Using write forwarding in an Aurora MySQL global database

Region and version availability of write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

Write forwarding is supported with Aurora MySQL 2.08.1 and higher versions, in every Region where Aurora MySQL-based global databases are available.

For information on version and Region availability of Aurora MySQL global databases, see Aurora global databases with Aurora MySQL.

Enabling write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

By default, write forwarding isn't enabled when you add a secondary cluster to an Aurora global database.

To enable write forwarding using the AWS Management Console, select the Turn on global write forwarding check box under Read replica write forwarding when you add a Region for a global database. For an existing secondary cluster, modify the cluster to Turn on global write forwarding. To turn off write forwarding, clear the Turn on global write forwarding check box when adding the Region or modifying the secondary cluster.

To enable write forwarding using the AWS CLI, use the --enable-global-write-forwarding option. This option works when you create a new secondary cluster using the create-db-cluster command. It also works when you modify an existing secondary cluster using the modify-db-cluster command. It requires that the global database uses an Aurora version that supports write forwarding. You can turn write forwarding off by using the --no-enable-global-write-forwarding option with these same CLI commands.

To enable write forwarding using the Amazon RDS API, set the EnableGlobalWriteForwarding parameter to true. This parameter works when you create a new secondary cluster using the CreateDBCluster operation. It also works when you modify an existing secondary cluster using the ModifyDBCluster operation. It requires that the global database uses an Aurora version that supports write forwarding. You can turn write forwarding off by setting the EnableGlobalWriteForwarding parameter to false.

Note

For a database session to use write forwarding, specify a setting for the aurora_replica_read_consistency configuration parameter. Do this in every session that uses the write forwarding feature. For information about this parameter, see Isolation and consistency for write forwarding in Aurora MySQL.

The RDS Proxy feature doesn't support the SESSION value for the aurora_replica_read_consistency variable. Setting this value can cause unexpected behavior.

The following CLI examples show how you can set up an Aurora global database with write forwarding enabled or disabled. The highlighted items represent the commands and options that are important to specify and keep consistent when setting up the infrastructure for an Aurora global database.

The following example creates an Aurora global database, a primary cluster, and a secondary cluster with write forwarding enabled. Substitute your own choices for the user name, password, and primary and secondary AWS Regions.

# Create overall global database.
aws rds create-global-cluster --global-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-east-1

# Create primary cluster, in the same AWS Region as the global database.
aws rds create-db-cluster --global-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test \
  --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-1 \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --master-username user_name --master-user-password password \
  --region us-east-1

aws rds create-db-instance --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-1 \
  --db-instance-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-1-instance-1 \
  --db-instance-class db.r5.large \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-east-1

aws rds create-db-instance --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-1 \
  --db-instance-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-1-instance-2 \
  --db-instance-class db.r5.large \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-east-1

# Create secondary cluster, in a different AWS Region than the global database,
# with write forwarding enabled.
aws rds create-db-cluster --global-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test \
  --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2 \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-east-2 \
  --enable-global-write-forwarding

aws rds create-db-instance --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2 \
  --db-instance-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2-instance-1 \
  --db-instance-class db.r5.large \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-east-2

aws rds create-db-instance --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2 \
  --db-instance-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2-instance-2 \
  --db-instance-class db.r5.large \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-east-2

The following example continues from the previous one. It creates a secondary cluster without write forwarding enabled, then enables write forwarding. After this example finishes, all secondary clusters in the global database have write forwarding enabled.

# Create secondary cluster, in a different AWS Region than the global database,
# without write forwarding enabled.
aws rds create-db-cluster --global-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test \
  --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2 \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-west-1

aws rds create-db-instance --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2 \
  --db-instance-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2-instance-1 \
  --db-instance-class db.r5.large \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-west-1

aws rds create-db-instance --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2 \
  --db-instance-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2-instance-2 \
  --db-instance-class db.r5.large \
  --engine aurora-mysql --engine-version 5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1 \
  --region us-west-1

aws rds modify-db-cluster --db-cluster-identifier write-forwarding-test-cluster-2 \
  --region us-east-2 \
  --enable-global-write-forwarding

Checking if a secondary cluster has write forwarding enabled in Aurora MySQL

To determine whether you can use write forwarding from a secondary cluster, you can check whether the cluster has the attribute "GlobalWriteForwardingStatus": "enabled".

