AWS RDS MySQL Setup Guide

Overview

Amazon RDS provides managed MySQL (or Aurora MySQL) instances. For Superloom projects, RDS is used when a relational database is needed alongside or instead of DynamoDB.

Instance Configuration

Key decisions when creating an RDS instance:

Setting	Sandbox	Production
Engine	MySQL 8.0+ or Aurora MySQL	Aurora MySQL (recommended)
Template	Free Tier or Dev/Test	Production
Instance Class	db.t3.micro or db.t4g.micro	Based on workload
Storage	20 GB General Purpose SSD	Auto-scaling, General Purpose
Multi-AZ	No	Yes
Public Access	Yes (if Lambda outside VPC)	Depends on architecture

Database User Strategy

Create separate database users for different access levels:

User	Privileges	Used By
Admin (master)	Full control	Database administration
Application user	SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE	Lambda functions
Read-only user	SELECT only	Reporting, monitoring

Read Replicas

For production, create a read replica to distribute read traffic:

• Reader endpoint is used for read-heavy queries
• Writer endpoint for all write operations
• Both endpoints stored in SSM Parameter Store

Connection from Lambda

• Lambda outside VPC: RDS must have public access enabled with security group restrictions
• Lambda inside VPC: RDS can remain private (see networking guide)
• Use connection pooling or short-lived connections (Lambda functions are ephemeral)

Administration Tools

• MySQL Workbench (GUI)
• DBeaver (cross-database GUI)
• mysql CLI

Security

• Never use the master/admin user in application code
• Enforce SSL connections
• Rotate passwords periodically
• Store all credentials in SSM Parameter Store, actual values in __dev__/secrets/