Enable and use RDS and Aurora point-in-time recovery
domain: aws-rds · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Automated backups must be enabled (backup retention period > 0) on the DB instance or cluster — PITR is enabled automatically when this is set
In the AWS Console navigate to the DB instance, click Actions → Restore to point in time; choose the target time within the retention window
For Aurora, you can also use the CLI: aws rds restore-db-cluster-to-point-in-time --source-db-cluster-identifier prod-cluster --db-cluster-identifier prod-restored --restore-to-time 2025-06-10T14:30:00Z
The restored instance is created as a new DB instance or cluster; update the application's connection string to point to the restored endpoint after validation
For Aurora, use the Fast Backtrack feature (if enabled on the cluster) to roll back the same cluster in-place without creating a new instance — much faster than PITR for recent changes
Confirm the earliest restorable time with aws rds describe-db-instances and check EarliestRestorableTime in the response
Known gotchas
PITR restores create a new DB instance/cluster; you cannot restore in-place to an existing instance, so plan for the DNS/endpoint cutover in your runbook
Aurora Backtrack only works if the cluster was created with the BacktrackWindow enabled — it cannot be added retroactively to an existing cluster
The backup retention period setting controls how far back PITR can go; transaction logs are backed up roughly every five minutes, so the first restorable time is approximately five minutes after the DB was created
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