Amazon RDS for SQL Server

Amazon RDS for SQL Server supports two different licensing models – “License Included” and “License Mobility through Software Assurance (or Bring Your Own License – BYOL)”. In the "License Included" service model, you do not need separately purchased Microsoft SQL Server licenses. "License Included" pricing starts at $0.035 per hour and is inclusive of software, underlying hardware resources, and Amazon RDS management capabilities. Microsoft’s License Mobility program allows customers who already own SQL Server licenses to run SQL Server deployments on Amazon RDS. This benefit is available to Microsoft Volume Licensing (VL) customers with SQL Server licenses covered by active Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) contracts. The Microsoft License Mobility program is suited for customers who prefer to use existing SQL Server licenses or purchase new licenses directly from Microsoft.

You can take advantage of hourly pricing with no upfront fees or long-term commitments. In addition, you also have the option to purchase Reserved DB Instances under one or three year reservation terms. With Reserved DB Instances, you can make low, one-time, upfront payment for each DB Instance and then pay a significantly discounted hourly usage rate, achieving up to 65% net cost savings.

Amazon RDS for SQL Server DB Instances can be provisioned with either standard storage or Provisioned IOPS storage. Amazon RDS Provisioned IOPS is a storage option designed to deliver fast, predictable, and consistent I/O performance, and is optimized for I/O-intensive, transactional (OLTP) database workloads.

Amazon RDS for SQL Server is a managed service that is designed for developers who require the features and capabilities of SQL Server for building a new application. You can also move existing applications that utilize SQL Server to Amazon RDS without having to rewrite the application completely. Since Amazon RDS for SQL Server provides you direct access to the native capabilities of the SQL Server edition you have specified, your applications and tools should work seamlessly.

• Pre-configured Parameters – Amazon RDS for SQL Server deployments are pre-configured with a set of parameters and settings appropriate for the SQL Server edition and DB Instance class you have selected. You can simply launch a SQL Server DB Instance and connect it to your application within minutes without additional configuration. If you desire additional control, you can achieve it via DB Parameter Groups.
• Monitoring and Metrics – Amazon RDS provides Amazon CloudWatch metrics for your DB Instance deployments at no additional charge. You can use the AWS Management Console to view key operational metrics for your DB Instance deployments, including compute/memory/storage capacity utilization, I/O activity, and DB Instance connections.
• DB Event Notifications – Amazon RDS provides Amazon SNS notifications via email or SMS for your DB Instance deployments. You can use the AWS Management Console or the Amazon RDS APIs to subscribe to over 40 different DB events associated with your Amazon RDS deployments.
• Automatic Software Patching – Amazon RDS enables you to have the SQL Server software powering your deployment stay up-to-date with the latest patches automatically. You can exert optional control over when and if your DB Instance is patched via DB Engine Version Management.
  

• General Purpose (SSD) – Amazon RDS General Purpose (SSD) storage delivers a consistent baseline of 3 IOPS per provisioned GB and provides the ability to burst up to 3,000 IOPS.
  
• Provisioned IOPS (SSD) – Using the Amazon RDS APIs or with a few clicks on the AWS Management Console, you can provision the IOPS for your SQL Server DB Instance. Starting immediately, when you create new DB Instances using the AWS Management Console or the Amazon RDS APIs, you can provision from 1,000 IOPS to 20,000 IOPS with corresponding storage from 100GB to 16TB for new SQL Server DB Instances. If you want to migrate an existing SQL Server DB Instance to Provisioned IOPS storage, you can export the data from your DB Instance and import into a new DB Instance equipped with Provisioned IOPS storage.
  

• Automated Backups – Turned on by default, the automated backup feature of Amazon RDS enables point-in-time recovery for your DB Instance. Amazon RDS will back up your DB Instance daily and your transaction logs at 5 minute intervals and store both for a user-specified retention period. This allows you to restore your DB Instance to any second during your retention period, up to the last five minutes. Your automatic backup retention period can be configured to up to 35 days.
• DB Snapshots – DB Snapshots are user-initiated backups of your DB Instance. These full database backups will be stored by Amazon RDS until you explicitly delete them. You can create a new DB Instance from a DB Snapshot whenever you desire.
  

• DB Instance Class – Using a few clicks of the AWS Management Console, you can scale the compute and memory resources powering your deployment up or down. Scaling operations typically complete within a few minutes.
• Note: Amazon RDS does not currently support increasing storage or IOPS of an existing SQL Server DB Instance. Please refer to the Amazon RDS User Guide for more details.

• Automatic Host Replacement – Amazon RDS will automatically replace the compute instance powering your deployment in the event of a hardware failure.
• Multi-AZ Deployments – When you create or modify your DB Instance to run as a Multi-AZ deployment, Amazon RDS will automatically provision a primary database in one Availability Zone and maintain a synchronous "standby" replica in a different Availability Zone. In the event of planned database maintenance or unplanned service disruption, Amazon RDS will automatically failover the SQL Server database to the up-to-date standby. Database operations can resume quickly without any manual intervention.

Using Amazon VPC, you can isolate your DB Instances in your own virtual network, and connect to your existing IT infrastructure using industry-standard encrypted IPSec VPN. To learn more about Amazon RDS in VPC, refer to the Amazon RDS User Guide. In addition, using Amazon RDS, you can configure firewall settings and control network access to your DB Instances.