Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS

Amazon RDS supports DB instances running several versions and editions of Microsoft SQL Server. Following, you can find the most recent supported version of each major version. For the full list of supported versions, editions, and RDS engine versions, see Microsoft SQL Server Versions on Amazon RDS.

SQL Server 2019 CU5 15.00.4043.16, released per KB4552255 on June 22, 2020.

SQL Server 2017 CU20 14.00.3294.2, released per KB4541283 on June 16, 2020.

SQL Server 2016 SP2 CU13 13.00.5820.21, released per KB4549825 on June 16, 2020.

SQL Server 2014 SP3 CU4 12.00.6329.1, released per KB4500181 on July 29, 2019.

SQL Server 2012 SP4 GDR 11.0.7493.4, released per KB4532098 on February 11, 2020.

SQL Server 2008: It's no longer possible to provision new instances in any Region. Amazon RDS is actively migrating existing instances off this version.

For information about licensing for SQL Server, see Licensing Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS. For information about SQL Server builds, see this Microsoft support article about the latest SQL Server builds .

With Amazon RDS, you can create DB instances and DB snapshots, point-in-time restores, and automated or manual backups. DB instances running SQL Server can be used inside a VPC. You can also use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to connect to a DB instance running SQL Server, and you can use transparent data encryption (TDE) to encrypt data at rest. Amazon RDS currently supports Multi-AZ deployments for SQL Server using SQL Server Database Mirroring (DBM) or Always On Availability Groups (AGs) as a high-availability, failover solution.

To deliver a managed service experience, Amazon RDS does not provide shell access to DB instances, and it restricts access to certain system procedures and tables that require advanced privileges. Amazon RDS supports access to databases on a DB instance using any standard SQL client application such as Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. Amazon RDS does not allow direct host access to a DB instance via Telnet, Secure Shell (SSH), or Windows Remote Desktop Connection. When you create a DB instance, the master user is assigned to the db_owner role for all user databases on that instance, and has all database-level permissions except for those that are used for backups. Amazon RDS manages backups for you.

Before creating your first DB instance, you should complete the steps in the setting up section of this guide. For more information, see Setting Up for Amazon RDS.

Common Management Tasks for Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS

The following are the common management tasks you perform with an Amazon RDS SQL Server DB instance, with links to relevant documentation for each task.

There are also advanced administrative tasks for working with SQL Server DB instances. For more information, see the following documentation:

Limits for Microsoft SQL Server DB Instances

The Amazon RDS implementation of Microsoft SQL Server on a DB instance has some limitations that you should be aware of:

The maximum number of databases supported on a DB instance depends on the instance class type and the availability mode—Single-AZ, Multi-AZ Database Mirroring (DBM), or Multi-AZ Availability Groups (AGs). The Microsoft SQL Server system databases don't count toward this limit. The following table shows the maximum number of supported databases for each instance class type and availability mode. Use this table to help you decide if you can move from one instance class type to another, or from one availability mode to another. If your source DB instance has more databases than the target instance class type or availability mode can support, modifying the DB instance fails. You can see the status of your request in the Events pane. Instance Class Type Single-AZ Multi-AZ with DBM Multi-AZ with Always On AGs db.*.micro to db.*.medium 30 N/A N/A db.*.large 30 30 30 db.*.xlarge to db.*.16xlarge 100 50 75 db.*.24xlarge 100 50 100 * Represents the different instance class types. For example, let's say that your DB instance runs on a db.*.16xlarge with Single-AZ and that it has 76 databases. You modify the DB instance to upgrade to using Multi-AZ Always On AGs. This upgrade fails, because your DB instance contains more databases than your target configuration can support. If you upgrade your instance class type to db.*.24xlarge instead, the modification succeeds. If the upgrade fails, you see events and messages similar to the following: Unable to modify database instance class. The instance has 76 databases, but after conversion it would only support 75. Unable to convert the DB instance to Multi-AZ: The instance has 76 databases, but after conversion it would only support 75. If the point-in-time restore or snapshot restore fails, you see events and messages similar to the following: Database instance put into incompatible-restore. The instance has 76 databases, but after conversion it would only support 75.

Some ports are reserved for Amazon RDS, and you can't use them when you create a DB instance.

Client connections from IP addresses within the range 169.254.0.0/16 are not permitted. This is the Automatic Private IP Addressing Range (APIPA), which is used for local-link addressing.

SQL Server Standard Edition will use only a subset of the available processors if the DB instance has more processors than the software limits (24 cores, 4 sockets, and 128GB RAM). Examples of this are the db.m5.24xlarge and db.r5.24xlarge instance classes.

Amazon RDS for SQL Server doesn't support importing data into the msdb database.

You can't rename databases on a DB instance in a SQL Server Multi-AZ deployment.

The maximum storage size for SQL Server DB instances is the following: General Purpose (SSD) storage – 16 TiB for all editions Provisioned IOPS storage – 16 TiB for all editions Magnetic storage – 1 TiB for all editions If you have a scenario that requires a larger amount of storage, you can use sharding across multiple DB instances to get around the limit. This approach requires data-dependent routing logic in applications that connect to the sharded system. You can use an existing sharding framework, or you can write custom code to enable sharding. If you use an existing framework, the framework can't install any components on the same server as the DB instance.

The minimum storage size for SQL Server DB instances is the following: General Purpose (SSD) storage – 20 GiB for Enterprise, Standard, Web, and Express editions Provisioned IOPS storage – 20 GiB for Enterprise and Standard editions, 100 GiB for Web and Express editions Magnetic storage – 200 GiB for Enterprise and Standard editions, 20 GiB for Web and Express editions

Amazon RDS doesn't support running these services on the same server as your RDS DB instance: Data Quality Services Master Data Services To use these features, we recommend that you install SQL Server on an Amazon EC2 instance, or use an on-premises SQL Server instance. In these cases, the EC2 or SQL Server instance acts as the Master Data Services server for your SQL Server DB instance on Amazon RDS. You can install SQL Server on an Amazon EC2 instance with Amazon EBS storage, pursuant to Microsoft licensing policies.

Because of limitations in Microsoft SQL Server, restoring to a point in time before successfully running DROP DATABASE might not reflect the state of that database at that point in time. For example, the dropped database is typically restored to its state up to 5 minutes before the DROP DATABASE command was issued. This type of restore means that you can't restore the transactions made during those few minutes on your dropped database. To work around this, you can reissue the DROP DATABASE command after the restore operation is completed. Dropping a database removes the transaction logs for that database.

For SQL Server, you create your databases after you create your DB instance. Database names follow the usual SQL Server naming rules with the following differences: Database names can't start with rdsadmin . They can't start or end with a space or a tab. They can't contain any of the characters that create a new line. They can't contain a single quote ( ' ).



DB Instance Class Support for Microsoft SQL Server

The computation and memory capacity of a DB instance is determined by its DB instance class. The DB instance class you need depends on your processing power and memory requirements. For more information, see DB Instance Classes.

The following list of DB instance classes supported for Microsoft SQL Server is provided here for your convenience. For the most current list, see the RDS console: https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/ .

SQL Server Edition 2019 Support Range 2017 and 2016 Support Range 2014 and 2012 Support Range Enterprise Edition db.t3.xlarge – db.t3.2xlarge db.r5.xlarge – db.r5.24xlarge db.m5.xlarge – db.m5.24xlarge db.x1.16xlarge – db.x1.32xlarge db.x1e.xlarge – db.x1e.32xlarge db.z1d.xlarge – db.z1d.3xlarge db.t3.xlarge – db.t3.2xlarge db.r3.xlarge – db.r3.8xlarge db.r4.xlarge – db.r4.16xlarge db.r5.xlarge – db.r5.24xlarge db.m4.xlarge – db.m4.16xlarge db.m5.xlarge – db.m5.24xlarge db.x1.16xlarge – db.x1.32xlarge db.x1e.xlarge – db.x1e.32xlarge db.z1d.xlarge – db.z1d.3xlarge db.t3.xlarge – db.t3.2xlarge db.r3.xlarge – db.r3.8xlarge db.r4.xlarge – db.r4.8xlarge db.r5.xlarge – db.r5.24xlarge db.m4.xlarge – db.m4.10xlarge db.m5.xlarge – db.m5.24xlarge db.x1.16xlarge – db.x1.32xlarge Standard Edition db.t3.xlarge – db.t3.2xlarge db.r5.large – db.r5.24xlarge db.m5.large – db.m5.24xlarge db.x1.16xlarge – db.x1.32xlarge db.x1e.xlarge – db.x1e.32xlarge db.z1d.large – db.z1d.3xlarge db.t3.xlarge – db.t3.2xlarge db.r4.large – db.r4.16xlarge db.r5.large – db.r5.24xlarge db.m4.large – db.m4.16xlarge db.m5.large – db.m5.24xlarge db.x1.16xlarge – db.x1.32xlarge db.x1e.xlarge – db.x1e.32xlarge db.z1d.large – db.z1d.3xlarge db.t3.xlarge – db.t3.2xlarge db.r3.large – db.r3.8xlarge db.r4.large – db.r4.8xlarge db.r5.large – db.r5.24xlarge db.m3.medium – db.m3.2xlarge db.m4.large – db.m4.10xlarge db.m5.large – db.m5.24xlarge db.x1.16xlarge – db.x1.32xlarge Web Edition db.t3.small – db.t3.2xlarge db.r5.large – db.r5.4xlarge db.m5.large – db.m5.4xlarge db.z1d.large – db.z1d.3xlarge db.t2.small – db.t2.medium db.t3.small – db.t3.2xlarge db.r4.large – db.r4.2xlarge db.r5.large – db.r5.4xlarge db.m4.large – db.m4.4xlarge db.m5.large – db.m5.4xlarge db.z1d.large – db.z1d.3xlarge db.t2.small – db.t2.medium db.t3.small – db.t3.2xlarge db.r3.large – db.r3.2xlarge db.r4.large – db.r4.2xlarge db.r5.large – db.r5.4xlarge db.m3.medium – db.m3.2xlarge db.m4.large – db.m4.4xlarge db.m5.large – db.m5.4xlarge Express Edition db.t3.small – db.t3.xlarge db.t2.micro – db.t2.medium db.t3.small – db.t3.xlarge db.t2.micro – db.t2.medium db.t3.small – db.t3.xlarge

Microsoft SQL Server Security

The Microsoft SQL Server database engine uses role-based security. The master user name you use when you create a DB instance is a SQL Server Authentication login that is a member of the processadmin , public , and setupadmin fixed server roles.

Any user who creates a database is assigned to the db_owner role for that database and has all database-level permissions except for those that are used for backups. Amazon RDS manages backups for you.

The following server-level roles are not currently available in Amazon RDS:

bulkadmin

dbcreator

diskadmin

securityadmin

serveradmin

sysadmin

The following server-level permissions are not available on SQL Server DB instances:

ALTER ANY CREDENTIAL

ALTER ANY EVENT NOTIFICATION

ALTER ANY EVENT SESSION

ALTER RESOURCES

ALTER SETTINGS (you can use the DB parameter group API operations to modify parameters; for more information, see Working with DB Parameter Groups)

AUTHENTICATE SERVER

CONTROL_SERVER

CREATE DDL EVENT NOTIFICATION

CREATE ENDPOINT

CREATE TRACE EVENT NOTIFICATION

EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY

SHUTDOWN (You can use the RDS reboot option instead)

UNSAFE ASSEMBLY

ALTER ANY AVAILABILITY GROUP (SQL Server 2012 only)

CREATE ANY AVAILABILITY GROUP (SQL Server 2012 only)

Compliance Program Support for Microsoft SQL Server DB Instances

AWS Services in Scope have been fully assessed by a third-party auditor and result in a certification, attestation of compliance, or Authority to Operate (ATO). For more information, see AWS Services in Scope by Compliance Program .

HIPAA Support for Microsoft SQL Server DB Instances

You can use Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server databases to build HIPAA-compliant applications. You can store healthcare-related information, including protected health information (PHI), under a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with AWS. For more information, see HIPAA Compliance .

Amazon RDS for SQL Server supports HIPAA for the following versions and editions:

SQL Server 2017 Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions

SQL Server 2016 Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions

SQL Server 2014 Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions

SQL Server 2012 Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions

To enable HIPAA support on your DB instance, set up the following three components.

Component Details Auditing To set up auditing, set the parameter rds.sqlserver_audit to the value fedramp_hipaa . If your DB instance is not already using a custom DB parameter group, you must create a custom parameter group and attach it to your DB instance before you can modify the rds.sqlserver_audit parameter. For more information, see Working with DB Parameter Groups. Transport Encryption To set up transport encryption, force all connections to your DB instance to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). For more information, see Forcing Connections to Your DB Instance to Use SSL. Encryption at Rest To set up encryption at rest, you have two options: If you are running Enterprise Edition, you can choose to use Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) to achieve encryption at rest. For more information, see Support for Transparent Data Encryption in SQL Server. You can set up encryption at rest by using AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encryption keys. For more information, see Encrypting Amazon RDS Resources.

SSL Support for Microsoft SQL Server DB Instances

You can use SSL to encrypt connections between your applications and your Amazon RDS DB instances running Microsoft SQL Server. You can also force all connections to your DB instance to use SSL. If you force connections to use SSL, it happens transparently to the client, and the client doesn't have to do any work to use SSL.

SSL is supported in all AWS Regions and for all supported SQL Server editions. For more information, see Using SSL with a Microsoft SQL Server DB Instance.

Microsoft SQL Server Versions on Amazon RDS

You can specify any currently supported Microsoft SQL Server version when creating a new DB instance. You can specify the Microsoft SQL Server major version (such as Microsoft SQL Server 14.00), and any supported minor version for the specified major version. If no version is specified, Amazon RDS defaults to a supported version, typically the most recent version. If a major version is specified but a minor version is not, Amazon RDS defaults to a recent release of the major version you have specified.

The following table shows the supported versions for all editions and all AWS Regions, except where noted. You can also use the describe-db-engine-versions AWS CLI command to see a list of supported versions, as well as defaults for newly created DB instances.

SQL Server Versions Supported in RDS Major Version Minor Version RDS API EngineVersion and CLI engine-version SQL Server 2019 15.00.4043.16 (CU5) 15.00.4043.16.v1 SQL Server 2017 14.00.3294.2 (CU20) 14.00.3281.6 (CU19) 14.00.3223.3 (CU16) 14.00.3192.2 14.00.3049.1 14.00.3035.2 (CU9 GDR) 14.00.3015.40 (CU3) 14.00.1000.169 (RTM) 14.00.3294.2.v1 14.00.3281.6.v1 14.00.3223.3.v1 14.00.3192.2.v1 14.00.3049.1.v1 14.00.3035.2.v1 14.00.3015.40.v1 14.00.1000.169.v1 SQL Server 2016 13.00.5820.21 (SP2 CU13) 13.00.5598.27 (SP2 CU11) 13.00.5426.0 (SP2 CU8) 13.00.5366.0 (SP2) 13.00.5292.0 (CU6) 13.00.5216.0 (CU3) 13.00.4522.0 (SP1 CU10 Security Update) 13.00.4466.4 (SP1 CU7) 13.00.4451.0 (SP1 CU5) 13.00.4422.0 (SP1 CU2) 13.00.2164.0 (RTM CU2) 13.00.5820.21.v1 13.00.5598.27.v1 13.00.5426.0.v1 13.00.5366.0.v1 13.00.5292.0.v1 13.00.5216.0.v1 13.00.4522.0.v1 13.00.4466.4.v1 13.00.4451.0.v1 13.00.4422.0.v1 13.00.2164.0.v1 SQL Server 2014 12.00.6329.1 (SP3 CU4) 12.00.6293.0 (SP3 CU3) 12.00.5571.0 (SP2 CU10) 12.00.5546.0 (SP2 CU5) 12.00.5000.0 (SP2) 12.00.6329.1.v1 12.00.6293.0.v1 12.00.5571.0.v1 12.00.5546.0.v1 12.00.5000.0.v1 SQL Server 2012 11.00.7493.4 (SP4 GDR) 11.00.7462.6 (SP4 GDR) 11.00.6594.0 (SP3 CU8) 11.00.6020.0 (SP3) 11.00.5058.0 (SP2), except US East (Ohio), Canada (Central), and Europe (London) 11.00.7493.4.v1 11.00.7462.6.v1 11.00.6594.0.v1 11.00.6020.0.v1 11.00.5058.0.v1

Version Management in Amazon RDS

Amazon RDS includes flexible version management that enables you to control when and how your DB instance is patched or upgraded. This enables you to do the following for your DB engine:

Maintain compatibility with database engine patch versions.

Test new patch versions to verify that they work with your application before you deploy them in production.

Plan and perform version upgrades to meet your service level agreements and timing requirements.

Microsoft SQL Server Engine Patching in Amazon RDS

Amazon RDS periodically aggregates official Microsoft SQL Server database patches into a DB instance engine version that's specific to Amazon RDS. For more information about the Microsoft SQL Server patches in each engine version, see Version and Feature Support on Amazon RDS.

Currently, you manually perform all engine upgrades on your DB instance. For more information, see Upgrading the Microsoft SQL Server DB Engine.

Deprecation Schedule for Major Engine Versions of Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS

The table following displays the planned schedule of deprecations for major engine versions of Microsoft SQL Server.

Date Information July 12, 2019 The Amazon RDS team deprecated support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 in June 2019. Remaining instances of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 are migrating to SQL Server 2012 (latest minor version available). To avoid an automatic upgrade from Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, you can upgrade at a time that is convenient to you. For more information, see Upgrading a DB Instance Engine Version. April 25, 2019 Before the end of April 2019, you will no longer be able to create new Amazon RDS for SQL Server database instances using Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2.

Microsoft SQL Server Features on Amazon RDS

The supported SQL Server versions on Amazon RDS include the following features.

Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Features

SQL Server 2019 includes many new features, such as the following:

Accelerated database recovery (ADR) – Reduces crash recovery time after a restart or a long-running transaction rollback.

Intelligent Query Processing (IQP): Row mode memory grant feedback – Corrects excessive grants automatically, that would otherwise result in wasted memory and reduced concurrency. Batch mode on rowstore – Enables batch mode execution for analytic workloads without requiring columnstore indexes. Table variable deferred compilation – Improves plan quality and overall performance for queries that reference table variables.

Intelligent performance: OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY index option – Improves throughput for high-concurrency inserts into indexes. Improved indirect checkpoint scalability – Helps databases with heavy DML workloads. Concurrent Page Free Space (PFS) updates – Enables handling as a shared latch rather than an exclusive latch.

Monitoring improvements: WAIT_ON_SYNC_STATISTICS_REFRESH wait type – Shows accumulated instance-level time spent on synchronous statistics refresh operations. Database-scoped configurations – Include LIGHTWEIGHT_QUERY_PROFILING and LAST_QUERY_PLAN_STATS . Dynamic management functions (DMFs) – Include sys.dm_exec_query_plan_stats and sys.dm_db_page_info .

Verbose truncation warnings – The data truncation error message defaults to include table and column names and the truncated value.

Resumable online index creation – In SQL Server 2017, only resumable online index rebuild is supported.

For the full list of SQL Server 2019 features, see What's new in SQL Server 2019 (15.x) in the Microsoft documentation.

For a list of unsupported features, see Features Not Supported and Features with Limited Support.

Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Features

SQL Server 2017 includes many new features, such as the following:

Adaptive query processing

Automatic plan correction

GraphDB

Resumable index rebuilds

For the full list of SQL Server 2017 features, see What's new in SQL Server 2017 in the Microsoft documentation.

For a list of unsupported features, see Features Not Supported and Features with Limited Support.

Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Features

Amazon RDS supports the following features of SQL Server 2016:

Always Encrypted

JSON Support

Operational Analytics

Query Store

Temporal Tables

For the full list of SQL Server 2016 features, see What's New in SQL Server 2016 in the Microsoft documentation.

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Features

In addition to supported features of SQL Server 2012, Amazon RDS supports the new query optimizer available in SQL Server 2014, and also the delayed durability feature.

For a list of unsupported features, see Features Not Supported and Features with Limited Support.

SQL Server 2014 supports all the parameters from SQL Server 2012 and uses the same default values. SQL Server 2014 includes one new parameter, backup checksum default. For more information, see How to enable the CHECKSUM option if backup utilities do not expose the option in the Microsoft documentation.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Features

In addition to supported features of SQL Server 2008 R2, Amazon RDS supports the following SQL Server 2012 features:

Columnstore indexes (Enterprise Edition)

Online Index Create, Rebuild and Drop for XML, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), and varbinary(max) data types (Enterprise Edition)

Flexible Server Roles

Service Broker is supported, Service Broker endpoints are not supported

Partially Contained Databases

Sequences

Transparent Data Encryption (Enterprise Edition only)

THROW statement

New and enhanced spatial types

UTF-16 Support

ALTER ANY SERVER ROLE server-level permission

For more information about SQL Server 2012, see Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2012 in the Microsoft documentation.

For a list of unsupported features, see Features Not Supported and Features with Limited Support.

Some SQL Server parameters have changed in SQL Server 2012.

The following parameters have been removed from SQL Server 2012: awe enabled , precompute rank , and sql mail xps . These parameters were not modifiable in SQL Server DB Instances and their removal should have no impact on your SQL Server use.

A new contained database authentication parameter in SQL Server 2012 supports partially contained databases. When you enable this parameter and then create a partially contained database, an authorized user's user name and password is stored within the partially contained database instead of in the primary database. For more information about partially contained databases, see Contained Databases in the Microsoft documentation.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Deprecated on Amazon RDS

We are upgrading all existing instances that are still using SQL Server 2008 R2 to the latest minor version of SQL Server 2012. For more information, see Version Management in Amazon RDS.

For more information about SQL Server 2008 R2, see Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 in the Microsoft documentation.

Change Data Capture Support for Microsoft SQL Server DB Instances

Amazon RDS supports change data capture (CDC) for your DB instances running Microsoft SQL Server. CDC captures changes that are made to the data in your tables, and stores metadata about each change that you can access later. For more information, see Change Data Capture in the Microsoft documentation.

Amazon RDS supports CDC for the following SQL Server editions and versions:

Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition (All versions)

Microsoft SQL Server Standard Edition: 2019 2017 2016 version 13.00.4422.0 SP1 CU2 and later



To use CDC with your Amazon RDS DB instances, first enable or disable CDC at the database level by using RDS-provided stored procedures. After that, any user that has the db_owner role for that database can use the native Microsoft stored procedures to control CDC on that database. For more information, see Using Change Data Capture.

