**A blue/green deployment copies a production database environment to a separate, synchronized staging environment. **By using Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments, you can make changes to the database in the staging environment without affecting the production environment.

For example, you canupgrade the major or minor DB engine version, change databaseparameters, or make schema changes in thestaging environment. When you areready, you canpromote thestaging environment to be the newproduction database environment, with downtime typically under one minute.

By using Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments, you can create a blue/green deployment for managed database changes.A blue/green deployment creates a staging environment that copies the production environment. In a blue/green deployment, theblue environment is the current production environment. The **green environment is the staging **environment. The staging environment stays in sync with the current production environment using logical replication.

You can make changes to the RDS DB instances in the green environment without affecting production workloads. For example, you can upgrade the major or minor DB engine version, change database parameters, or make schema changes in the staging environment. You can thoroughly test changes in the green environment. When ready, you can switch over the environments to promote the green environment to be the new production environment. The switchover typically takes under a minute with no data loss and no need for application changes.

Because the green environment is a copy of the topology of the production environment, the green environment includes the features used by the DB instance. These features include the read replicas, the storage configuration, DB snapshots, automated backups, Performance Insights, and Enhanced Monitoring. If the blue DB instance is a Multi-AZ DB instance deployment, then the green DB instance is also a Multi-AZ DB instance deployment.

Workflow of a blue/green deployment