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Matrix
Matrix

Reputation: 2639

Use RDS or a container (ECS) for database? Advantages and disadvantages

I want to host a database on AWS. RDS is one option but I have heard something about containers (and ECS). I see containers as useful for testing, but I'm uncertain about running a production database on one. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of each of them?

Upvotes: 17

Views: 12803

Answers (1)

Nathaniel Waisbrot
Nathaniel Waisbrot

Reputation: 24483

Run a database yourself on an EC2 instance:

  • You choose the database
  • You control all the configuration
  • You control what else runs on that machine
  • Backup, restoration, and other tasks can be customized
  • You are wholly responsible for keeping the DB running
  • You are wholly responsible for backups

Run a database on RDS:

  • Limited selection of DBs
  • You can run Aurora, Amazon's proprietary DB
  • Some (few) configuration options are not permitted
  • No access to the underlying machine
  • Automatic backups
  • Basic maintenance is automated
  • You can't run a cheaper DB than the smallest machine Amazon will rent

Run a database inside a container on an EC2 instance:

All the advantages & disadvantages of running the DB yourself, plus

  • You have to do some extra work to persist data across containers
  • You can easily run the exact same DB setup for local development, in test, and in production
  • You pay some additional overhead (small)
  • Process isolation makes it easy to share a machine (maybe your entire workload is less than a t2.micro)

Running a DB in a container under ECS doesn't really get you advantages over managing the containers yourself. But if you're using ECS for the rest of your stack and you're putting the DB in a container, then you'd just want to use ECS for that also.

Upvotes: 27

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