Settings for DB instances

In the following table, you can find details about settings that you choose when you create a DB instance. The table also shows the DB engines for which each setting is supported.

You can create a DB instance using the console, the create-db-instance CLI command, or the CreateDBInstance RDS API operation.

Console setting	Setting description	CLI option and RDS API parameter	Supported DB engines
Allocated storage	The amount of storage to allocate for your DB instance (in gibibytes). In some cases, allocating a higher amount of storage for your DB instance than the size of your database can improve I/O performance. For more information, see Amazon RDS DB instance storage.	CLI option: --allocated-storage API parameter: AllocatedStorage	All
Architecture settings	If you choose Oracle multitenant architecture, RDS for Oracle creates a container database (CDB). If you don't choose this option, RDS for Oracle creates a non-CDB. A non-CDB uses the traditional Oracle database architecture. A CDB can contain pluggable databases (PDBs) whereas a non-CDB cannot. Oracle Database 21c uses the CDB architecture only. Oracle Database 19c can use either the CDB or non-CDB architecture. Releases lower than Oracle Database 19c use the non-CDB architecture only. For more information, see Overview of RDS for Oracle CDBs.	CLI option: --engine oracle-ee-cdb (Oracle multitenant) --engine oracle-se2-cdb (Oracle multitenant) --engine oracle-ee (traditional) --engine oracle-se2 (traditional) API parameter: Engine	Oracle
Architecture configuration	These settings are only valid when you choose Oracle multitenant architecture for Architecture settings. Choose either of the following additional settings: With the Multi-tenant configuration, your RDS for Oracle CDB instance can contain 1–30 tenant databases, depending on the database edition and any required option licenses. In the context of an Oracle database, a tenant database is a PDB. Application PDBs and proxy PDBs aren't supported. Your DB instance is created with 1 initial tenant database. Choose values for Tenant database name, Tenant database master username, Tenant database master password, and Tenant database character set. The multi-tenant configuration is permanent. Thus, you can't convert the multi-tenant configuration back to the single-tenant configuration. The minimum supported release update (RU) for the multi-tenant configuration is 19.0.0.0.ru-2022-01.rur-2022.r1. Note The Amazon RDS feature is called "multi-tenant" rather than "multitenant" because it is a capability of the RDS platform, not just the Oracle DB engine. The term "Oracle multitenant" refers exclusively to the Oracle database architecture, which is compatible with both on-premises and RDS deployments. With the Single-tenant configuration, your RDS for Oracle CDB contains 1 PDB. This is the default configuration when you create a CDB. You can't delete the initial PDB or add more PDBs. You can later convert the single-tenant configuration of your CDB to the multi-tenant configuration, but you can't then convert back to the single-tenant configuration. Regardless of which configuration you choose, your CDB contains a single initial PDB. In the multi-tenant configuration, you can create more PDBs later using RDS APIs. For more information, see Overview of RDS for Oracle CDBs.	CLI option: --multi-tenant (multi-tenant configuration) --no-multi-tenant (single-tenant configuration) API parameter: MultiTenant	Oracle
Auto minor version upgrade	Choose Enable auto minor version upgrade to enable your DB instance to receive preferred minor DB engine version upgrades automatically when they become available. This is the default behavior. Amazon RDS performs automatic minor version upgrades in the maintenance window. If you don't choose Enable auto minor version upgrade, your DB instance isn't upgraded automatically when new minor versions become available. For more information, see Automatically upgrading the minor engine version.	CLI option: --auto-minor-version-upgrade --no-auto-minor-version-upgrade API parameter: AutoMinorVersionUpgrade	All
Availability zone	The Availability Zone for your DB instance. Use the default value of No Preference unless you want to specify an Availability Zone. For more information, see Regions, Availability Zones, and Local Zones.	CLI option: --availability-zone API parameter: AvailabilityZone	All
AWS KMS key	Only available if Encryption is set to Enable encryption. Choose the AWS KMS key to use for encrypting this DB instance. For more information, see Encrypting Amazon RDS resources.	CLI option: --kms-key-id API parameter: KmsKeyId	All
