RDS PostgreSQL (IAM)

Learn how to add RDS PostgreSQL (IAM) as a datasource in StrongDM.

Overview

This guide outlines the configuration steps for adding an RDS PostgreSQL database as a datasource in StrongDM using using AWS IAM authentication.

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

Use this guide to complete all necessary preparations for adding Presto as a resource to your StrongDM environment; input the correct properties in the Admin UI, CLI, SDKs, or Terraform provider; and test for a successful connection. Once complete, you’ll be able to use the StrongDM Desktop application or CLI to connect.

For general information about how to add a database as a resource in StrongDM, see our main guide, Add a Datasource.

Supported Versions and Clients

StrongDM supports AWS RDS PostgreSQL instances that have IAM authentication enabled.

Clients supported include standard PostgreSQL clients and drivers that support IAM token authentication, such as:

• psql with IAM token support

• GUI tools or ORMs that can use AWS IAM-based authentication for RDS

• Application libraries/drivers (Java, Go, Python, and so forth) that can generate RDS IAM tokens and use them in place of password authentication

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) that can reach the RDS PostgreSQL endpoint (hostname and port)

• If using secrets management tools for storing your database 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 Presto side, you must have the following:

• RDS PostgreSQL instance with IAM authentication enabled in the AWS console under "Database authentication" settings.

• PostgreSQL user account that has been granted the rds_iam permission (GRANT rds_iam TO db_userx)

• IAM role attached to the gateway/relay (or EC2/compute where the connection will originate) with a policy that allows the action rds-db:connect on the DB user in question. See the Resource Setup section for an example policy.

Resource Setup

Some setup steps are required to prepare an RDS PostgreSQL (IAM) resource to receive connections via StrongDM.

1. The AWS administrator should enable IAM authentication for the target PostgreSQL cluster in the AWS Management Console. This can be done at creation, or be modified at a later time. This is done by locating the Database authentication setting and choosing the option Password and IAM database authentication.

2. A PostgreSQL administrator needs to log in to the database and grant the rds_iam permission either to an existing user or a newly created user for use with StrongDM. For example, GRANT rds_iam TO db_userx where db_userx is the username.

3. Finally, the AWS administrator needs to add an IAM policy to the IAM role that is attached to the gateway/relay to allow access.

{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
   "Statement": [
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action": [
             "rds-db:connect"
         ],
         "Resource": [
             "arn:aws:rds-db:us-east-2:1234567890:dbuser:cluster-ABCDEFGHIJKL01234/db_userx"
         ]
      }
   ]
}

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 RDS PostgreSQL (IAM) as a resource to StrongDM, use the following steps.

1. Log in to the StrongDM Admin UI.

2. Go to Resources > Datasources.

3. Click Add datasource.

4. For Datasource Type, select RDS PostgreSQL (IAM).

5. Complete all required configuration properties for your selected datasource type.

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 add the resource using the StrongDM CLI. For more information and examples, please see the CLI Reference documentation.

# Add RDS PostgreSQL (IAM) datasource
sdm admin datasources add rdspostgresiam rds-pg-iam-prod
  --hostname="rds-pg-iam.example.org"
  --port=5432
  --database="productiondb"
  --username="db_userx"
  --region="us-east-2"
  --tls-required
  --bind-interface="127.0.0.1"
  --egress-filter="tag:env=prod"
  --proxy-cluster-id="n-1a2b345c67890123"
  --secret-store-id="se-e1b2"
  --subdomain="rds-pg-iam-prod"
  --tags="env=production,team=data"

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...="
}

resource "sdm_rdspostgresiam" "rds_pg_iam_prod" {
  name             = "rds-pg-iam-prod"
  hostname         = "rds-pg-iam.example.org"
  port             = 5432
  database         = "productiondb"
  username         = "db_userx"
  region           = "us-east-2"

  tls_required     = true

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

  secret_store_id  = "se-e1b2"
  subdomain        = "rds-pg-iam-prod"
  tags = {
    env  = "production"
    team = "data"
  }
}

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 an RDS PostgreSQL (IAM) datasource in StrongDM. These settings control how StrongDM connects to the database, 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	RDS PostgreSQL (IAM)
Proxy Cluster	Required	Defaults to "None (use gateways)"; if using proxy clusters, select the appropriate cluster to proxy traffic to this resource
Hostname	Required	Hostname for your resource; must be accessible to a gateway or relay
Port	Required	Port to use when connecting to your RDS PostgreSQL (IAM) database; default port value is 5432
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)
Database	Required	Database name you would like to connect to using this datasource
Secret Store	Optional	Credential store location; defaults to Strong Vault; learn more about Secret Store options
Username	Required	Username to utilize when connecting to this datasource; displays when Secret Store integration is not configured for your organization or when StrongDM serves as the Secret Store type
Username (path)	Required	Path to the secret in your Secret Store location (for example, path/to/credential?key=optionalKeyName where key argument is optional); required when using a non-StrongDM Secret Store type
Restrict Database	Optional	When selected, limits all connections to the configured database
Region	Required	AWS region to connect to (for example, us-west-2)
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
Resource Tags	Optional	Datasource 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. Confirm that the resource is available.

3. Start a session. For example:

   sdm connect rds-pg-iam-prod

4. Connect using a PostgreSQL client capable of IAM token authentication (for example, generate an IAM auth token, and then connect using psql or similar). For example:

   PGPASSWORD="$(aws rds generate-db-auth-token --hostname rds-pg-iam.example.org --port 5432 --region us-east-2 --username db_userx)" \
   psql "host=localhost port=<LOCAL_PORT_IF_PROXY_OR_PORT_OVERRIDE> dbname=productiondb user=db_userx sslmode=require"

5. In the StrongDM Admin UI, check Logs > Queries (and Logs > Connections) to verify that session and SQL commands 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