TOTAL: AWS Certified Database Specialty Exam Prep (DBS-C01)

When preparing for any certification, it is always best to start with the objectives. A solid understanding of exam objectives is the first step to success.

Before working with databases in AWS, it is important to understand databases in general. This episode introduces the concept of a database and several important database terms.

Historically, the most popular kind of database has been the relational database, at least for the past 20 years or so. Before that, flat databases were more popular and NoSQL databases are growing in popularity today. This episode introduces relational databases and their concepts.

In the cloud, AWS can provide a fully managed DBMS, but what is a DBMS? This episode explains the concepts to help you understand what AWS is providing to you with the AWS Relational Database System and other managed databases.

Beyond basic description, important performance differences exist between most local, networked and cloud databases systems. With faster Internet connections, the differences are minimized, but must be considered and this episode explains those differences.

Database applications are the clients of database management systems. This episode explores database applications and the various types available.

Database access languages are used to query, modify, and even create databases. This episode explains the common database access languages available.

SQL is the most popular language used to access databases. It is supported by all major relational databases and this episode introduces the components of the SQL language.

Storing data is not extremely useful if you cannot read that data later. This episode covers the SELECT statement used to read data from your databases.

Just as you can read data with SQL, you can write data. This is performed with the change capable DML statements and they are covered in this episode.

When you need to create objects in the database, you will use DDL SQL statements. These include CREATE and DROP as primary commands and they are covered in this episode.

To begin understanding specific AWS database services, you must first understand the concept of managed vs. hosted database services. This episode explains these concepts and how AWS addresses them.

AWS supports several relational databases and this episode introduces these databases and their capabilities. This information will help you select the best database for your needs.

NoSQL databases are those that do not adhere to traditional relational database structures and instead use a key-value pairing data storage methodology. This episode explains these databases with examples of available solutions in AWS.

Sometimes, the performance requirement of a database system is such that disk-based access is not sufficient. For this, in-memory databases can be used and this episode introduces and explains the concept.

Document databases introduce some confusion to the newly initiated as they sound like a database used to store Word documents, PDF files, and other document types. However, in a document database, the term document carries a different meaning and this episode explains that

Graph databases are specialized databases optimized for storing and navigating relationships (graphs). This episode explores Neptune, the AWS graphing database.

Tracking values over time is becoming increasingly important with the massive growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) market and other use cases. Time series databases are specifically designed for this kind of tracking and this episode explains Timestream, the AWS time series database.

Financial tracking and compliance are important issues in modern business. Ledger database systems, such as AWS QLDB, are useful in achieving compliance and this episode explains this AWS database solution.

At times, you may be required to implement a hosted database management system (instance-based database server) to meet application or other compatibility requirements. This episode lays the foundation for this requirement by addressing the creation of a Linux instance.

One of the most important steps in DBMS deployment is proper security implementation. Access control and authentication are managed differently depending on whether the database is hosted or managed and this episode shows how they differ.

All quality databases begin with good design. The design ensures that the database implemented meets the requirements of the project. This episode introduces the database design concept.

Database design tools are an important part of the DBA’s toolkit. Such tools allow the DBA to model the database and show its relationships. This episode explains and demonstrates such tools.

While the database itself is important, the environment in which it is made available is just as important. This episode provides guidance related to the building of an entire database solution.

Optimizing a database solution for performance may be important for a heavily used database or a large database that runs intensive tasks. This episode provides guidance on designing a well-performing database.

It is quite common that a DBA is required to “grow” a database solution. This scalability allows the system to meet increasing demands and this episode explains how scalability is accomplished in AWS.

In some organizations, compliance is a legal requirement. In others, it is a policy requirement. In either case, AWS helps you to achieve compliance with their database solutions and this episode shows you where eto find information on the compliance requirements you may face.

Recovery begins with backup. This episode explains the backup processes and options related to Amazon RDS and instance-based database solutions in AWS.

Many database solutions require high availability, which indicates that the solution is available more often than a low- or standard-availability solution. This episode explains AWS high availability options.

Encryption is important for both security and compliance within database systems. This episode explains both at rest encryption and in transit encryption.

