Request for Best Practices to Migrate a Database Between Regions (sa-east-1 to us-east-1)

To efficiently migrate your 800GB database from sa-east-1 to us-east-1 while minimizing costs and service interruptions, consider the following best practices:

1. Assess and plan:

   • Gather information about your database, including table sizes and types of data.
   • Determine if you need a one-time migration or continuous replication.
   • Evaluate the compatibility of your workload with the target region.

2. Choose the right migration method:

   • For a one-time migration, consider using AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) with full load option.
   • For continuous replication, use AWS DMS with Change Data Capture (CDC) to keep the source and target in sync until cutover.

3. Optimize network performance:

   • Use AWS Direct Connect for the lowest latency and most stable connection between regions.
   • Ensure sufficient bandwidth for your workload.

4. Reduce data transfer costs:

   • Consider using AWS Snowball for offline data transfer, which can be more cost-effective for large datasets.
   • If using AWS DMS, data transfer into the service is free, but standard AWS data transfer rates apply for migrations to targets in different regions.

5. Minimize service interruptions:

   • Perform the initial data load during off-peak hours to reduce impact on the production environment.
   • Use CDC to capture incremental changes, allowing you to keep the source database operational during migration.
   • Consider creating a read replica in the target region and promoting it to primary when ready to cut over.

6. Optimize performance:

   • Use appropriate instance types for your replication tasks.
   • Split large tables into segments and load them in parallel to accelerate migration.
   • Avoid creating secondary indexes on the target instance until the migration is complete.

7. Ensure data integrity:

   • Validate data after migration using comparison tools or custom scripts.
   • Re-create users and configure their permissions on the target database.

8. Post-migration considerations:

   • Update application configurations to point to the new database location.
   • Monitor performance in the new region and optimize as needed.
   • Consider retaining the source database as a backup for a period after migration.

Remember to thoroughly test the migration process in a non-production environment before executing it on your live database. This will help identify and resolve any issues specific to your setup.

Sources
Database migration considerations - Optimizing AWS Database Migration Service Performance with Amazon Redshift as Target
Considerations for migrating workloads between AWS Regions | AWS Cloud Operations & Migrations Blog
Migrate the data - AWS Prescriptive Guidance
Migration strategy for relational databases - AWS Prescriptive Guidance
Best practices for migrating large MySQL and MariaDB databases - AWS Prescriptive Guidance