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Only Amazon RDS MySQL instances are supported. Other database types (e.g., Aurora) are not currently supported.

Required Settings

Your database must be configured with the UTF-8 encoding enabled. This may be done automatically for Amazon RDS MySQL databases, but other unsupported database types like Aurora require external configuration for this. Please see below for information on how to create a database with UTF-8 encoding enabled.

Enabling UTF8 on Amazon RDS

Before creating your database, create a Parameter Group for the database family you are using. We named ours 'UTF8' but feel free to name this whatever you'd like.


You should now see the newly created parameter group in your Parameter Group list.


Ensure that the following values are set to 'utf8'


If you have already created a database before setting these options, you'll have to issue 'ALTER TABLE (table name) CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET UTF8' for every table in the database before continuing.



Recommended Settings

We recommended the following setup for Amazon RDS:

  • Size: db.m3.large

  • Performance: 500 to 1000 IOPS (SSD)

  • Storage: 100 to 300 GB

  • Version: MySQL 5.5.x (5.5.41 is latest as of writing)

  • Multi AZ: Enabled

  • Backups: Enabled

Backup and Restore

Using an external database like Amazon RDS automatically disables database backups; the packagecloud-ctl backup-database command will automatically skip preparing a backup. We recommend that users using Amazon RDS prepare their own backup and restore procedure based on the documentation provided by their service provider.

For help with Amazon RDS, please consult the documentation Amazon AWS provides here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/CHAP_CommonTasks.BackupRestore.html

Any questions or issues with Amazon RDS backup and restore procedures should be directed to your AWS support person for assistance; we do not offer support for Amazon AWS products or services.

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