AWS License Manager configuration	Enter a name for an AWS License Manager license configuration. The name must be 100 characters or less, and only include a-z, A-Z, and 0-9. For more information, see Integrating with AWS License Manager.	CLI option: For more information, see AWS License Manager CLI. API parameter: For more information, see AWS License Manager API.	Db2
Backup replication	Choose Enable replication in another AWS Region to create backups in an additional Region for disaster recovery. Then choose the Destination Region for the additional backups.	Not available when creating a DB instance. For information on enabling cross-Region backups using the AWS CLI or RDS API, see Enabling cross-Region automated backups for Amazon RDS.	Oracle PostgreSQL SQL Server
Backup retention period	The number of days that you want automatic backups of your DB instance to be retained. For any nontrivial DB instance, set this value to 1 or greater. For more information, see Introduction to backups.	CLI option: --backup-retention-period API parameter: BackupRetentionPeriod	All
Backup target	Choose AWS Cloud to store automated backups and manual snapshots in the parent AWS Region. Choose Outposts (on-premises) to store them locally on your Outpost. This option setting applies only to RDS on Outposts. For more information, see Creating DB instances for Amazon RDS on AWS Outposts.	CLI option: --backup-target API parameter: BackupTarget	MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server
Backup window	The time period during which Amazon RDS automatically takes a backup of your DB instance. Unless you have a specific time that you want to have your database backed up, use the default of No Preference. For more information, see Introduction to backups.	CLI option: --preferred-backup-window API parameter: PreferredBackupWindow	All
Certificate authority	The certificate authority (CA) for the server certificate used by the DB instance. For more information, see Using SSL/TLS to encrypt a connection to a DB instance or cluster.	CLI option: --ca-certificate-identifier RDS API parameter: CACertificateIdentifier	All
Character set	The character set for your DB instance. The default value of AL32UTF8 for the DB character set is for the Unicode 5.0 UTF-8 Universal character set. You can't change the DB character set after you create the DB instance. In a single-tenant configuration, a non-default DB character set affects only the PDB, not the CDB. For more information, see Single-tenant configuration of the CDB architecture. The DB character set is different from the national character set, which is called the NCHAR character set. Unlike the DB character set, the NCHAR character set specifies the encoding for NCHAR data types (NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, and NCLOB) columns without affecting database metadata. For more information, see RDS for Oracle character sets.	CLI option: --character-set-name API parameter: CharacterSetName	Oracle
Collation	A server-level collation for your DB instance. For more information, see Server-level collation for Microsoft SQL Server.	CLI option: --character-set-name API parameter: CharacterSetName	SQL Server
Copy tags to snapshots	This option copies any DB instance tags to a DB snapshot when you create a snapshot. For more information, see Tagging Amazon RDS resources.	CLI option: --copy-tags-to-snapshot --no-copy-tags-to-snapshot RDS API parameter: CopyTagsToSnapshot	All
Database authentication	The database authentication option that you want to use. Choose Password authentication to authenticate database users with database passwords only. Choose Password and IAM DB authentication to authenticate database users with database passwords and user credentials through users and roles. For more information, see IAM database authentication for MariaDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. This option is only supported for MySQL and PostgreSQL. Choose Password and Kerberos authentication to authenticate database users with database passwords and Kerberos authentication through an AWS Managed Microsoft AD created with AWS Directory Service. Next, choose the directory or choose Create a new Directory. For more information, see one of the following: Using Kerberos authentication for Amazon RDS for Db2 Using Kerberos authentication for Amazon RDS for MySQL Configuring Kerberos authentication for Amazon RDS for Oracle Using Kerberos authentication with Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL	IAM: CLI option: --enable-iam-database-authentication --no-enable-iam-database-authentication RDS API parameter: EnableIAMDatabaseAuthentication Kerberos: CLI option: --domain --domain-iam-role-name RDS API parameter: Domain DomainIAMRoleName	Varies by authentication type