In the AWS Management Console, on the Configuration tab of the details page for the cluster, you see the status Enabled for Global read replica write forwarding.

To see the status of the global write forwarding setting for all of your clusters, run the following AWS CLI command.

A secondary cluster shows the value "enabled" or "disabled" to indicate if write forwarding is turned on or off. A value of null indicates that write forwarding isn't available for that cluster. Either the cluster isn't part of a global database, or is the primary cluster instead of a secondary cluster. The value can also be "enabling" or "disabling" if write forwarding is in the process of being turned on or off.

aws rds describe-db-clusters \
--query '*[].{DBClusterIdentifier:DBClusterIdentifier,GlobalWriteForwardingStatus:GlobalWriteForwardingStatus}'

[
    {
        "GlobalWriteForwardingStatus": "enabled",
        "DBClusterIdentifier": "aurora-write-forwarding-test-replica-1"
    },
    {
        "GlobalWriteForwardingStatus": "disabled",
        "DBClusterIdentifier": "aurora-write-forwarding-test-replica-2"
    },
    {
        "GlobalWriteForwardingStatus": null,
        "DBClusterIdentifier": "non-global-cluster"
    }
]

To find all secondary clusters that have global write forwarding enabled, run the following command. This command also returns the cluster's reader endpoint. You use the secondary cluster's reader endpoint when you use write forwarding from the secondary to the primary in your Aurora global database.

Example

aws rds describe-db-clusters --query 'DBClusters[].{DBClusterIdentifier:DBClusterIdentifier,GlobalWriteForwardingStatus:GlobalWriteForwardingStatus,ReaderEndpoint:ReaderEndpoint} | [?GlobalWriteForwardingStatus == `enabled`]'
[
    {
        "GlobalWriteForwardingStatus": "enabled",
        "ReaderEndpoint": "aurora-write-forwarding-test-replica-1.cluster-ro-cnpexample.us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com",
        "DBClusterIdentifier": "aurora-write-forwarding-test-replica-1"
    }
]

Application and SQL compatibility with write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

You can use the following kinds of SQL statements with write forwarding:

• Data manipulation language (DML) statements, such as INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE. There are some restrictions on the properties of these statements that you can use with write forwarding, as described following.

• SELECT ... LOCK IN SHARE MODE and SELECT FOR UPDATE statements.

• PREPARE and EXECUTE statements.

Certain statements aren't allowed or can produce stale results when you use them in a global database with write forwarding. Thus, the EnableGlobalWriteForwarding setting is turned off by default for secondary clusters. Before turning it on, check to make sure that your application code isn't affected by any of these restrictions.

The following restrictions apply to the SQL statements you use with write forwarding. In some cases, you can use the statements on secondary clusters with write forwarding enabled at the cluster level. This approach works if write forwarding isn't turned on within the session by the aurora_replica_read_consistency configuration parameter. Trying to use a statement when it's not allowed because of write forwarding causes an error message with the following format.

ERROR 1235 (42000): This version of MySQL doesn't yet support 'operation with write forwarding'.

Data definition language (DDL)

Connect to the primary cluster to run DDL statements. You can't run them from reader DB instances.

Updating a permanent table using data from a temporary table

You can use temporary tables on secondary clusters with write forwarding enabled. However, you can't use a DML statement to modify a permanent table if the statement refers to a temporary table. For example, you can't use an INSERT ... SELECT statement that takes the data from a temporary table. The temporary table exists on the secondary cluster and isn't available when the statement runs on the primary cluster.

XA transactions

You can't use the following statements on a secondary cluster when write forwarding is turned on within the session. You can use these statements on secondary clusters that don't have write forwarding enabled, or within sessions where the aurora_replica_read_consistency setting is empty. Before turning on write forwarding within a session, check if your code uses these statements.

