instance
#!/bin/bash
# usage ./startStop.sh lhdevices start
INSTANCE="$1"
ACTION="$2"
# export vars to run RDS CLI
export JAVA_HOME=/usr;
export AWS_RDS_HOME=/home/mysql/RDSCli-1.15.001;
export PATH=$PATH:/home/mysql/RDSCli-1.15.001/bin;
export EC2_REGION=us-east-1;
export AWS_CREDENTIAL_FILE=/home/mysql/RDSCli-1.15.001/keysLightaria.txt;
if [ $# -ne 2 ]
then
echo "Usage: $0 {MySQL-Instance Name} {Action either start, stop or reboot}"
echo ""
exit 1
fi
shopt -s nocasematch
if [[ $ACTION == 'start' ]]
then
echo "This will $ACTION a MySQL Instance"
rds-restore-db-instance-from-db-snapshot lhdevices
--db-snapshot-identifier dbStart --availability-zone us-east-1a
--db-instance-class db.m1.small
echo "Sleeping while instance is created"
sleep 10m
echo "waking..."
rds-modify-db-instance lhdevices --db-security-groups kfarrell
echo "Sleeping while instance is modified for security group name"
sleep 5m
echo "waking..."
elif [[ $ACTION == 'stop' ]]
then
echo "This will $ACTION a MySQL Instance"
yes | rds-delete-db-snapshot dbStart
echo "Sleeping while deleting old snapshot "
sleep 10m
#rds-create-db-snapshot lhdevices --db-snapshot-identifier dbStart
# echo "Sleeping while creating new snapshot "
# sleep 10m
# echo "waking...."
#rds-delete-db-instance lhdevices --force --skip-final-snapshot
rds-delete-db-instance lhdevices --force --final-db-snapshot-identifier dbStart
echo "Sleeping while instance is deleted"
sleep 10m
echo "waking...."
elif [[ $ACTION == 'reboot' ]]
then
echo "This will $ACTION a MySQL Instance"
rds-reboot-db-instance lhdevices ;
echo "Sleeping while Instance is rebooted"
sleep 5m
echo "waking...."
else
echo "Did not recognize command: $ACTION"
echo "Usage: $0 {MySQL-Instance Name} {Action either start, stop or reboot}"
fi
shopt -u nocasematch

Answer 4

Amazon recently updated their CLI to include a way to start and stop RDS instances. stop-db-instance and start-db-instance detail the steps needed to perform these operations.