Automating RDS Postgres to Aurora Postgres Migration

Netflix's Online Data Stores team built an automated self-service workflow to migrate approximately 400 RDS PostgreSQL clusters to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL.

• •Aurora PostgreSQL was standardized after evaluation showed it supported 95%+ of existing workloads, with cloud-native advantages in scalability and high availability
• •Migration follows four phases: data replication, quiescence (halting writes), validation, and cutover to the new endpoint
• •Key technical challenges include guaranteeing zero data loss, minimal downtime, no direct control over client write traffic, and no access to RDS credentials
• •Netflix chose the Aurora Read Replica approach over snapshot-based migration to minimize the downtime window for production services
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