If you are using the AWS Relational Database Service (RDS) offered managed database services, you may wonder how to strategize database storage size. Strategizing database storage includes understanding the key components of RDS storage, optimizing these storage factors, and capping storage growth by using retention periods.
AWS RDS offers managed database services for Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server. These managed services include automated backups, single-click upgrades, replication and high availability, and disaster recovery solutions. Under the hood, all these RDS databases use Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes for storage. This post discusses the storage components, optimization steps for these storage components using automation, and utilizing various retention period mechanisms to control storage growth.