# Managed database operations scope (RACI)

Define **who operates what** before signing an MSP database SOW or enabling Aurora Serverless v2
auto-pause in production.

> Reflects **July 2026**: Aurora Serverless v2 platform v3 scales **0–256 ACUs** (~512 GiB max)
> with 0.5 ACU increments; RDS Blue/Green switchover blocks writes until green catches up;
> Aurora Limitless for PostgreSQL uses sharded/reference/standard table types.

## Responsibility layers

| Task | Customer app team | Customer DBA/platform | AWS (managed) | Partner MSP |
|------|-------------------|----------------------|---------------|-------------|
| Schema design / migrations | R/A | C | I | C |
| Query tuning (app SQL) | R/A | C | I | C |
| Index / vacuum / analyze | C | R/A | I | R if SOW |
| Engine minor version patch | I | C | R/A (maintenance window) | C |
| Major version upgrade | C | R/A | C (Blue/Green tool) | R if SOW |
| Failover / Multi-AZ | I | C | R/A | C (runbook) |
| Backup / PITR restore test | C | R/A | R (automated backup) | R if SOW |
| Performance Insights triage | C | R/A | R (feature) | R if SOW |
| RDS Proxy / connection pooling | C | R/A | R (service) | C |
| Secrets rotation (Secrets Manager) | C | R/A | R (integration) | C |
| Aurora Serverless min/max ACU | I | R/A | C | C |
| Limitless shard key design | C | R/A | C | I |
| On-call paging (Sev1) | C | R/A | I | R if SOW |

**Legend:** R = Responsible, A = Accountable, C = Consulted, I = Informed

## When NOT to buy MSP database ops

| Situation | Keep in-house |
|-----------|---------------|
| < 3 production DB instances, single Region | Internal DBA + AWS Support |
| Aurora Serverless v2 dev/test with auto-pause | No 24/7 MSP needed |
| All databases serverless v2 min ACU > 0 with good alarms | Tier-1 only if app team owns SQL |

## When MSP adds value

- **24/7 paging** for tier-0 databases you cannot staff
- **Blue/Green major upgrades** with rollback runbooks
- **Cross-Region DR drill** execution quarterly
- **Limitless** shard-key review before production sharding

## Related posts

- [Managed database ops buyer guide](/blog/aws-managed-database-ops-rds-aurora-buyer-guide-2026/)
- [RDS vs Aurora engine selection](/blog/aws-rds-vs-aurora-when-to-use-which-database/)
- [RDS consulting services](/services/aws-rds-consulting/)