Managing an RDS Proxy

This section provides information on how to manage RDS Proxy operation and configuration. These procedures help your application make the most efficient use of database connections and achieve maximum connection reuse. The more that you can take advantage of connection reuse, the more CPU and memory overhead that you can save. This in turn reduces latency for your application and enables the database to devote more of its resources to processing application requests.

Modifying an RDS Proxy

You can change specific settings associated with a proxy after you create the proxy. You do so by modifying the proxy itself, its associated target group, or both. Each proxy has an associated target group.

aws rds modify-db-proxy --db-proxy-name the-proxy --new-db-proxy-name the_new_name

aws rds describe-db-proxy-target-groups --db-proxy-name the-proxy

{
    "TargetGroups": [
        {
            "Status": "available",
            "UpdatedDate": "2019-11-30T16:49:30.342Z",
            "ConnectionPoolConfig": {
                "MaxIdleConnectionsPercent": 50,
                "ConnectionBorrowTimeout": 120,
                "MaxConnectionsPercent": 100,
                "SessionPinningFilters": []
            },
            "TargetGroupName": "default",
            "CreatedDate": "2019-11-30T16:49:27.940Z",
            "DBProxyName": "the-proxy",
            "IsDefault": true
        }
    ]
}

aws rds modify-db-proxy-target-group --db-proxy-name the-proxy --target-group-name default --connection-pool-config '
{ "MaxIdleConnectionsPercent": 75 }'

{
    "DBProxyTargetGroup": {
        "Status": "available",
        "UpdatedDate": "2019-12-02T04:09:50.420Z",
        "ConnectionPoolConfig": {
            "MaxIdleConnectionsPercent": 75,
            "ConnectionBorrowTimeout": 120,
            "MaxConnectionsPercent": 100,
            "SessionPinningFilters": []
        },
        "TargetGroupName": "default",
        "CreatedDate": "2019-11-30T16:49:27.940Z",
        "DBProxyName": "the-proxy",
        "IsDefault": true
    }
}

aws rds describe-db-proxy-targets --db-proxy-name the-proxy

{
    "Targets": [
        {
            "Endpoint": "instance-9814.demo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
            "Type": "RDS_INSTANCE",
            "Port": 3306,
            "RdsResourceId": "instance-9814"
        },
        {
            "Endpoint": "instance-8898.demo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
            "Type": "RDS_INSTANCE",
            "Port": 3306,
            "RdsResourceId": "instance-8898"
        },
        {
            "Endpoint": "instance-1018.demo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
            "Type": "RDS_INSTANCE",
            "Port": 3306,
            "RdsResourceId": "instance-1018"
        },
        {
            "Type": "TRACKED_CLUSTER",
            "Port": 0,
            "RdsResourceId": "cluster-56-2020-02-25-1399"
        },
        {
            "Endpoint": "instance-4330.demo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
            "Type": "RDS_INSTANCE",
            "Port": 3306,
            "RdsResourceId": "instance-4330"
        }
    ]
}

aws rds deregister-db-proxy-targets --db-proxy-name the-proxy --db-cluster-identifier cluster-56-2020-02-25-1399

aws rds describe-db-proxy-targets --db-proxy-name the-proxy

{
    "Targets": []
}

aws rds register-db-proxy-targets --db-proxy-name the-proxy --db-cluster-identifier provisioned-cluster

{
    "DBProxyTargets": [
        {
            "Type": "TRACKED_CLUSTER",
            "Port": 0,
            "RdsResourceId": "provisioned-cluster"
        },
        {
            "Endpoint": "gkldje.demo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
            "Type": "RDS_INSTANCE",
            "Port": 3306,
            "RdsResourceId": "gkldje"
        },
        {
            "Endpoint": "provisioned-1.demo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",
            "Type": "RDS_INSTANCE",
            "Port": 3306,
            "RdsResourceId": "provisioned-1"
        }
    ]
}

Adding a new database user

In some cases, you might add a new database user to an RDS DB instance or cluster that's associated with a proxy. If so, add or repurpose a Secrets Manager secret to store the credentials for that user. To do this, choose one of the following options:

Adding a new database user to a PostgreSQL database

When adding a new user to your PostgreSQL database, if you have run the following command:

REVOKE CONNECT ON DATABASE postgres FROM PUBLIC;

Grant the rdsproxyadmin user the CONNECT privilege so the user can monitor connections on the target database.

GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE postgres TO rdsproxyadmin;

You can also allow other target database users to perform health checks by changing rdsproxyadmin to the database user in the command above.

Changing the password for a database user

In some cases, you might change the password for a database user in an RDS DB instance that's associated with a proxy. If so, update the corresponding Secrets Manager secret with the new password.

Client and database connections

Connections from your application to RDS Proxy are known as client connections. Connections from a proxy to the database are database connections. When using RDS Proxy, client connections terminate at the proxy while database connections are managed within RDS Proxy.

Application-side connection pooling can provide the benefit of reducing recurring connection establishment between your application and RDS Proxy.

Consider the following configuration aspects before implementing an application-side connection pool:

The maximum number of client connections configured in your application-side connection pool does not have to be limited to the max_connections setting for RDS Proxy.

Client connection pooling results in a longer client connection life. If your connections experience pinning, then pooling client connections might reduce multiplexing efficiency. Client connections that are pinned but idle in the application-side connection pool continue to hold on to a database connection and prevent the database connection to be reused by other client connections. Review your proxy logs to check whether your connections experience pinning.

Configuring connection settings

To adjust RDS Proxy's connection pooling, you can modify the following settings:

IdleClientTimeout

You can specify how long a client connection can be idle before the proxy closes it. The default is 1,800 seconds (30 minutes).

A client connection is considered idle when the application doesn't submit a new request within the specified time after the previous request completed. The underlying database connection stays open and is returned to the connection pool. Thus, it's available to be reused for new client connections. If you want the proxy to proactively remove stale connections, then lowering the idle client connection timeout. If your workload establishes frequent connections with the proxy, then raising the idle client connection timeout to save the cost of establishing connections.

This setting is represented by the Idle client connection timeout field in the RDS console and the IdleClientTimeout setting in the Amazon CLI and the API. To learn how to change the value of the Idle client connection timeout field in the RDS console, see Amazon Web Services Management Console. To learn how to change the value of the IdleClientTimeout setting, see the CLI command modify-db-proxy or the API operation ModifyDBProxy.

MaxConnectionsPercent

You can limit the number of connections that an RDS Proxy can establish with the target database. You specify the limit as a percentage of the maximum connections available for your database. This setting is represented by the Connection pool maximum connections field in the RDS console and the MaxConnectionsPercent setting in the Amazon CLI and the API.

The MaxConnectionsPercent value is expressed as a percentage of the max_connections setting for the RDS DB instance used by the target group. The proxy doesn't create all of these connections in advance. This setting allows the proxy to establish these connections as the workload needs them.

For example, for a registered database target with max_connections set to 1000, and MaxConnectionsPercent set to 95, RDS Proxy sets 950 connections as the upper limit for concurrent connections to that database target.

A common side-effect of your workload reaching the maximum number of allowed database connections is an increase in overall query latency, along with an increase in the DatabaseConnectionsBorrowLatency metric. You can monitor currently used and total allowed database connections by comparing the DatabaseConnections and MaxDatabaseConnectionsAllowed metrics.

When setting this parameter, note the following best practices:

To learn how to change the value of the Connection pool maximum connections field in the RDS console, see Amazon Web Services Management Console. To learn how to change the value of the MaxConnectionsPercent setting, see the CLI command modify-db-proxy-target-group or the API operation ModifyDBProxyTargetGroup.

For information on database connection limits, see Maximum number of database connections.

MaxIdleConnectionsPercent

You can control the number of idle database connections that RDS Proxy can keep in the connection pool. By default, RDS Proxy considers a database connection in its pool to be idle when there's been no activity on the connection for five minutes.

You specify the limit as a percentage of the maximum connections available for your database. The default value is 50 percent of MaxConnectionsPercent, and the upper limit is the value of MaxConnectionsPercent. With a high value, the proxy leaves a high percentage of idle database connections open. With a low value, the proxy closes a high percentage of idle database connections. If your workloads are unpredictable, consider setting a high value for MaxIdleConnectionsPercent. Doing so means that RDS Proxy can accommodate surges in activity without opening a lot of new database connections.

