What steps should be taken to perform the backups?
Attach an Amazon EBS volume with Oracle RMAN installed to the RDS instance.
Take a snapshot of the EBS volume that is attached to the DB instance.
Install Oracle Secure Backup on the RDS instance and back up the Oracle database to Amazon S3.
Take a snapshot of the DB instance.
Explanations:
Amazon RDS does not allow attaching an EBS volume directly to the RDS instance, nor does it support installing Oracle RMAN on RDS instances.
Taking a snapshot of the EBS volume is not applicable to Amazon RDS, as RDS does not use EBS volumes directly for database management in this manner.
Oracle Secure Backup cannot be installed on Amazon RDS, as RDS does not allow installation of custom software or agents.
Taking a snapshot of the RDS DB instance is the correct way to back up an Amazon RDS Oracle database. RDS automatically handles the backup process when a snapshot is taken.
I outline that the answer is:
Take a snapshot of the DB instance.
I conclude that the answer is:
Take a snapshot of the DB instance.