DynamoDB (IAM)

Learn how to add DynamoDB (IAM) as a resource in StrongDM.

Overview

This guide describes how to add a DynamoDB (IAM) database as a resource in StrongDM.

When the resource is added, StrongDM proxies client connections through a node (gateway, relay, or proxy cluster), which enables centralized access control, credential management, and audit logging.

This setup uses an EC2-attached IAM role to authenticate with DynamoDB. Once this is set up for the EC2 instances that you intend to use for the node, your StrongDM users are able to be authenticated to the DynamoDB instance without providing the users or StrongDM with credentials.

If you prefer to use AWS Secret Access Keys instead, see the DynamoDB resource type guide.

Supported Versions and Clients

StrongDM supports AWS DynamoDB with IAM-based authentication, leveraging supported SDKs and tools through the AWS API. Supported clients include:

• AWS SDKs and CLI (Node.js, Python, Java, Go, and so forth)

• GUI tools such as NoSQL Workbench or Dynobase

• Third-party applications that interface with DynamoDB via the AWS API

Prerequisites

To add your resource in StrongDM, you need to meet several technical and configuration prerequisites. Please ensure that the following requirements are met.

In StrongDM, you must have the following:

• Administrator permission level

• At least one operational StrongDM node (gateway, relay, or proxy cluster) able to reach AWS DynamoDB APIs

• If using secrets management tools for storing your credentials, a Secret Store configured in StrongDM

To verify that the resource is accessible by the node, log in to the gateway or relay and use Netcat: nc -zv <HOSTNAME> <PORT> (in this example, nc -zv testdb-01.fancy.org 3306). If your gateway server can connect to this hostname, proceed.

Netcat is a tool for checking various hostnames and ports by either sending data (a ping) or checking for listeners on the ports. The command in the aforementioned example use "-z" to check for listeners without sending data and "-v" to show verbose output. If you don't have Netcat, you can install the Netcat package with whatever package manager you are using, such as "apt-get install netcat".

On the AWS side, you must have the following:

• EC2 instance or similar compute node running your StrongDM node (gateway, relay, or proxy cluster), with an attached IAM role that has permissions to access DynamoDB

• The IAM role should grant necessary permissions, typically including dynamodb:ListGlobalTables, dynamodb:ListTables, and dynamodb:DescribeTable, for resource health checks.

• Appropriate policy configuration

• After launching the EC2 instance, attach the IAM role to it and ensure the StrongDM resources can leverage it for authentication in AWS.

Resource Setup

In order to connect to and manage the resource, you must define the IAM role you wish to use, with a policy that allows EC2 to assume the role, as in the following example:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "Service": "ec2.amazonaws.com"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
    }
  ]
}

Then attach a policy to that role that grants access to DynamoDB.

• It is a best practice that this policy contains the minimum required actions necessary for users of this DynamoDB instance to do their work.

• For a resource with role assumption, the "dynamodb:ListGlobalTables", "dynamodb:ListTables", and "dynamodb:ListStreams" actions are the minimum required actions to allow StrongDM to successfully complete healthchecks.

• The wildcard value for Resource is required for the "dynamodb:ListGlobalTables", "dynamodb:ListTables", and "dynamodb:ListStreams" actions to function properly because they are not scoped to a specific resource.

The following is an example of a policy that follows such best practices.

{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
    {
        "Sid": "Statement1",
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
            "dynamodb:ListGlobalTables",
            "dynamodb:ListTables",
            "dynamodb:ListStreams",
            "dynamodb:Scan",
            "dynamodb:GetItem",
            "dynamodb:PutItem",
            "dynamodb:Query",
            "dynamodb:DescribeTable"
        ],
        "Resource": [
            "*"
        ]
    }
]
}

It is a security best practice to create one policy to grant the healthcheck actions that require global Resource scoping, create a separate policy with the actions users need to conduct with resource-specific scoping, and then attach both policies.

When the EC2 instance is launched, assign the IAM role(s). When the resource is configured with StrongDM, and you have installed your StrongDM gateway, relay, or proxy cluster worker on the EC2 instance, it has the ability to interact with your DynamoDB instance without having to provide credentials to StrongDM.

