Step-by-Step Guide: Deploying MySQL on AWS RDS and Running Table Joins

A hands-on lab walkthrough demonstrates how to deploy a MySQL or Aurora RDS instance on AWS within a dedicated VPC, connecting to it via an EC2 Linux server acting as a SQL client. The setup uses cost-conscious configurations such as a db.t3.micro instance, gp2 storage, and single-AZ deployment to avoid unnecessary charges. Once connected through the MySQL client on port 3306, the lab creates a database with two tables — one for student records and another for certification events. An INNER JOIN query is then used to retrieve only students who appear in both tables, mirroring a common production data pattern. The guide highlights that security group misconfiguration on port 3306 is the most frequent connection blocker in such RDS setups.