With a solid plan for a database, you’re ready to begin creating actual database solutions. This episode addresses important pre-creation tasks and then provides a hands-on experience creating an RDS database

After creating a database in RDS, the first thing you should do is connect to it to ensure that everything is working as expected. This episode walks you through the process.

When you require a NoSQL database, in AWS, DynamoDB is the primary database to use. This episode walks you through the quite simple process of creating a DynamoDB database.

Redshift is the AWS data warehousing solution. It requires a cluster configuration to implement it. This episode walks you through the basic process

As you learned previously in this course, DocumentDB is a database for storing documents in JSON format. In this episode, you will see how to create a DocumentDB table.

In this episode, you will see the database ready and OS ready AMIs in the AWS Marketplace. These AMIs can be used to quickly launch and instance-based database solution.

The AWS CLI (Command Line Interface) is a set of commands that can be installed on a local computer or AWS instance and used to manage AWS services, including database. This episode provides references you can use to learn the CLI.

When large numbers of databases must be created or you desire to script the creation of databases, automation can be used. A primary method of automation in CloudFormation and it is explained in this episode.

The primary difference between automation and orchestration is the number of objects created. This episode explores orchestration through multiple templates use in CloudFormation.

Any database migration process should begin with a good strategy. Formulating an effective strategy requires knowing what you have now and what you need in the end. This episode explains both.

Before migration can occur, the source data should be prepared. This may include archiving older data, exporting data, and backing up data. This episode explains the importance of these processes.

The next step, after preparing data for migration, is to prepare the destination – in this case the AWS cloud. This episode explains the basic steps required to prepare for migration in AWS.

Now that we’ve discussed the planning process, in this episode, we will demonstrate a data migration using a SQL Server database as an example

After the data migration, you should not assume that the process was successful. Instead, you should validate the migration and this episode discussed the methods that may be used.

The Database Migration Service (DMS) is used to migrate data. This episode explores the process.

Creating a database is just the start. Managing that database throughout its lifecycle is just as important. This episode explains the basic processes used in database management.

In this episode, you will learn to extract and load data as well as archive data. All three are demonstrated.

Planning for backups is a key component of database management. You should always understand the backup options available to you so that you can select the best backup methods. This episode is all about developing strategies for backups.

In this episode, you will see how to backup an unmanaged database, such as one hosted in an EC2 instance within AWS.

In this episode, you will see how to perform manual backups on a managed database, such as one hosted in AWS RDS.

In this episode, you will learn about the final important component in database backups: restoration. Both managed and unmanaged database restorations are addressed.

In this episode, you will explore the basic management practices related to RDS managed databases. These practices include modifying an RDS instance and working with Option and Parameter groups.

Managing DynamoDB is about creating and managing clusters and working with the data in the database. This episode explores creating a DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) cluster.

Amazon Redshift is designed to scale to very large databases, up to the petabyte scale. For this reason, it depends heavily on clustering technologies. This episode explores the ways in which clusters interact with other AWS services.

Unmanaged databases are instance-based databases. This simply means that they are not managed automatically. This episode explores the ways in which you manage an unmanaged database.

As with local systems, cloud systems also require general operational environment management. The users, groups, servers, and security must be managed and this episode explores these concepts in the context of the AWS cloud.

Monitoring database operations is essential to effective management and security. This episode introduces the monitoring concepts that are addressed throughout this chapter.

AWS alert services can be used to notify you when something is improperly configured, or improper actions are taken. To achieve this, you must first log the appropriate events and CloudTrail is the tool for this.

CloudWatch can monitor and report on events logged by CloudTrail and other events as well. This is your actual alerting service within AWS and this episode explains its use.

In addition to the AWS and DBMS monitoring tools, some third-party companies develop tools for cloud monitoring. These tools will not be covered on the AWS Database exam, but it would not be a complete course without mentioning them.

Auditing is important to security and compliance and monitoring can be helpful. This episode introduces auditing concepts and monitoring’s role in auditing.

AWS includes specific tools that can be helpful for security auditing. This episode describes several of these tools.

One of the end goals of monitoring is the improvement of performance with databases. To wrap up this chapter, we will explore several tips for performance enhancement.