Resource Management in StrongDM

After all prerequisites and prep work is done, you are ready to add the resource to StrongDM. This section provides instructions for adding the resource in either the StrongDM Admin UI, CLI, Terraform provider, or SDKs.

Admin UI

Set up and Manage With the Admin UI

If using the Admin UI to add a DynamoDB (IAM) database as a StrongDM resource, use the following steps.

1. Log in to the StrongDM Admin UI.

2. Go to Resources > Datasources.

3. Click Add datasource.

4. Select DynamoDB (IAM) as the Datasource Type and set other configuration properties for your new database resource.

5. Complete all required fields.

6. Click Create to save the resource.

7. Click the resource name to view status, diagnostic information, and setting details.

CLI

Set up and Manage With the CLI

This section provides an example of how to configure and manage the resource using the StrongDM CLI. For more information and examples, please see the CLI Reference documentation.

# Add DynamoDB (IAM) datasource
sdm admin datasources add dynamoiam ddb-iam-prod
  --endpoint="dynamodb.us-west-2.amazonaws.com"
  --region="us-west-2"
  --bind-interface="127.0.0.1"
  --egress-filter="tag:env=prod"
  --proxy-cluster-id="n-1a2b345c67890123"
  --secret-store-id="se-e1b2"
  --subdomain="ddb-iam-prod"
  --tags="env=production,team=storage"

Terraform

Set up and Manage With Terraform

This section provides an example of how to configure and manage the resource using the Terraform provider. For more information and examples, please see the Terraform provider documentation.

# Install StrongDM provider
terraform {
  required_providers {
    sdm = {
      source  = "strongdm/sdm"
      version = "5.1.0"
    }
  }
}

# Configure StrongDM provider
provider "sdm" {
  # Add API access key and secret key from Admin UI
  api_access_key = "njjSn...5hM"
  api_secret_key = "ziG...="
}

# Create Athena (IAM) resource
resource "sdm_dynamoiam" "ddb_iam_prod" {
  name             = "ddb-iam-prod"
  endpoint         = "dynamodb.us-west-2.amazonaws.com"
  region           = "us-west-2"

  bind_interface   = "127.0.0.1"
  egress_filter    = "tag:env=prod"
  proxy_cluster_id = "n-1a2b345c67890123"

  secret_store_id  = "se-e1b2"
  subdomain        = "ddb-iam-prod"
  tags = {
    env  = "production"
    team = "storage"
  }
}

SDKs

Set up and manage with SDKs

In addition to the Admin UI, CLI, and Terraform, you may configure and manage your resource with any of the following SDK options: Go, Java, Python, and Ruby. Please see the following references for more information and examples.

Language	Reference	GitHub	Examples
Go	pkg.go.dev	strongdm-sdk-go	Go SDK Examples
Java	javadoc	strongdm-sdk-java	Java SDK Examples
Python	pdocs	strongdm-sdk-python	Python SDK Examples
Ruby	RubyDoc	strongdm-sdk-ruby	Ruby SDK Examples

Configuration Properties

The following configuration properties are required to define a DynamoDB (IAM) datasource in StrongDM. These settings control how StrongDM connects to the resource, authenticates the connection, and optionally uses encryption or secret management. Each property must be correctly configured to ensure connectivity and access enforcement through StrongDM.

