Route traffic to specific Aurora replicas

What is a Custom Endpoint?

A special endpoint that connects to a specific subset of Aurora instances you choose.

Difference from Reader Endpoint:

• Reader Endpoint: Load-balances across ALL replicas
• Custom Endpoint: Routes to SELECTED replicas only

Why Use It?

Problem: Different workloads need different resources, but Reader Endpoint distributes randomly.

Solution: Create Custom Endpoints to route specific workloads to specific replicas.

Use Case Example

Your Setup

• 2 small replicas (db.r3.large) - normal queries
• 2 large replicas (db.r5.2xlarge) - analytics

Without Custom Endpoint

Heavy analytics queries might go to small replicas → Small replicas overloaded → Poor performance for normal users

With Custom Endpoint

Analytics queries → Custom Endpoint → Large replicas only → Normal users unaffected