XA {START|BEGIN} xid [JOIN|RESUME]
XA END xid [SUSPEND [FOR MIGRATE]]
XA PREPARE xid
XA COMMIT xid [ONE PHASE]
XA ROLLBACK xid
XA RECOVER [CONVERT XID]

LOAD statements for permanent tables

You can't use the following statements on a secondary cluster with write forwarding enabled.

LOAD DATA INFILE 'data.txt' INTO TABLE t1;
        LOAD XML LOCAL INFILE 'test.xml' INTO TABLE t1;

You can load data into a temporary table on a secondary cluster. However, make sure that you run any LOAD statements that refer to permanent tables only on the primary cluster.

Plugin statements

You can't use the following statements on a secondary cluster with write forwarding enabled.

INSTALL PLUGIN example SONAME 'ha_example.so';
UNINSTALL PLUGIN example;

SAVEPOINT statements

You can't use the following statements on a secondary cluster when write forwarding is turned on within the session. You can use these statements on secondary clusters that don't have write forwarding enabled, or within sessions where the aurora_replica_read_consistency setting is blank. Check if your code uses these statements before turning on write forwarding within a session.

SAVEPOINT t1_save;
ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT t1_save;
RELEASE SAVEPOINT t1_save;

Isolation and consistency for write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

In sessions that use write forwarding, you can only use the REPEATABLE READ isolation level. Although you can also use the READ COMMITTED isolation level with read-only clusters in secondary AWS Regions, that isolation level doesn't work with write forwarding. For information about the REPEATABLE READ and READ COMMITTED isolation levels, see Aurora MySQL isolation levels.

You can control the degree of read consistency on a secondary cluster. The read consistency level determines how much waiting the secondary cluster does before each read operation to ensure that some or all changes are replicated from the primary cluster. You can adjust the read consistency level to ensure that all forwarded write operations from your session are visible in the secondary cluster before any subsequent queries. You can also use this setting to ensure that queries on the secondary cluster always see the most current updates from the primary cluster. This is so even for those submitted by other sessions or other clusters. To specify this type of behavior for your application, you choose a value for the session-level parameter aurora_replica_read_consistency.

Important

Always set the aurora_replica_read_consistency parameter for any session for which you want to forward writes. If you don't, Aurora doesn't enable write forwarding for that session. This parameter has an empty value by default, so choose a specific value when you use this parameter. The aurora_replica_read_consistency parameter has an effect only on secondary clusters that have write forwarding enabled.

For Aurora MySQL version 2 and version 3 lower than 3.04, use aurora_replica_read_consistency as a session variable. For Aurora MySQL version 3.04 and higher, you can use aurora_replica_read_consistency as either a session variable or as a DB cluster parameter.

For the aurora_replica_read_consistency parameter, you can specify the values EVENTUAL, SESSION, and GLOBAL.

As you increase the consistency level, your application spends more time waiting for changes to be propagated between AWS Regions. You can choose the balance between fast response time and ensuring that changes made in other locations are fully available before your queries run.

With the read consistency set to EVENTUAL, queries in a secondary AWS Region that uses write forwarding might see data that is slightly stale due to replication lag. Results of write operations in the same session aren't visible until the write operation is performed on the primary Region and replicated to the current Region. The query doesn't wait for the updated results to be available. Thus, it might retrieve the older data or the updated data, depending on the timing of the statements and the amount of replication lag.

With the read consistency set to SESSION, all queries in a secondary AWS Region that uses write forwarding see the results of all changes made in that session. The changes are visible regardless of whether the transaction is committed. If necessary, the query waits for the results of forwarded write operations to be replicated to the current Region. It doesn't wait for updated results from write operations performed in other Regions or in other sessions within the current Region.

With the read consistency set to GLOBAL, a session in a secondary AWS Region sees changes made by that session. It also sees all committed changes from both the primary AWS Region and other secondary AWS Regions. Each query might wait for a period that varies depending on the amount of session lag. The query proceeds when the secondary cluster is up-to-date with all committed data from the primary cluster, as of the time that the query began.

