In this guide, you will find how to install your eFront system using RDS Database.

1. First we need to create an RDS Database. To do so, click Services on the menu bar and search for RDS. Then select RDS from the results list.
2. Click on Create database (1).
   
   
   

   Note: Make sure that the RDS instance is created in the same region (and VPC) where your EC2 instance has been created.

3. Select Standard Create (2), select MariaDB (3) icon, and then select the latest MariaDB version from the drop list (4).
   
   
4. Select Production if the eFront application is going to be used as your live system, or Dev/Test if the eFront application is going to be used as a testing environment.
   
   
5. In the Settings, change the database name to something descriptive (5), for example eFrontDB and create admin credentials (6) for the admin user of the RDS DB Server (you can select Auto generate a password if you don’t want to create a new password).
   
   
6. You have to select here the DB instance class. Select Standard classes (7) and db.m5.large (8). We suggest at least 8GB RAM 2vCPUs for 500 concurrent users (m5.large).
   
   
   

   Note: For the best performance select db.m5.xlarge instead.

7. In the Storage settings, set the Allocated storage (minimum 100GB) (9) and the Provisioned IOPS (minimum 1000) (10) at the size you prefer.
   
   
8. The next is an optional but recommended step to create a standby instance.
   
   
9. The next step is to create or select the appropriate VPC/Subnet for the RDS.
   
   
   
   • Virtual Private Cloud (11). If you have already created a VPC then it will appear automatically (like Default VPC (vpc-12345678), otherwise you will need to create a new VPC.
   • Subnet group (12). If you have already created a VPC, "default" will be displayed in the drop list menu.
   • Publicly accessible (13). Select No (for security reasons, it will be accessible only by EC2 instances that are in the same VPC).
   • VPC security group (14). Create new: If you’ve already created a Security Group, skip this and select the appropriate Security Group from the drop-down menu. Otherwise you’ll have to create a new one that will enable the communication between EC2 instances and the RDS. Then, type the name of the new Security Group and keep the Database port at 3306
10. Expand the Additional Configuration section, type the Initial database name (15) created in step 5, and Enable automatic backups (select the retention period and backup windows that are suitable for your needs) (16).
    
    
11. In Encryption settings, select Master Key (17) you want to use to encrypt your data in the RDS DB Server and enable Performance Insights (18) with retention period depending on your needs.
    
    
12. Under Monitoring, we suggest that you select rds-monitoring-role (19) in Monitoring Role drop-down list. We also suggest selecting all Log exports (20) to publish to CloudWatch Logs for better administration.
    
    
13. In Maintenance settings, we suggest you to enable auto minor version upgrade (21) and, if you want to have a maintenance window, feel free set it. Make sure you check “Enable deletion protection” (22) to avoid any unwilling circumstances that may impact your business continuity.
    
    
14. Then you are ready to proceed with the creation of the RDS DB Server. It should take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
15. Next you have to SSH access the RDS Server from a server on the same VPC and do the below steps:
    • Create a user for the eFront platform, i.e. efrontuser.
    • Create a database for the eFront platform, i.e. efront.
    • Grant all privileges for efront database and its tables to efrontuser.
    • Flush the privileges to take action immediately.
    • Test the connection using efrontuser and try to creating a test table, then delete it to ensure that everything works smoothly.
16. After that, you are ready to proceed with the eFront setup from a browser, using:
    
    Hostname: <the RDS DB Server full DNS name>
    Username: efrontuser
    efrontuser Database: efront