Sqldbaschool

Role snapshot (what RDS/Aurora work looks like)

Migrations: from on‑prem or EC2 to RDS/Aurora using DMS, snapshots, logical export/import, or near‑zero‑downtime cutovers.

Performance & Observability: Enhanced Monitoring, Performance Insights, slow query logs, plan management, index strategy.

HA/DR: Multi‑AZ, Aurora cluster failover, cross‑Region replicas, snapshot restore testing.

Security: IAM auth, KMS encryption, parameter & option groups, secrets rotation, VPC/SG least privilege.

Cost Optimization: Right‑sizing instances, storage autoscaling, IOPS planning, RDS start/stop schedules, RI/Savings Plans awareness.

Automation: Event Subscriptions, Lambda/Step Functions remediations, CloudWatch alarms, SSM documents.

RDS SQL Server vs Aurora (MySQL/PostgreSQL) — where you fit

RDS for SQL Server: Great for teams keeping SQL Server features with managed backups, Multi‑AZ, PI, and Agent alternatives. Know parameter/option groups, native vs RDS backups, and license models.

Aurora (MySQL/PostgreSQL): Cloud‑native scale‑out reads, fast failover; requires comfort with engine nuances, performance parameters, and cluster topology.

Skills checklist (cloud‑specific)

Performance: Performance Insights baselines; slow query analysis; parameter tuning; index/plan strategies.

HA/DR: Multi‑AZ vs Read Replicas; Aurora failover drills; PITR with automated backups + snapshots; cross‑Region copy/runbooks.

Security: IAM auth, Secrets Manager rotation, KMS keys, SG/NACL hygiene, SSL/TLS enforcement.

Networking: Subnets, routing, connectivity across VPCs/accounts; PrivateLink patterns.

Automation: CloudWatch alarms, EventBridge, Lambda responders, start/stop schedules for non‑prod.

Migration tooling: AWS DMS, SCT (where relevant), native backup/restore vs logical export/import.

Interview focus areas (with sample prompts)

Cutover story: “Walk through an RDS SQL Server migration with rollback and validation.”

Aurora failover: “Design and test failover for Aurora with reader endpoints.”

Performance: “PI shows CPU spikes and wait states—what’s your triage path?”

Security: “Lock down public exposure, enforce TLS, rotate secrets, and audit access.”

Cost: “Monthly spend increased 30%—how do you diagnose compute/storage/IOPS drivers?”

Salary & contract ranges (indicative)

Contract: ~USD $80–$135/hr based on migration depth, HA/DR, and multi‑account automation.

Portfolio ideas that stand out

A GitHub README: DMS migration runbook with cutover checklist and validation queries.

Screenshots/redacted scripts: Performance Insights analysis with before/after tuning notes.