For more information about all the parameters involved with write forwarding, see Configuration parameters for write forwarding in Aurora MySQL.

Examples of using write forwarding

These examples use aurora_replica_read_consistency as a session variable. For Aurora MySQL version 3.04 and higher, you can use aurora_replica_read_consistency as either a session variable or as a DB cluster parameter.

In the following example, the primary cluster is in the US East (N. Virginia) Region. The secondary cluster is in the US East (Ohio) Region. The example shows the effects of running INSERT statements followed by SELECT statements. Depending on the value of the aurora_replica_read_consistency setting, the results might differ depending on the timing of the statements. To achieve higher consistency, you might wait briefly before issuing the SELECT statement. Or Aurora can automatically wait until the results finish replicating before proceeding with SELECT.

In this example, there is a read consistency setting of eventual. Running an INSERT statement immediately followed by a SELECT statement still returns the value of COUNT(*). This value reflects the number of rows before the new row is inserted. Running the SELECT again a short time later returns the updated row count. The SELECT statements don't wait.

mysql> set aurora_replica_read_consistency = 'eventual';
mysql> select count(*) from t1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        5 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into t1 values (6); select count(*) from t1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        5 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> select count(*) from t1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        6 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

With a read consistency setting of session, a SELECT statement immediately after an INSERT waits until the changes from the INSERT statement are visible. Subsequent SELECT statements don't wait.

mysql> set aurora_replica_read_consistency = 'session';
mysql> select count(*) from t1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        6 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
mysql> insert into t1 values (6); select count(*) from t1; select count(*) from t1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.08 sec)
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        7 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.37 sec)
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        7 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

With the read consistency setting still set to session, introducing a brief wait after performing an INSERT statement makes the updated row count available by the time the next SELECT statement runs.

mysql> insert into t1 values (6); select sleep(2); select count(*) from t1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.07 sec)
+----------+
| sleep(2) |
+----------+
|        0 |
+----------+
1 row in set (2.01 sec)
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        8 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

With a read consistency setting of global, each SELECT statement waits to ensure that all data changes as of the start time of the statement are visible before performing the query. The amount of waiting for each SELECT statement varies, depending on the amount of replication lag between the primary and secondary clusters.

mysql> set aurora_replica_read_consistency = 'global';
mysql> select count(*) from t1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        8 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.75 sec)
mysql> select count(*) from t1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        8 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.37 sec)
mysql> select count(*) from t1;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        8 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.66 sec)

Running multipart statements with write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

A DML statement might consist of multiple parts, such as a INSERT ... SELECT statement or a DELETE ... WHERE statement. In this case, the entire statement is forwarded to the primary cluster and run there.

Transactions with write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

Whether the transaction is forwarded to the primary cluster depends on the access mode of the transaction. You can specify the access mode for the transaction by using the SET TRANSACTION statement or the START TRANSACTION statement. You can also specify the transaction access mode by changing the value of the transaction_read_only session variable. You can change this session value only while you're connected to a DB cluster that has write forwarding enabled.

If a long-running transaction doesn't issue any statement for a substantial period of time, it might exceed the idle timeout period. This period has a default of one minute. You can increase it up to one day. A transaction that exceeds the idle timeout is canceled by the primary cluster. The next subsequent statement you submit receives a timeout error. Then Aurora rolls back the transaction.

This type of error can occur in other cases when write forwarding becomes unavailable. For example, Aurora cancels any transactions that use write forwarding if you restart the primary cluster or if you turn off the write forwarding configuration setting.

Configuration parameters for write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

The Aurora cluster parameter groups include settings for the write forwarding feature. Because these are cluster parameters, all DB instances in each cluster have the same values for these variables. Details about these parameters are summarized in the following table, with usage notes after the table.

