Amazon Aurora Global Database | Overview.

Amazon Aurora Global Database

Amazon Aurora Global Database is a multi-region, read-optimized deployment of Aurora (MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible) designed for disaster recovery and low-latency global reads. 

It uses physical storage-level replication to copy data from one AWS Region (primary) to up to five read-only secondary regions, with latency typically <1 second.

 Key Features

Feature	Description
Cross-region replication	Replicates data from primary to secondary regions with <1 second latency.
Fast failover	Manual promotion of secondary to primary for DR (in a few minutes).
Global reads	Read from local region to reduce latency for global applications.
Aurora-compatible	Works with both Aurora MySQL and Aurora PostgreSQL.
Up to 5 secondary regions	Each with up to 16 read replicas.
Secure and encrypted	Uses encrypted storage and inter-region transport.

  Use Cases

·        Global Applications

o   Deliver faster response times to global users by serving reads from the closest region.

·        Disaster Recovery

o   Secondary regions act as DR targets with low RTO/RPO.

·        Data Sovereignty

o   Store read replicas in specific countries/regions to meet compliance requirements.

 Architecture Overview

•         Writes go only to the primary region.
•         Reads can be performed from any region.

 Failover Process

•         Manual failover: Promote a secondary region to become the new primary.
•         Fully managed replication re-establishes data flow from the new primary.

 Failover is not automatic — currently requires manual action or automation via scripts/events (like Lambda with CloudWatch).

 Creating a Global Aurora Database (CLI Example)

Step 1: Create primary cluster

#  bash

 aws rds create-global-cluster \

  --global-cluster-identifier twtech-global-db \

  --source-db-cluster-identifier arn:aws:rds:us-east-2:123456789012:cluster:twtech-primary-cluster

Step 2: Add secondary region

#  # bash

aws rds create-db-cluster \

  --db-cluster-identifier twtech-secondary-cluster \

  --engine aurora-mysql \

  --global-cluster-identifier twtech-global-db \

  --region us-east-1 \

  --source-region us-east-2

Supported Engines & Versions

Engine	Min Version for Global DB
Aurora MySQL	5.7 and 8.0+
Aurora PostgreSQL	11.9+

  Limitations

•         Only one writer allowed (in the primary region).
•         Writes must go to the primary, then propagate to secondaries.
•         Manual failover only.
•         Requires Aurora provisioned clusters (not Serverless v1, but v2 is supported).
•         Cost implications due to inter-region replication and replica provisioning.

 Pricing Overview

•         Storage replication across regions.
•         Secondary cluster costs (provisioned compute, I/O, and storage).
•         Inter-region data transfer fees.