Mysql – How to transfer AWS RDS snap shot to a different AWS account

1) I'm pretty sure there isn't any pre-available automatic way to achieve this. One day AWS Lambda will probably be capable, when it is taught how to receive an event after the RDS backup has occurred.

2) I think you've misunderstood what the RDS backups do. They actually take a snapshot of the RDS instance (i.e. the hidden EC2 instance on which the RDS instance is running). There is no database dump file which you can obtain and store or use outside of AWS. Restoring an RDS instance backup is actually spinning up a temporary new RDS instance from the snapshot, then copying your data round (or pointing apps to the restored instance)

I'd strongly recommend use of a script that uses your DB-specific dump tool (mysqldump, pg_dump, or whatever it is for SQLServer) to dump the production database from the production RDS instance, then import that into a pre-existing staging RDS instance, on whatever schedule you like.

Found the answer. I need to specify the port number when making the connection, per this article: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_ConnectToInstance.html