Automate the replication of Amazon RDS instances across AWS accounts

Why Replication of Amazon RDS Across AWS?

Before we get into the detailed workflow, I think it is helpful to pause and look at why automating Amazon RDS replication is genuinely important for most of us managing cloud systems. If your primary Amazon RDS database runs inside one AWS account but your operations team needs the same data somewhere else say, in a testing environment, another project’s account, or for an internal DR plan you’d require a setup that replicates data seamlessly, without any noticeable slowdown or round-the-clock manual checks.

Automation, from my own experience, enables all of this efficiently. Once set up, it performs quietly behind the scenes handling backups, replication, and even sending personal notifications if something unusual happens.

The High-Level Amazon RDS Replication Workflow

Here’s a simple way, from my perspective, to explain how the automation works:

• Amazon EventBridge detects a scheduled event or a trigger you have intentionally created like when a database snapshot is generated or updated by your team.
• That event kicks off a Step Function workflow, which maps out the steps needed for replication.
• A Lambda function is called to handle the actual snapshot creation in the source account.
• The snapshot is shared with the target AWS account.
• In the target account, a separate Lambda function takes over and restores the snapshot as a fresh Amazon RDS instance, tailored to our operational requirements.
• While the operation runs, services like Secrets Manager, CloudWatch, and SNS provide extra layers of protection, keep an eye on real-time performance, and send timely alerts you can rely on.

When you use this method, your Amazon RDS data moves smoothly into another account, meaning there’s no need for your team to step in manually.

Getting Started with Cloudairy for Amazon RDS Automation

If you are using Cloudairy to manage your infrastructure templates, setting up Amazon RDS replication becomes more visual and manageable.

1. Login to your Cloudairy account and go to the “Templates” section.
2. In the search bar, type in “RDS Cross-Account Replication.”
3. Once you see the template preview, open it in Designer Mode.
4. Make changes to the Step Function workflow and EventBridge rules depending on how frequently you want replication to happen.
5. Save your configuration and export it for deployment through the AWS Management Console or CI/CD pipeline.

What You Need to Customize in Amazon RDS Setup

No two organizations are the same, so a few tweaks will be necessary to make this work for your use case.

• Replication Timing: Decide how often the Amazon RDS snapshots should be created and shared. This could be daily, weekly, or based on business hours.
• IAM Roles: Set up permissions so that your Lambda functions can access the databases, create snapshots, and share them across accounts.
• Secrets Manager: Store database credentials securely, especially if your Lambda function needs to connect to the database for verification or custom logic.
• Encryption Settings: Use AWS KMS to handle encryption of backups and make sure the target account can access the KMS key.

Components Involved in Amazon RDS Replication

Here’s a breakdown of the AWS services and their roles in this automation:

• Amazon RDS (Green): The source database in Account A.
• Amazon RDS (Blue): The replica database restored in Account B.
• AWS Lambda: Used for snapshot creation, sharing, and restoration logic.
• AWS Step Functions: Coordinates the sequence of tasks involved in replication.
• Amazon EventBridge: Detects triggers and starts the workflow.
• AWS Secrets Manager: Keeps sensitive data like DB passwords safe.
• Amazon SNS: Sends emails or alerts about the replication status.
• CloudWatch Logs: Helps monitor Lambda function output and errors.
• IAM Roles: Grants access to AWS services and handles trust between accounts.
• AWS VPC & Security Groups: Ensures network security for both source and target databases.
• AWS KMS: Manages encryption keys for snapshots and backups.

Real-World Amazon RDS Application Example

Let is say your finance department maintains its own AWS account, separate from the IT operations department. The finance team runs its own Amazon RDS PostgreSQL instance, but the operations team needs read-only access to that data for analytics.

By using this automated Amazon RDS setup, you can schedule a daily snapshot of the finance department’s database and automatically restore it in the operations account. There’s no need to manually send credentials, export and import data, and no risk of human error. Plus, if anything goes wrong like a failed snapshot or a missing IAM permission you will get alerted immediately via SNS.

Summary of Amazon RDS Cross Account Replication

At first glance, setting up automated Amazon RDS replication across AWS accounts may sound a bit overwhelming, but when you carefully break it into small, manageable tasks, it’s actually quite achievable even for a lean technical team like mine. By combining AWS-native tools such as Lambda, Step Functions, and EventBridge, the setup becomes both highly flexible and cost-efficient for growing businesses.

What really stands out is the peace of mind it gives you personally. Whether you’re handling disaster recovery, creating a fresh testing environment, or syncing critical data across operations, your Amazon RDS databases remain consistently updated, completely secure, and super reliable with almost no manual intervention.