Sql-server – How to upgrade an RDS SQL Server Instance to an SSD

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I'm trying to upgrade my RDS SQL Server 2012 instance from magnetic storage to an SSD. It is an instance class of db.m1.large with bring your own license.

  1. I've tried modifying the storage type, but you can't do that with SQL Server instances.
  2. I've tried restoring a snapshot of my instance to a new SSD instance. That is not allowed either because it says the storage types are different.
  3. That leaves me with only one option that I can see. That is to create a new SSD instance, create my database structure on the new server, and then do a data transfer using one of the export/import methods for SQL server.

My question is, are there better ways to do this? It seems like this is way to difficult for the benefits I get using RDS.

A follow up question is should I just move this to an EC2 instance, and be done with RDS so I don't have this problem again.

Best Answer

In the documentation for Modifying a DB Instance to Use a Different Storage Type there is the following note:

You cannot modify an existing SQL Server DB instance to change storage type or modify storage allocation.

And as you say, you can't restore a snapshot into another storage type.

I think your best option is your number 3. Export your database, and then import it on your new RDS instance.

Leaving RDS for a self hosted variant in EC2 seems a bit drastic since changing storage type isn't really something you do every day, my guess is that this is your first and last time that you do it. The features that comes out of the box with RDS are simply too overwhelming for changing to a self hosted solution, in my opinion at least.

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