ApsaraDB RDS and PolarDB

Alibaba Cloud provides fully managed relational database services through ApsaraDB RDS and PolarDB. These services handle provisioning, patching, backups, and high availability so you can focus on your application.

---

ApsaraDB RDS

ApsaraDB RDS is a managed relational database service that supports multiple database engines:

Engine	Versions	Notes
MySQL	5.6, 5.7, 8.0	Most popular choice
PostgreSQL	10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15	Advanced features, strong standards compliance
SQL Server	2012–2022	Enterprise and Web editions
MariaDB	10.3	MySQL-compatible alternative

Key Features

Automated Backups

RDS automatically backs up your database:

• Automatic backups — daily full backups and continuous transaction log backups
• Retention — configurable from 7 to 730 days
• Point-in-time recovery — restore to any second within the retention period

High Availability

RDS supports Primary/Standby deployments:

• The standby instance is in a different availability zone
• Synchronous data replication ensures zero data loss
• Automatic failover takes 30–60 seconds