RDS Retype Single AZ

Opportunity Name:

RDS Retype SingleAZ

AWS Resource Type:

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)

Opportunity Description:

This recommendation identifies Amazon RDS instances and clusters configured with Multi-AZ deployments that can be optimized for cost by transitioning to Single-AZ deployments. This is particularly useful for development, testing, non-production, or other non-critical environments where high availability is not a primary concern.

Transitioning to Single-AZ deployments offers significant cost savings on instance, storage, and IOPS costs while maintaining the performance required for less critical workloads.

Criteria for identifying the opportunity:

• Targets RDS clusters and instances with Multi-AZ configurations.
• Annual costs (extrapolated from the last 31 days of usage) exceed the public cost threshold (default: $100).
• The potential cost reduction surpasses 15% of storage costs.
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Potential savings (range in % on annual basis):

• SQL Server EE Instances: Up to 24% annual cost reduction.
• PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, MariaDB: Up to 50% annual cost reduction.

Can CloudFix apply an automatic fix?

No, this recommendation requires manual implementation.

Other considerations:

• Performance Impact:

  • Single-AZ deployments reduce fault tolerance and high availability. There is a higher risk of downtime during AWS maintenance or failures.
  • Evaluate the criticality of the database workloads before implementing this recommendation.

• Data Loss Considerations:

  • Single-AZ deployments lack redundancy. Backup and recovery strategies must be reviewed and validated to mitigate potential risks.

• Security Concerns:

  • The security posture of RDS instances is not inherently impacted by this transition. However, it is essential to review configurations to ensure compliance with organizational security policies and standards.

Conclusion:

Switching from Multi-AZ to Single-AZ deployments offers significant cost-saving opportunities for non-critical environments. However, users should carefully assess workload requirements, backup strategies, and security policies before implementing this recommendation.

Additional Resources:

• CloudFix Knowledge Base
• Amazon RDS Multi-AZ Deployments
• Working with Backups