# AWS Database Migration Service

> AWS migration service with ongoing change replication

AWS Database Migration Service moves data between relational databases, warehouses, and NoSQL stores, either as a one-time migration or as ongoing replication that keeps a source and target in sync.

Website: https://aws.amazon.com/dms/

## Use it when

- The job is getting a database into AWS, with replication keeping the target current until cutover; migration is what DMS is built for.
- Sources and targets are heterogeneous; relational, warehouse, and NoSQL engines on either side, with Schema Conversion handling the translation.
- You want AWS to run the replication layer, sized as an instance or consumed serverless as capacity units.
- Ongoing CDC into S3, Kinesis, or an AWS database is useful after the migration completes.

## Think twice when

- CDC is the product, not the migration; purpose-built tools (Debezium for open source, Datastream on Google Cloud) handle schema drift and streaming semantics more sharply, and DMS backfills no altered columns.
- Tables lack primary keys; delivery is at-least-once and duplicates surface without them.
- Latency budgets are tight and sustained; a replication instance is capacity you size and watch.

## How it runs

A managed replication instance (or DMS Serverless capacity units) runs tasks between a source and a target endpoint, full load first, CDC after, with automatic failover to a standby. Sources need log access: ROW binlog on MySQL, supplemental logging on Oracle, MS-CDC on SQL Server. Billing is instance hours or DCU-hours plus storage.

## Details

### General

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| License | Commercial |
| Deployment | Managed, Serverless |
| Workload | Batch, Streaming |
| Operational complexity | Medium |
| Pricing | Subscription |
| Documentation | https://docs.aws.amazon.com/dms/ |

### Change Data Capture

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Sources | Relational, warehouse and NoSQL sources; heterogeneous |
| Source requirements | Oracle supplemental logging, MySQL ROW binlog, SQL Server MS-CDC |
| What you run | A replication instance you size, or DMS Serverless capacity units |
| Initial snapshot | Full load then CDC, in one task |
| End-to-end lag | Seconds: CDCLatencySource and CDCLatencyTarget report the lag |
| Delivery guarantee | At-least-once: duplicates possible without a primary key |
| Schema drift | Limited DDL: add, drop and rename columns; alters aren't backfilled |
| Transformations | Table-mapping rules: rename, prefix, drop or add computed columns |
| Destinations | AWS databases, warehouses, S3 and NoSQL targets |
| Billing unit | Replication instance hours, or DCU-hours on Serverless, plus storage |

## Capabilities

- [Change Data Capture](https://matca.io/capabilities/change-data-capture)

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Source: https://matca.io/aws-dms
Last updated: 2026-08-31T11:40:48.967Z