You service(s) may want to store/access data in Postgres/MySQL database. This guide will show you steps to create and access Amazon RDS databases that offer fully managed Postgres/MySQL databases.

To proceed with this guide, you would need access to:

  1. AWS console with permissions to create RDS database
  2. LocalOps console

Goal is to create a RDS database in AWS and give your environment/service(s) access to it. Please follow the steps below to proceed:

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Steps:

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1. Fetch the VPC and private subnet IDs

To give your environment and service(s) access to a RDS database, you need to create the RDS database within the same VPC and region used by the environment.

Navigate to LocalOps console and the environment you created. In the environment’s overview section,

  1. Pick/copy the VPC ID and Private Subnet IDs
  2. Note down the region

You will use these in the next step while creating the RDS database.

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2. Create RDS database

Login to the same AWS account and region where you created the environment using LocalOps. And create new RDS database with appropriate engine - Postgres/MySQL.

You will have to create a new subnet group first before creating the RDS instance. While creating the subnet group, use the VPC ID and private subnet IDs you copied above.

For the same app, if you already have a RDS database in a different AWS account, different VPC or in a different region, you can very well use the same and skip creating a new RDS database. We can connect your environment/services and the database via VPC peering. Learn more about using an existing database below.

For rest of the instructions, you can follow this official AWS guide to create your database.

Record the database endpoint, username and password.

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3. Add DB endpoint and credentials as secrets

Last step is to give your service(s) access to the RDS database. In LocalOps console, navigate the Service settings within the corresponding environment.

In secrets section, add a new key value pair like

- Key: `DB_HOST`
- Value: `your-db-endpoint`
- Key: `DB_USERNAME`
- Value: `your-db-username`
- Key: `DB_PASS`
- Value: `your-db-password`

Learn more about secrets here.

You can name the key in any way you want. In your code, you can access DB_* environment variables to connect and access the database.

Repeat the above process for each RDS instance you want to create for each app environment - test, staging, production, etc.,

That’s it!

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Use pre-existing RDS database

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1. Setup VPC peering

Your LocalOps app environment is created in its own VPC in the chosen AWS account and region. For the same application, if you already have a RDS database instance running in the same/different AWS account, you can connect/access it with the corresponding LocalOps environment using Amazon VPC peering.

VPC peering lets you connect two VPCs from same or different AWS account/region so that resources in one VPC can access the resources in another VPC like they belong to the same network.

Ping us on slack / write to us at hello@localops.co / book a call with our team to guide you on this.

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2. Add DB endpoint and credentials as secrets

Last step is to give your service(s) access to the RDS database. In LocalOps console, navigate the Service settings within the corresponding environment.

In secrets section, add a new key value pair like

- Key: `DB_HOST`
- Value: `your-db-endpoint`
- Key: `DB_USERNAME`
- Value: `your-db-username`
- Key: `DB_PASS`
- Value: `your-db-password`

Learn more about secrets here.

You can name the key in any way you want. In your code, you can access DB_* environment variables to connect and access the database.

That’s it. 🎉