Name	Scope	Type	Default value	Valid values
aurora_fwd_master_idle_timeout (Aurora MySQL version 2)	Global	unsigned integer	60	1–86,400
aurora_fwd_master_max_connections_pct (Aurora MySQL version 2)	Global	unsigned long integer	10	0–90
aurora_fwd_writer_idle_timeout (Aurora MySQL version 3)	Global	unsigned integer	60	1–86,400
aurora_fwd_writer_max_connections_pct (Aurora MySQL version 3)	Global	unsigned long integer	10	0–90
aurora_replica_read_consistency	Session	Enum	'' (null)	EVENTUAL, SESSION, GLOBAL

To control incoming write requests from secondary clusters, use these settings on the primary cluster:

• aurora_fwd_master_idle_timeout, aurora_fwd_writer_idle_timeout: The number of seconds the primary cluster waits for activity on a connection that's forwarded from a secondary cluster before closing it. If the session remains idle beyond this period, Aurora cancels the session.

• aurora_fwd_master_max_connections_pct, aurora_fwd_writer_max_connections_pct: The upper limit on database connections that can be used on a writer DB instance to handle queries forwarded from readers. It's expressed as a percentage of the max_connections setting for the writer DB instance in the primary cluster. For example, if max_connections is 800 and aurora_fwd_master_max_connections_pct or aurora_fwd_writer_max_connections_pct is 10, then the writer allows a maximum of 80 simultaneous forwarded sessions. These connections come from the same connection pool managed by the max_connections setting.

  This setting applies only on the primary cluster, when one or more secondary clusters have write forwarding enabled. If you decrease the value, existing connections aren't affected. Aurora takes the new value of the setting into account when attempting to create a new connection from a secondary cluster. The default value is 10, representing 10% of the max_connections value. If you enable query forwarding on any of the secondary clusters, this setting must have a nonzero value for write operations from secondary clusters to succeed. If the value is zero, the write operations receive the error code ER_CON_COUNT_ERROR with the message Not enough connections on writer to handle your request.

The aurora_replica_read_consistency parameter is a session-level parameter that enables write forwarding. You use it in each session. You can specify EVENTUAL, SESSION, or GLOBAL for read consistency level. To learn more about consistency levels, see Isolation and consistency for write forwarding in Aurora MySQL. The following rules apply to this parameter:

• This is a session-level parameter. The default value is '' (empty).

• Write forwarding is available in a session only if aurora_replica_read_consistency is set to EVENTUAL or SESSION or GLOBAL. This parameter is relevant only in reader instances of secondary clusters that have write forwarding enabled and that are in an Aurora global database.

• You can't set this variable (when empty) or unset (when already set) inside a multistatement transaction. However, you can change it from one valid value (EVENTUAL, SESSION, or GLOBAL) to another valid value (EVENTUAL, SESSION, or GLOBAL) during such a transaction.

• The variable can't be SET when write forwarding isn't enabled on the secondary cluster.

• Setting the session variable on a primary cluster doesn't have any effect. If you try to modify this variable on a primary cluster, you receive an error.

Amazon CloudWatch metrics for write forwarding in Aurora MySQL

The following Amazon CloudWatch metrics apply to the primary cluster when you use write forwarding on one or more secondary clusters. These metrics are all measured on the writer DB instance in the primary cluster.

CloudWatch metric	Unit	Description
AuroraDMLRejectedMasterFull	Count	The number of forwarded queries that are rejected because the session is full on the writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
AuroraDMLRejectedWriterFull	Count	The number of forwarded queries that are rejected because the session is full on the writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 3.
ForwardingMasterDMLLatency	Milliseconds	Average time to process each forwarded DML statement on the writer DB instance. It doesn't include the time for the secondary cluster to forward the write request, or the time to replicate changes back to the secondary cluster. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
ForwardingMasterDMLThroughput	Count per second	Number of forwarded DML statements processed each second by this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
ForwardingMasterOpenSessions	Count	Number of forwarded sessions on the writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
ForwardingWriterDMLLatency	Milliseconds	Average time to process each forwarded DML statement on the writer DB instance. It doesn't include the time for the secondary cluster to forward the write request, or the time to replicate changes back to the secondary cluster. For Aurora MySQL version 3.
ForwardingWriterDMLThroughput	Count per second	Number of forwarded DML statements processed each second by this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 3.
ForwardingWriterOpenSessions	Count	Number of forwarded sessions on the writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 3.