This setting is represented by the MaxIdleConnectionsPercent setting of DBProxyTargetGroup in the Amazon CLI and the API. To learn how to change the value of the MaxIdleConnectionsPercent setting, see the CLI command modify-db-proxy-target-group or the API operation ModifyDBProxyTargetGroup.

For information on database connection limits, see Maximum number of database connections.

ConnectionBorrowTimeout

You can choose how long RDS Proxy waits for a database connection in the connection pool to become available for use before returning a timeout error. The default is 120 seconds. This setting applies when the number of connections is at the maximum, and so no connections are available in the connection pool. It also applies when no appropriate database instance is available to handle the request, such as when a failover operation is in process. Using this setting, you can set the best wait period for your application without changing the query timeout in your application code.

This setting is represented by the Connection borrow timeout field in the RDS console or the ConnectionBorrowTimeout setting of DBProxyTargetGroup in the Amazon CLI or API. To learn how to change the value of the Connection borrow timeout field in the RDS console, see Amazon Web Services Management Console. To learn how to change the value of the ConnectionBorrowTimeout setting, see the CLI command modify-db-proxy-target-group or the API operation ModifyDBProxyTargetGroup.

Avoiding pinning

Multiplexing is more efficient when database requests don't rely on state information from previous requests. In that case, RDS Proxy can reuse a connection at the conclusion of each transaction. Examples of such state information include most variables and configuration parameters that you can change through SET or SELECT statements. SQL transactions on a client connection can multiplex between underlying database connections by default.

Your connections to the proxy can enter a state known as pinning. When a connection is pinned, each later transaction uses the same underlying database connection until the session ends. Other client connections also can't reuse that database connection until the session ends. The session ends when the client connection is dropped.

RDS Proxy automatically pins a client connection to a specific DB connection when it detects a session state change that isn't appropriate for other sessions. Pinning reduces the effectiveness of connection reuse. If all or almost all of your connections experience pinning, consider modifying your application code or workload to reduce the conditions that cause the pinning.

For example, your application changes a session variable or configuration parameter. In this case, later statements can rely on the new variable or parameter to be in effect. Thus, when RDS Proxy processes requests to change session variables or configuration settings, it pins that session to the DB connection. That way, the session state remains in effect for all later transactions in the same session.

For some database engines, this rule doesn't apply to all parameters that you can set. RDS Proxy tracks certain statements and variables. Thus, RDS Proxy doesn't pin the session when you modify them. In this case, RDS Proxy only reuses the connection for other sessions that have the same values for those settings. For details about what RDS Proxy tracks for a database engine, see the following:

What RDS Proxy tracks for RDS for SQL Server databases

Following are the SQL Server statements that RDS Proxy tracks:

What RDS Proxy tracks for RDS for MariaDB and RDS for MySQL databases

Following are the MariaDB and MySQL statements that RDS Proxy tracks:

Following are the MySQL and MariaDB variables that RDS Proxy tracks:

Minimizing pinning

Performance tuning for RDS Proxy involves trying to maximize transaction-level connection reuse (multiplexing) by minimizing pinning.

You can minimize pinning by doing the following:

Conditions that cause pinning for all engine families

The proxy pins the session to the current connection in the following situations where multiplexing might cause unexpected behavior:

Conditions that cause pinning for RDS for Microsoft SQL Server

For RDS for SQL Server, the following interactions also cause pinning:

Conditions that cause pinning for RDS for MariaDB and RDS for MySQL

For MariaDB and MySQL, the following interactions also cause pinning:

If you have expert knowledge about your application behavior, you can skip the pinning behavior for certain application statements. To do so, choose the Session pinning filters option when creating the proxy. Currently, you can opt out of session pinning for setting session variables and configuration settings.

Conditions that cause pinning for RDS for PostgreSQL

For PostgreSQL, the following interactions also cause pinning:

Deleting an RDS Proxy

You can delete a proxy when you no longer need it. Or, you might delete a proxy if you take the DB instance or cluster associated with it out of service.

aws rds delete-db-proxy --name proxy_name

aws rds deregister-db-proxy-targets
    --db-proxy-name proxy_name
    [--target-group-name target_group_name]
    [--target-ids comma_separated_list]       # or
    [--db-instance-identifiers instance_id]       # or
    [--db-cluster-identifiers cluster_id]