Background

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Aurora MySQL is a Relatioal Database Service (RDS) provided by AWS for a fully managed MySQL cluster. It supports automatic backups, and multiple availability zone replication making it an attractive solution, especially for High Availability (HA).

CentreStack supports Amazon Web Services (AWS) Aurora MySQL. However, it is important that the Aurora MySQL cluster be configured correctly to support CentreStack.

Configuration

1. Sign into the AWS portal and navigate to the RDS service.
2. In the pane on the left, click the Parameter groups node:
   
3. Click the Create parameter group button in the upper right:
   
4. Use these settings
   1. Parameter group family: aurora-mysql5.7
   2. Type: DB Cluster Parameter Group
   3. Group Name: <user_configurable>
   4. Description: <user_configurable>
5. Click the Create button:
   
6. Click on the newly created parameter group in the list of parameter groups.
7. Locate and set each of the parameters as seen below:
   
8. After making the changes click the Preview changes button and verify that it matches the screenshot above, then click the Close button.
9. Click the Save changes button. 
10. After the changes have been saved, click on the Source column until it shows descending order (i.e. "user" entries at the top). You should see the parameters set like this:
    
11. Click on the Instances node of the left pane:
    
12. Click on the Create database button:
    
13. In the Select engine screen, click Amazon Aurora, then click the MySQL 5.7-compatible radio button, then scroll down and click the Next button at the bottom of the screen:
    
14. In the Specify DB details screen, use settings appropriate for your deployment.
    1. A db.r4.large is likely sufficient for a Production deployment of a few thousand users, while a db.t2.medium is sufficient for a dev/test environment.
    2. Use the Create Replica in Different Zone for a High Availability deployment, otherwise set this option to No.
    3. The DB instance identifier is arbitrary.
    4. The Master username is arbitrary.
    5. The Master password is arbitrary. 
       
15. Click the Next button to continue to step 3.
16. Most of the settings the Configured advanced settings page are beyond the scope of this document.
    1. Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Usually the Default VPC will be selected but could be another VPC if you have more than one VPC
    2. Subnet group: Usually default but if you have a complex VPC with many availability zone and subnets, you may want to consider creating a RDS subnet group that contains only those subnets that are private and accessible from the CentreStack server.
    3. Public accessibility: Usually No. You'll want to plan ahead and deploy the MySQL Workbench on a Windows instance that you can RDP to within the VPC that has access to the Aurora instance. 
    4. Availabilty zone: Depends on your VPC configuration and CentreStack deployment.
    5. VPC Security groups: Depends. You may want to create a VPC security group that allows inbound TCP 3306 from your CentreStack instance.
    6. DB cluster identifier: Arbitrary
    7. Database name: Arbitrary but CentreStack recommends csmain.
    8. Database port: Usually 3306 - make sure the security group allows this TCP port inbound.
    9. DB parameter group: default.aurora-mysql5.7
    10. DB cluster parameter group: IMPORTANT - Select the name this is the DB cluster group created above. In our screenshot it was centrestackclusterparams. 
    11. Encryption is at your discretion.
    12. Failover is at your discretion.
    13. Backup retention period is at your discretion.
    14. Enhanced monitoring is at your discretion.
    15. Log exports is at your discretion
    16. Auto minor version upgrade is at your discretion.
    17. Maintenance window is at your discretion.
    18. Click the Create database button.
17. In order to connect to the Aurora MySQL cluster, you will need the RDS endpoint. Click on Clusters in the left pane then click on the cluster name you created in the middle pane.
18. Use the fully qualified DNS name reported under the Cluster endpoint setting when setting up the database in CentreStack (note the port number is also displayed in this page):
    
19. Use the Cluster endpoint DNS name as the Host Name in the CentreStack database configuration page: