AWS RDS Instance Backup Disable Error

Possible Reason for the Error

Question

A company has been using the AWS RDS-MySQL Instance.

There is a requirement now to disable backups for the AWS RDS Instance.

You are trying to set the retention period to 0 to disable backups.

But this is resulting in an error.

Which of the following could be the possible reason for the error?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

Correct Answer: B.

The AWS Documentation mentions the following.

There are several reasons why you may need to set the backup retention period to 0

For example, you can disable automatic backups immediately by setting the retention period to 0

If you set the value to 0 and receive a message saying that the retention period must be between 1 and 35, check to make sure you haven't set up a read replica for instance.

Read replicas require backups for managing read replica logs.

Thus, you can't set the retention period of 0.

Since this is clearly mentioned in the AWS documentation, all other options are invalid.

For more information on Troubleshooting AWS RDS, please refer to the below URL-

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/CHAP_Troubleshooting.html

The reason for the error while trying to set the retention period to 0 to disable backups for an AWS RDS-MySQL Instance could be due to option C - You cannot disable backups.

Amazon RDS automatically creates backups of your DB instance during the backup window defined for your DB instance. The backup retention period specifies the number of days to retain automated backups.

Although you can reduce the backup retention period to a minimum of one day, you cannot set the backup retention period to 0. This is because automated backups are a critical part of the RDS service and are essential for recovering your data in the event of a failure or a data loss scenario.

Therefore, it is not recommended to disable automated backups entirely. However, if you do not want to keep the automated backups for a more extended period, you can reduce the backup retention period. If you want to turn off automated backups entirely, you can use the "DisableBackupRetention" parameter in the AWS CLI or SDKs to stop retaining automated backups.

Option A - There are already backups in place: This option is not valid because you can set the backup retention period to a value less than the number of backups already created.

Option B - There is a read replica in place: This option is not valid as disabling backups does not affect the read replica.

Option D - The database should be taken offline to disable backups: This option is not valid because disabling backups does not require taking the database offline.