Featured resource
2025 Tech Upskilling Playbook
Tech Upskilling Playbook

Build future-ready tech teams and hit key business milestones with seven proven plays from industry leaders.

Check it out
  • Lab
    • Libraries: If you want this lab, consider one of these libraries.
    • Cloud
    • Data
Google Cloud Platform icon
Labs

Using DMS to Migrate a Database for Cost Optimization

One of the most important aspects of any migration of data to the cloud is cost optimization. Luckily, AWS has made this relatively simple thanks to the Database Migration Service. In this hands-on lab, we are going to use the Database Migrations Service (DMS) to migrate a database from an EC2 server to RDS in order to gain the cost savings of running your database on an RDS instance versus an EC2 instance and also getting the full benefit of AWS's hosted architecture.

Google Cloud Platform icon
Lab platform
Lab Info
Level
Intermediate
Last updated
Sep 16, 2025
Duration
1h 0m

Contact sales

By filling out this form and clicking submit, you acknowledge our privacy policy.
Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Create a Replication Instance
    1. Add a name: COreplicationdb
    2. Add description: MySQL EC2 to MySQL RDS
    3. Choose t2.micro.
    4. Set the Engine version to 2.4.3 or the latest version.
    5. Set the Allocated Storage (GB) to 10.
    6. Choose the lab VPC.
    7. Choose no for multi-AZ to ensure multi-AZ is NOT selected.
    8. Uncheck publicly accessible.
    9. Under advanced, change 50 to 10.
    10. For the replication subnet group, choose the default VPC.
    11. Leave no preference for AZ.
    12. Choose the Database Security Group.
    13. For KMS, leave the defaults.
  2. Challenge

    Create a Target Endpoint
    1. Check the Target box.
    2. Check the RDS instance box.
    3. Select the new-db instance from the drop down.
    4. Leave the defaults for the endpoint identifier, target engine, server name, and port number.
    5. For SSL mode, select None.
    6. The user name is cloud_user.
    7. For the password, we have to go back to our Linux Academy credentials and copy and paste the password.
    8. Choose our lab VPC again, the replication instance we created, and run the test.
  3. Challenge

    Create a Source Endpoint
    1. Leave source checked this time.
    2. Do not select the RDS DB instance.
    3. For our endpoint identifier, we can add my-db-source.
    4. For our source engine, we need to select MySQL.
    5. For the server name, we need our EC2 instance's private IP address (10.0.0.121). This is listed on the LA credentials, so let's copy and paste it in.
    6. The port will be 3306 again, the same for our target endpoint.
    7. The SSL mode will also be none again.
    8. The user name is cloud_user.
    9. The password is the same password we used for our target endpoint from the LA credential page.
    10. Again, choose the lab VPC and the replication instance we created.
    11. Run the test.
  4. Challenge

    Create a Task
    1. Add a name: replicationtask
    2. Our replication instance and source and target endpoints are already populated.
    3. For the migration type, click in and see our options, then choose Migrate existing data.
    4. Leave the drop tables on Target for the target table preparation mode.
    5. For the option to include large objects, choose the Do not include large object columns.
    6. Leave Enable validation unchecked; otherwise, it will delay the creation of our task.
    7. Under table mappings, choose classicmodels for our schema.
    8. Leave the table name as a wildcard.
    9. Click on Add selection rule.
    10. Click Create task.
About the author

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

Real skill practice before real-world application

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

Learn by doing

Engage hands-on with the tools and technologies you’re learning. You pick the skill, we provide the credentials and environment.

Follow your guide

All labs have detailed instructions and objectives, guiding you through the learning process and ensuring you understand every step.

Turn time into mastery

On average, you retain 75% more of your learning if you take time to practice. Hands-on labs set you up for success to make those skills stick.

Get started with Pluralsight