RDS for production on AWS: the setup checklist

RDS for production on AWS: the setup checklist you actually need

Complete Terraform production module

resource "aws_db_parameter_group" "postgres" {
  name = "${var.identifier}-pg15"; family = "postgres15"
  parameter { name = "log_min_duration_statement"; value = "1000" }
  parameter { name = "shared_preload_libraries"; value = "pg_stat_statements" }
}

resource "aws_db_instance" "main" {
  identifier = "${var.identifier}-${var.environment}"
  engine = "postgres"; engine_version = "15.4"
  instance_class = var.instance_class; db_name = var.db_name
  username = var.username; password = var.password

  allocated_storage = 20; max_allocated_storage = 100  # Free autoscaling
  storage_type = "gp3"; storage_encrypted = true

  db_subnet_group_name   = aws_db_subnet_group.main.name
  vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.rds.id]
  parameter_group_name   = aws_db_parameter_group.postgres.name

  multi_az            = var.environment == "prod"
  publicly_accessible = false

  backup_retention_period = 7
  backup_window           = "03:00-04:00"
  maintenance_window      = "sun:04:00-sun:05:00"

  deletion_protection = var.environment == "prod"
  skip_final_snapshot = var.environment != "prod"

  performance_insights_enabled          = true
  performance_insights_retention_period = 7

  enabled_cloudwatch_logs_exports = ["postgresql", "upgrade"]
}

Production checklist

Security:    ✓ Storage encrypted  ✓ Not public  ✓ SG from app only  ✓ Password in Secrets Manager
Reliability: ✓ Multi-AZ  ✓ Automated backups 7d  ✓ Final snapshot  ✓ Deletion protection
             ✓ max_allocated_storage (prevents storage-full outages — FREE)
Observability: ✓ Performance Insights  ✓ CloudWatch logs  ✓ Slow query logging
Operations:  ✓ Custom parameter group  ✓ Maintenance window off-peak

Common production mistakes

• Default parameter group: Not tuned for production — always create a custom one
• Single AZ in prod: Multi-AZ failover < 2 min; manual recovery can be 30+ min
• Not setting max_allocated_storage: Storage autoscaling is free — no reason to skip

Step2Dev provisions this configuration for every project database.

👉 step2dev.com