The following CloudWatch metrics apply to each secondary cluster. These metrics are measured on each reader DB instance in a secondary cluster with write forwarding enabled.

CloudWatch metric	Unit	Description
ForwardingReplicaDMLLatency	Milliseconds	Average response time of forwarded DMLs on the replica.
ForwardingReplicaDMLThroughput	Count per second	Number of forwarded DML statements processed each second.
ForwardingReplicaOpenSessions	Count	Number of sessions that are using write forwarding on a reader DB instance.
ForwardingReplicaReadWaitLatency	Milliseconds	Average wait time that a SELECT statement on a reader DB instance waits to catch up to the primary cluster. The degree to which the reader DB instance waits before processing a query depends on the aurora_replica_read_consistency setting.
ForwardingReplicaReadWaitThroughput	Count per second	Total number of SELECT statements processed each second in all sessions that are forwarding writes.
ForwardingReplicaSelectLatency	Milliseconds	Forwarded SELECT latency, average over all forwarded SELECT statements within the monitoring period.
ForwardingReplicaSelectThroughput	Count per second	Forwarded SELECT throughput per second average within the monitoring period.

Aurora MySQL status variables for write forwarding

The following Aurora MySQL status variables apply to the primary cluster when you use write forwarding on one or more secondary clusters. These metrics are all measured on the writer DB instance in the primary cluster.

Aurora MySQL status variable	Unit	Description
Aurora_fwd_master_dml_stmt_count	Count	Total number of DML statements forwarded to this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
Aurora_fwd_master_dml_stmt_duration	Microseconds	Total duration of DML statements forwarded to this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
Aurora_fwd_master_open_sessions	Count	Number of forwarded sessions on the writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
Aurora_fwd_master_select_stmt_count	Count	Total number of SELECT statements forwarded to this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
Aurora_fwd_master_select_stmt_duration	Microseconds	Total duration of SELECT statements forwarded to this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 2.
Aurora_fwd_writer_dml_stmt_count	Count	Total number of DML statements forwarded to this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 3.
Aurora_fwd_writer_dml_stmt_duration	Microseconds	Total duration of DML statements forwarded to this writer DB instance.
Aurora_fwd_writer_open_sessions	Count	Number of forwarded sessions on the writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 3.
Aurora_fwd_writer_select_stmt_count	Count	Total number of SELECT statements forwarded to this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 3.
Aurora_fwd_writer_select_stmt_duration	Microseconds	Total duration of SELECT statements forwarded to this writer DB instance. For Aurora MySQL version 3.

The following Aurora MySQL status variables apply to each secondary cluster. These metrics are measured on each reader DB instance in a secondary cluster with write forwarding enabled.

Aurora MySQL status variable	Unit	Description
Aurora_fwd_replica_dml_stmt_count	Count	Total number of DML statements forwarded from this reader DB instance.
Aurora_fwd_replica_dml_stmt_duration	Microseconds	Total duration of all DML statements forwarded from this reader DB instance.
Aurora_fwd_replica_errors_session_limit	Count	Number of sessions rejected by the primary cluster due to one of the following error conditions: writer full Too many forwarded statements in progress.
Aurora_fwd_replica_open_sessions	Count	Number of sessions that are using write forwarding on a reader DB instance.
Aurora_fwd_replica_read_wait_count	Count	Total number of read-after-write waits on this reader DB instance.
Aurora_fwd_replica_read_wait_duration	Microseconds	Total duration of waits due to the read consistency setting on this reader DB instance.
Aurora_fwd_replica_select_stmt_count	Count	Total number of SELECT statements forwarded from this reader DB instance.
Aurora_fwd_replica_select_stmt_duration	Microseconds	Total duration of SELECT statements forwarded from this reader DB instance.