Database management type	Choose Amazon RDS if you don't need to customize your environment. Choose Amazon RDS Custom if you want to customize the database, OS, and infrastructure. For more information, see Amazon RDS Custom.	For the CLI and API, you specify the database engine type.	Oracle SQL Server
Database port	The port that you want to access the DB instance through. The default port is shown. Note The firewalls at some companies block connections to the default MariaDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL ports. If your company firewall blocks the default port, enter another port for your DB instance.	CLI option: --port RDS API parameter: Port	All
DB engine version	The version of database engine that you want to use.	CLI option: --engine-version RDS API parameter: EngineVersion	All
DB instance class	The configuration for your DB instance. For example, a db.t3.small DB instance class has 2 GiB memory, 2 vCPUs, 1 virtual core, a variable ECU, and a moderate I/O capacity. If possible, choose a DB instance class large enough that a typical query working set can be held in memory. When working sets are held in memory, the system can avoid writing to disk, which improves performance. For more information, see DB instance classes. In RDS for Oracle, you can select Include additional memory configurations. These configurations are optimized for a high ratio of memory to vCPU. For example, db.r5.6xlarge.tpc2.mem4x is a db.r5.8x DB instance that has 2 threads per core (tpc2) and 4x the memory of a standard db.r5.6xlarge DB instance. For more information, see RDS for Oracle DB instance classes.	CLI option: --db-instance-class RDS API parameter: DBInstanceClass	All
DB instance identifier	The name for your DB instance. Name your DB instances in the same way that you name your on-premises servers. Your DB instance identifier can contain up to 63 alphanumeric characters, and must be unique for your account in the AWS Region you chose.	CLI option: --db-instance-identifier RDS API parameter: DBInstanceIdentifier	All
DB parameter group	A parameter group for your DB instance. You can choose the default parameter group, or you can create a custom parameter group. If you are using the BYOL model for RDS for Db2, before creating a DB instance, you must first create a custom parameter group that contains your IBM Site ID and IBM Customer ID. For more information, see Bring Your Own License for Db2. For more information, see Parameter groups for Amazon RDS.	CLI option: --db-parameter-group-name RDS API parameter: DBParameterGroupName	All
DB subnet group	The DB subnet group you want to use for the DB cluster. Select Choose existing to use an existing DB subnet group. Then choose the required subnet group from the Existing DB subnet groups dropdown list. Choose Automatic setup to let RDS select a compatible DB subnet group. If none exist, RDS creates a new subnet group for your cluster. For more information, see Working with DB subnet groups.	CLI option: --db-subnet-group-name RDS API parameter: DBSubnetGroupName	All
Dedicated Log Volume	Use a dedicated log volume (DLV) to store database transaction logs on a storage volume that's separate from the volume containing the database tables. For more information, see Using a dedicated log volume (DLV).	CLI option: --dedicated-log-volume RDS API parameter: DedicatedLogVolume	All
Deletion protection	Enable deletion protection to prevent your DB instance from being deleted. If you create a production DB instance with the AWS Management Console, deletion protection is enabled by default. For more information, see Deleting a DB instance.	CLI option: --deletion-protection --no-deletion-protection RDS API parameter: DeletionProtection	All
Encryption	Enable Encryption to enable encryption at rest for this DB instance. For more information, see Encrypting Amazon RDS resources.	CLI option: --storage-encrypted --no-storage-encrypted RDS API parameter: StorageEncrypted	All
Enhanced Monitoring	Enable enhanced monitoring to enable gathering metrics in real time for the operating system that your DB instance runs on. For more information, see Monitoring OS metrics with Enhanced Monitoring.	CLI options: --monitoring-interval --monitoring-role-arn RDS API parameters: MonitoringInterval MonitoringRoleArn	All
Engine type	Choose the database engine to be used for this DB instance.	CLI option: --engine RDS API parameter: Engine	All