You can use CDC and AWS Database Migration Service to enable ongoing replication from SQL Server DB instances.

Features Not Supported and Features with Limited Support

The following Microsoft SQL Server features are not supported on Amazon RDS:

Backing up to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage

Buffer pool extension

Data Quality Services

Database Log Shipping

Database Mail

Extended stored procedures, including xp_cmdshell

FILESTREAM support

File tables

Machine Learning and R Services (requires OS access to install it)

Maintenance Plans

Performance Data Collector

Policy-Based Management

PolyBase

Replication

Resource Governor

Server-level triggers

Service Broker endpoints

Stretch database

T-SQL endpoints (all operations using CREATE ENDPOINT are unavailable)

WCF Data Services

The following Microsoft SQL Server features have limited support on Amazon RDS:

Distributed Queries / Linked Servers. For more information, see: Implementing Linked Servers with Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server .

Multi-AZ Deployments Using Microsoft SQL Server Database Mirroring or Always On Availability Groups

Amazon RDS supports Multi-AZ deployments for DB instances running Microsoft SQL Server by using SQL Server Database Mirroring (DBM) or Always On Availability Groups (AGs). Multi-AZ deployments provide increased availability, data durability, and fault tolerance for DB instances. In the event of planned database maintenance or unplanned service disruption, Amazon RDS automatically fails over to the up-to-date secondary replica so database operations can resume quickly without manual intervention. The primary and secondary instances use the same endpoint, whose physical network address transitions to the passive secondary replica as part of the failover process. You don't have to reconfigure your application when a failover occurs.

Amazon RDS manages failover by actively monitoring your Multi-AZ deployment and initiating a failover when a problem with your primary occurs. Failover doesn't occur unless the standby and primary are fully in sync. Amazon RDS actively maintains your Multi-AZ deployment by automatically repairing unhealthy DB instances and re-establishing synchronous replication. You don't have to manage anything. Amazon RDS handles the primary, the witness, and the standby instance for you. When you set up SQL Server Multi-AZ, RDS configures passive secondary instances for all of the databases on the instance.

For more information, see Multi-AZ Deployments for Microsoft SQL Server.

Using Transparent Data Encryption to Encrypt Data at Rest

Amazon RDS supports Microsoft SQL Server Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), which transparently encrypts stored data. Amazon RDS uses option groups to enable and configure these features. For more information about the TDE option, see Support for Transparent Data Encryption in SQL Server.

Functions and Stored Procedures for Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server

The following table lists Amazon RDS functions and stored procedures that help automate SQL Server tasks.

Local Time Zone for Microsoft SQL Server DB Instances

The time zone of an Amazon RDS DB instance running Microsoft SQL Server is set by default. The current default is Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). You can set the time zone of your DB instance to a local time zone instead, to match the time zone of your applications.

You set the time zone when you first create your DB instance. You can create your DB instance by using the AWS Management Console, the Amazon RDS API CreateDBInstance action, or the AWS CLI create-db-instance command.

If your DB instance is part of a Multi-AZ deployment (using SQL Server DBM or AGs), then when you fail over, your time zone remains the local time zone that you set. For more information, see Multi-AZ Deployments Using Microsoft SQL Server Database Mirroring or Always On Availability Groups .

When you request a point-in-time restore, you specify the time to restore to. The time is shown in your local time zone. For more information, see Restoring a DB Instance to a Specified Time.

The following are limitations to setting the local time zone on your DB instance:

You can't modify the time zone of an existing SQL Server DB instance.

You can't restore a snapshot from a DB instance in one time zone to a DB instance in a different time zone.

We strongly recommend that you don't restore a backup file from one time zone to a different time zone. If you restore a backup file from one time zone to a different time zone, you must audit your queries and applications for the effects of the time zone change. For more information, see Importing and Exporting SQL Server Databases.

Supported Time Zones

You can set your local time zone to one of the values listed in the following table.