I need to create an RDS MySQL instance in us-east-1 and would like to replicate this data in another region (say eu-west-1). I know about read-replicas, and I will be using them also, but I wanted to have a back-up non-read-replica in another region.
Has anyone done this?
Is there code out there that does this replication?
I highly recommend switching from RDS MySQL to RDS Aurora, which is MySQL compatible. You won't have to change anything in your code, the database will still appear to be MySQL to any apps that connect to it. Among the many advantages Aurora has over MySQL is that it supports cross-region replication.
There are several ways to do this. I will cover two easy methods. RDS features are based upon engine (MySQL, Aurora, PostreSQL, etc.). Review as required.
1) Create a read-replica of your existing RDS instance in another region. Then promote that read-replica to master. Now you have a separate instance running in another region. You can then stop this instance to minimize billing (for up to seven days).
2) Create an RDS snapshot. Copy that snapshot to another region. When needed launch a new RDS instance from the snapshot.