Initial database name	The name for the database on your DB instance. If you don't provide a name, Amazon RDS doesn't create a database on the DB instance (except for Oracle and PostgreSQL). The name can't be a word reserved by the database engine, and has other constraints depending on the DB engine. Db2: It must contain 1–8 alphanumeric characters. It must start with a-z, A-Z, @, $, or #, and be followed by a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _, @, #, or $. It can't contain spaces. For more information, see Additional considerations. MariaDB and MySQL: It must contain 1–64 alphanumeric characters. Oracle: It must contain 1–8 alphanumeric characters. It can't be NULL. The default value is ORCL. It must begin with a letter. PostgreSQL: It must contain 1–63 alphanumeric characters. It must begin with a letter or an underscore. Subsequent characters can be letters, underscores, or digits (0-9). The initial database name is postgres.	CLI option: --db-name RDS API parameter: DBName	All except SQL Server
License	Valid values for the license model: bring-your-own-license or marketplace-license for Db2. general-public-license for MariaDB. license-included for Microsoft SQL Server. general-public-license for MySQL. license-included or bring-your-own-license for Oracle. postgresql-license for PostgreSQL.	CLI option: --license-model RDS API parameter: LicenseModel	All
Log exports	The types of database log files to publish to Amazon CloudWatch Logs. For more information, see Publishing database logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.	CLI option: --enable-cloudwatch-logs-exports RDS API parameter: EnableCloudwatchLogsExports	All
Maintenance window	The 30-minute window in which pending modifications to your DB instance are applied. If the time period doesn't matter, choose No Preference. For more information, see Amazon RDS maintenance window.	CLI option: --preferred-maintenance-window RDS API parameter: PreferredMaintenanceWindow	All
Manage master credentials in AWS Secrets Manager	Select Manage master credentials in AWS Secrets Manager to manage the master user password in a secret in Secrets Manager. Optionally, choose a KMS key to use to protect the secret. Choose from the KMS keys in your account, or enter the key from a different account. For more information, see Password management with Amazon RDS and AWS Secrets Manager.	CLI option: --manage-master-user-password | --no-manage-master-user-password --master-user-secret-kms-key-id RDS API parameter: ManageMasterUserPassword MasterUserSecretKmsKeyId	All
Master password	The password for your master user account. The password has the following number of printable ASCII characters (excluding /, ", a space, and @) depending on the DB engine: Db2: 8–255 Oracle: 8–30 MariaDB and MySQL: 8–41 SQL Server and PostgreSQL: 8–128	CLI option: --master-user-password RDS API parameter: MasterUserPassword	All
Master username	The name that you use as the master username to log in to your DB instance with all database privileges. Note the following naming restrictions: The name can contain 1–16 alphanumeric characters and underscores. The first character must be a letter. The name can't be a word reserved by the database engine. You can't change the master username after you create the DB instance. For Db2, we recommend that you use the same master username as your self-managed Db2 instance name. For more information on privileges granted to the master user, see Master user account privileges.	CLI option: --master-username RDS API parameter: MasterUsername	All
Microsoft SQL Server Windows Authentication	Enable Microsoft SQL Server Windows authentication, then Browse Directory to choose the directory where you want to allow authorized domain users to authenticate with this SQL Server instance using Windows Authentication.	CLI options: --domain --domain-iam-role-name RDS API parameters: Domain DomainIAMRoleName	SQL Server
Multi-AZ deployment	Create a standby instance to create a passive secondary replica of your DB instance in another Availability Zone for failover support. We recommend Multi-AZ for production workloads to maintain high availability. For development and testing, you can choose Do not create a standby instance. For more information, see Configuring and managing a Multi-AZ deployment for Amazon RDS.	CLI option: --multi-az --no-multi-az RDS API parameter: MultiAZ	All
National character set (NCHAR)	The national character set for your DB instance, commonly called the NCHAR character set. You can set the national character set to either AL16UTF16 (default) or UTF-8. You can't change the national character set after you create the DB instance. The national character set is different from the DB character set. Unlike the DB character set, the national character set specifies the encoding only for NCHAR data types (NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, and NCLOB) columns without affecting database metadata. For more information, see RDS for Oracle character sets.	CLI option: --nchar-character-set-name API parameter: NcharCharacterSetName	Oracle