Property	Requirement	Description
Display Name	Required	Meaningful name to display the resource throughout StrongDM; exclude special characters like quotes (") or angle brackets (< or >)
Datasource Type	Required	DynamoDB (IAM)
Proxy Cluster	Required	Defaults to "None (use gateways)"; if using proxy clusters, select the appropriate cluster to proxy traffic to this resource
Endpoint	Required	API server endpoint of the resource in the format dynamodb.<REGION>.amazonaws.com, such as dynamodb.us-west-2.amazonaws.com; relay server should be able to connect to your resource
Connectivity Mode	Required	Select either Virtual Networking Mode, which lets users connect to the resource with a software-defined, IP-based network; or Loopback Mode, which allows users to connect to the resource using the local loopback adapter in their operating system; this field is shown if Virtual Networking Mode enabled for your organization
IP Address	Optional	If Virtual Networking Mode is the selected connectivity mode, an IP address value in the configured Virtual Networking Mode subnet in the organization network settings; if Loopback Mode is the selected connectivity mode, an IP address value in the configured Loopback IP range in the organization network settings (by default, 127.0.0.1); if not specified, an available IP address in the configured IP address space for the selected connectivity mode will be automatically assigned; this field is shown if Virtual Networking Mode and/or multi-loopback mode is enabled for your organization
Port Override	Optional	If Virtual Networking Mode is the selected connectivity mode, a port value between 1 and 65535 that is not already in use by another resource with the same IP address; if Loopback Mode is the selected connectivity mode, a port value between 1024 to 64999 that is not already in use by another resource with the same IP address; when left empty with Virtual Networking Mode, the system assigns the default port to this resource; when left empty for Loopback Mode, an available port that is not already in use by another resource is assigned; preferred port also can be modified later from the Port Overrides settings
DNS	Optional	If Virtual Networking Mode is the selected connectivity mode, a unique hostname alias for this resource; when set, causes the desktop app to display this resource's human-readable DNS name (for example, k8s.my-organization-name) instead of the bind address that includes IP address and port (for example, 100.64.100.100:5432)
Region	Required	Region of the resource, such as us-west-2
Secret Store	Optional	Credential store location; defaults to Strong Vault; to learn more, see Secret Store options
Assume Role ARN	Optional	Role ARN, such as arn:aws:iam::000000000000:role/RoleName, that allows users accessing this resource to assume a role using AWS AssumeRole functionality
Assume Role ARN (path)	Optional	If Secret Store integration is configured for your organization and you selected a Secret Store type that is not StrongDM, enter the path to the secret in your Secret Store (for example, path/to/credential?key=optionalKeyName); the key argument is optional
Assume Role External ID	Optional	External ID if leveraging an external ID to users assuming a role from another account; if used, it must be used in conjunction with Assume Role ARN; see the AWS documentation on using external IDs for more information
Assume Role External ID (path)	Optional	If Secret Store integration is configured for your organization and you selected a Secret Store type that is not StrongDM, enter the path to the secret in your Secret Store (for example, path/to/credential?key=optionalKeyName); the key argument is optional
Resource Tags	Optional	Resource Tags consisting of key-value pairs <KEY>=<VALUE> (for example, env=dev)

Secret Store options

By default, datasource credentials are stored in StrongDM. However, these credentials can also be saved in a secrets management tool.

Non-StrongDM options appear in the Secret Store dropdown if they are created under Network > Secret Stores. When you select another Secret Store type, its unique properties display. For more details, see Configure Secret Store Integrations.

Resource status

After a resource is created, the Admin UI displays that resource as unhealthy until the healthchecks run successfully. When the resource is ready, the Health icon indicates a positive, green status.

When the resource does not display a positive status, click the resource name to go to the Diagnostics tab and check for errors.

Test the Connection

After you have added your resource in StrongDM, follow these steps to verify that it’s working correctly.

1. Assign yourself access by ensuring that your user or role has access to the resource. In the StrongDM Admin UI, go to Access > Roles, and verify that the resource is attached to a role you’re in.

2. In the CLI, run sdm status to list the available datasources. Ensure that the resource appears in your list of accessible datasources.

3. Check the health of the resource. In the Admin UI, view the resource; a green health indicator shows successful DynamoDB API access.

4. In the StrongDM Admin UI, check Logs > Queries (and Logs > Connections) to confirm that the health checks and access were captured.

When these steps succeed, you’re ready to connect to your resource through StrongDM.

Help

If you encounter issues, please consult the StrongDM Help Center.

Be prepared to provide the following information to StrongDM Support, so that they can inspect logs and confirm node and resource health:

• Resource name or ID

• CLI error output or logs

• Node name and region

• Timestamps of failed attempts