Our client, a fast-growing enterprise, relied on AWS to run a mission-critical application. Due to evolving operational needs, they required a seamless migration of this application from their current AWS account (source) to a new AWS account (target). The primary components involved in this migration were EC2 instances and RDS databases, critical to their business continuity.

The organization faced the challenge of migrating a highly sensitive application across AWS accounts without any downtime or data loss. The complexity of this task was amplified by the need to maintain identical configurations, security settings, and access controls in the target AWS account. The risk of service interruption and potential data integrity issues demanded a precise and meticulously planned approach.

To meet the client’s objectives, we devised a comprehensive migration strategy that encompassed the following key steps:

1. Creating EC2 AMIs:

We began by creating Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for the EC2 instances in the source AWS account. These AMIs encapsulated the entire server configurations, including the operating system, applications, and data, enabling the recreation of identical instances in the target account.

2. Snapshot Creation for RDS Databases:

In parallel, snapshots of the RDS databases were taken. These snapshots captured the complete database schema, tables, and data, ensuring that the database could be restored to its original state in the target account.

3. Sharing AMIs and RDS Backups:

The next step involved securely sharing the AMIs and RDS snapshots with the target AWS account. We established AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles and policies to ensure that the target account had the necessary permissions to access and utilize these resources.

4. Provisioning EC2 Instances in the Target Account:

Using the shared AMIs, we provisioned new EC2 instances in the target AWS account. We meticulously replicated security groups, key pairs, and network settings to ensure the new instances were configured identically to their counterparts in the source account.

5. Restoring RDS Instances in the Target Account:

The RDS instances were restored from the shared snapshots in the target account. Configuration settings, including security groups and parameter groups, were adjusted as needed to align with the target environment.

6. Testing and Verification:

Extensive testing was conducted post-migration to ensure the application’s functionality was intact. This included load testing, data validation, and functional testing to verify that the migration was successful and that there were no performance degradations.

With the migration successfully completed, we updated DNS records and adjusted network routing to direct traffic to the newly provisioned instances in the target account. Following this, a thorough resource cleanup was conducted in the source AWS account, including the termination of old EC2 instances and the deletion of unnecessary AMIs and backups.

The Outcome:

The migration was executed seamlessly, with zero downtime and no data loss. Our client now benefits from hosting their application in a more optimized AWS environment that aligns with their current operational needs. The enhanced security measures and cost optimization strategies implemented during the migration have led to significant improvements in both performance and cost efficiency.

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