Network type	The IP addressing protocols supported by the DB instance. IPv4 (the default) to specify that resources can communicate with the DB instance only over the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addressing protocol. Dual-stack mode to specify that resources can communicate with the DB instance over IPv4, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), or both. Use dual-stack mode if you have any resources that must communicate with your DB instance over the IPv6 addressing protocol. Also, make sure that you associate an IPv6 CIDR block with all subnets in the DB subnet group that you specify. For more information, see Amazon RDS IP addressing.	CLI option: --network-type RDS API parameter: NetworkType	All
Option group	An option group for your DB instance. You can choose the default option group or you can create a custom option group. For more information, see Working with option groups.	CLI option: --option-group-name RDS API parameter: OptionGroupName	All
Performance Insights	Enable Performance Insights to monitor your DB instance load so that you can analyze and troubleshoot your database performance. Choose a retention period to determine how much Performance Insights data history to keep. The retention setting in the free tier is Default (7 days). To retain your performance data for longer, specify 1–24 months. For more information about retention periods, see Pricing and data retention for Performance Insights. Choose a KMS key to use to protect the key used to encrypt this database volume. Choose from the KMS keys in your account, or enter the key from a different account. For more information, see Monitoring DB load with Performance Insights on Amazon RDS.	CLI options: --enable-performance-insights --no-enable-performance-insights --performance-insights-retention-period --performance-insights-kms-key-id RDS API parameters: EnablePerformanceInsights PerformanceInsightsRetentionPeriod PerformanceInsightsKMSKeyId	All except Db2
Provisioned IOPS	The Provisioned IOPS (I/O operations per second) value for the DB instance. This setting is available only if you choose one of the following for Storage type: General purpose SSD (gp3) Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) For more information, see Amazon RDS DB instance storage.	CLI option: --iops RDS API parameter: Iops	All
Public access	Yes to give the DB instance a public IP address, meaning that it's accessible outside the VPC. To be publicly accessible, the DB instance also has to be in a public subnet in the VPC. No to make the DB instance accessible only from inside the VPC. For more information, see Hiding a DB instance in a VPC from the internet. To connect to a DB instance from outside of its VPC, the DB instance must be publicly accessible. Also, access must be granted using the inbound rules of the DB instance's security group. In addition, other requirements must be met. For more information, see Can't connect to Amazon RDS DB instance. If your DB instance isn't publicly accessible, use an AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection or an AWS Direct Connect connection to access it from a private network. For more information, see Internetwork traffic privacy.	CLI option: --publicly-accessible --no-publicly-accessible RDS API parameter: PubliclyAccessible	All
RDS Extended Support	Select Enable RDS Extended Support to allow supported major engine versions to continue running past the RDS end of standard support date. When you create a DB instance, Amazon RDS defaults to RDS Extended Support. To prevent the creation of a new DB instance after the RDS end of standard support date and to avoid charges for RDS Extended Support, disable this setting. Your existing DB instances won't incur charges until the RDS Extended Support pricing start date. For more information, see Amazon RDS Extended Support with Amazon RDS.	CLI option: --engine-lifecycle-support RDS API parameter: EngineLifecycleSupport	MySQL PostgreSQL
RDS Proxy	Choose Create an RDS Proxy to create a proxy for your DB instance. Amazon RDS automatically creates an IAM role and a Secrets Manager secret for the proxy. For more information, see Amazon RDS Proxy.	Not available when creating a DB instance.	MariaDB MySQL PostgreSQL
Storage autoscaling	Enable storage autoscaling to enable Amazon RDS to automatically increase storage when needed to avoid having your DB instance run out of storage space. Use Maximum storage threshold to set the upper limit for Amazon RDS to automatically increase storage for your DB instance. The default is 1,000 GiB. For more information, see Managing capacity automatically with Amazon RDS storage autoscaling.	CLI option: --max-allocated-storage RDS API parameter: MaxAllocatedStorage	All
