One of the advantages of a cloud based environment is flexibility. For example, let’s say that I have a sql database that is supporting an application just fine. However, as the application grows, the database needs to grow with it. With an on premise database server, you have a physical box that has limits. You would need to procure new hardware, migrate the database, test it out, etc. With an AWS RDS instance, your migration will take just a few minutes. Seriously.
We start with the lowest powered instance type there is, a db.t2.small.
Step 1:
In the AWS console, select your instance, and select modify.
Step 2:
Under “DB instance class” dropdown, select a higher powered machine that will meet your needs.
Step 3:
Scroll to the bottom and click the “Continue” button. (I am assuming here that you do not want to do anything except add more horsepower to your RDS instance.)
Step 4:
You have a choice now. You can wait to make this change, or do it immediately. I want to get this done now, so that is my choice. You are warned that this will incur downtime. If you are OK with the downtime, select “Apply Immediately” and click the “Modify DB Instance” button on the bottom of the page.
The instance will change status to “modifying”, and then after about 10 minutes (in this case, YMMV), we have an upgraded instance.