[FEATURE REQUEST] Allow online decrease of allocated storage in RDS

Question

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Relational Database Service (RDS) is a widely used cloud database service. However, it currently lacks the ability to decrease the allocated storage of an instance online based on available free space without dumping/loading the entire database into a new instance. This limitation can lead to unnecessary costs and time consumption for businesses that rely on AWS RDS for their operations.

According to Gartner, AWS holds 45% of the global market share in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Therefore, this issue potentially affects millions of users worldwide who are using AWS services.

I believe that adding this feature would not only save resources but also improve user experience significantly. It would provide businesses with more flexibility in managing their databases and reduce downtime caused by having to dump/load databases into new instances.

I urge Amazon Web Services to consider implementing an online decrease of allocated storage based on available free space within its RDS offering.

Answer

I suggest looking into Amazon Aurora: its storage paradigm removes the need for pre-provisioning storage size and the price you pay for the stored data can go down if you're storing less.

Answer

Which level of support do you have? If you have Developer or Business then open a support case and ask for this as a Request For Enhancement, and if you have Enterprise support then engage an Account Manager.

If you don't have any of them then this forum is the best option, AWS staff regularly look in on this and contribute, so one of them may take this on for you. it may help to make it more prominent by putting **[FEATURE REQUEST]** in the title of your question.

This third-party blog goes through all of the options in much more detail https://cloudar.be/awsblog/tips-for-making-aws-feature-requests/

My gut feel is that this won't come to anything - it's pretty clear that there's been a decision that storage can only be increased and never decreased - but no harm in asking.

https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/rds-db-storage-size
> you can't modify the allocated storage size of the DB instance to decrease the total storage

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_PIOPS.StorageTypes.html#USER_PIOPS.ModifyingExisting
> You can't reduce the amount of storage for a DB instance

[FEATURE REQUEST] Allow online decrease of allocated storage in RDS

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