Storage throughput	The storage throughput value for the DB instance. This setting is available only if you choose General purpose SSD (gp3) for Storage type. For more information, see gp3 storage (recommended).	CLI option: --storage-throughput RDS API parameter: StorageThroughput	All
Storage type	The storage type for your DB instance. If you choose General Purpose SSD (gp3), you can provision additional provisioned IOPS and storage throughput under Advanced settings. If you choose Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) or Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2), enter the Provisioned IOPS value. For more information, see Amazon RDS storage types.	CLI option: --storage-type RDS API parameter: StorageType	All
Subnet group	A DB subnet group to associate with this DB instance. For more information, see Working with DB subnet groups.	CLI option: --db-subnet-group-name RDS API parameter: DBSubnetGroupName	All
Tenant database name	The name of your initial PDB in the multi-tenant configuration of the Oracle architecture. This setting is available only if you choose Multi-tenant configuration for Architecture configuration. The tenant database name must differ from the name of your CDB, which is named RDSCDB. You can't change the CDB name.	CLI option: --db-name RDS API parameter: DBName	Oracle
Tenant database master username	The name that you use as the master username to log in to your tenant database (PDB) with all database privileges. This setting is available only if you choose Multi-tenant configuration for Architecture configuration. Note the following naming restrictions: The name can contain 1–16 alphanumeric characters and underscores. The first character must be a letter. The name can't be a word reserved by the database engine. You can't do the following: Change the tenant master username after you create the tenant database. Log in with the tenant master username to the CDB.	CLI option: --master-username RDS API parameter: MasterUsername	Oracle
Tenant database master password	The password for the master user account of your tenant database (PDB). This setting is available only if you choose Multi-tenant configuration for Architecture configuration. The password has 8–30 printable ASCII characters, excluding /, ", a space, and @.	CLI option: --master-password RDS API parameter: MasterPassword	Oracle
Tenant database character set	The character set of the initial tenant database. This setting is available only if you choose Multi-tenant configuration for Architecture configuration. Only RDS for Oracle CDB instances are supported. The default value of AL32UTF8 for the tenant database character set is for the Unicode 5.0 UTF-8 Universal character set. You can choose a tenant database character set that is different from the character set of the CDB. For more information, see RDS for Oracle character sets.	CLI option: --character-set-name RDS API parameter: CharacterSetName	Oracle
Tenant database national character set	The national character set for your tenant database, commonly called the NCHAR character set. This setting is available only if you choose Multi-tenant configuration for Architecture configuration. Only RDS for Oracle CDB instances are supported. You can set the national character set to either AL16UTF16 (default) or UTF-8. You can't change the national character set after you create the tenant database. The tenant database national character set is different from the tenant database character set. The national character set specifies the encoding only for columns that use the NCHAR data type (NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, and NCLOB) and doesn't affect database metadata. For more information, see RDS for Oracle character sets.	CLI option: --nchar-character-set-name API parameter: NcharCharacterSetName	Oracle
Time zone	The time zone for your DB instance. If you don't choose a time zone, your DB instance uses the default time zone. You can't change the time zone after the DB instance is created. For more information, see Local time zone for Amazon RDS for Db2 DB instances and Local time zone for Microsoft SQL Server DB instances.	CLI option: --timezone RDS API parameter: Timezone	Db2 SQL Server RDS Custom for SQL Server
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)	A VPC based on the Amazon VPC service to associate with this DB instance. For more information, see Amazon VPC and Amazon RDS.	For the CLI and API, you specify the VPC security group IDs.	All
VPC security group (firewall)	The security group to associate with the DB instance. For more information, see Overview of VPC security groups.	CLI option: --vpc-security-group-ids RDS API parameter: VpcSecurityGroupIds	All