RDS

Create Instance

Launch a DB Instance

We access our region specific RDS Dashboard ( https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/rds/home?region=us-west-2 )

DB Instances Exists

If DB Instances exists, the count of DB Instances will be listed besides the “DB Instances” item.

 

DB Instances Do Not Exist

If DB Instances do not exist.

URLs

1. Region Specific
   • us-west-2
     • https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/rds/home?region=us-west-2#dbinstances:

 

 

 

Select an engine

Initial

Here is the initial screen for choosing the DB Engine.

We can see that the default is Amazon Aurora.

 

SQL Server

Once we select SQL Server, we can see the editions of SQL Servers available – Express, Web, Standard, and Enterprise.

 

SQL Server Express

Again, we go the free route.

And, so we will choose “Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition”.

Specify DB Details

Initial

 

Constrain to Free Tier – Off

When we do not have free tier checked here is our screen.

 

Explanation

1. db.t2.micro – 1 vpc, 1 Gib RAM
2. db.t2.micro – 1 vpc, 0.613 Gib RAM

 

Constrain to Free Tier – On

When we have free tier checked here is our screen.

Availed

1. A single db.t2.micro instance
2. 20 GB of storage

Purpose

1. Allows new AWS customers to gain hands-on experience with Amazon RDS

DB Instance Class

1. db.t2.micro – 1 vpc, 1 Gib RAM
2. db.t2.micro – 1 vpc, 0.613 Gib RAM

 

Choices

 

Explanation

1. DB Engine :- sqlserver-ex
2. License Model :- license-included
3. DB Engine Version :- 12.00.4422.0.v1
4. DB Instance Class :- db.t1.micro — 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM
5. Storage Type :- Magnetic
6. Allocated Storage :- 20 GB
7. Storage Type :- Magnetic
8. Allocated Storage :- 20 GB
9. DB Instance Identifier :- adriel
10. Master username :- sa
11. Master Password :- xxxx
12. Confirm Password :- xxxx

Btw, the name adriel means “flock of God“; as seen here

 

Configure Advanced Settings

 

Configure Advanced Settings – Network & Security

 

Configure Advanced Settings – Microsoft SQL Server Windows Authentication

 

Configure Advanced Settings – Database Options

Configure Advanced Settings – Backup

 

Configure Advanced Settings – Monitoring

Configure Advanced Settings – Maintenance

 

 

Your DB Instance Is Being Created

We are told that our “Database Instance is being created“….

And, assigned a couple of follow up items.  And, those are:

1. Configure Security group
2. Consider Amazon Elasticache
   • Memcached
   • Redis-compatible in-memory cache

 

Review Database Instance Creation Progress

URL

1. Region Specific URL
   • us-west-2
     https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/rds/home?region=us-west-2#dbinstances:

 

Status – Creating

Columns

1. Engine :- SQL Server Express
2. DB Instance :- adriel
3. Status
   • Creating
   • backing-up
4. Class :- db.t2.micro
5. VPC :- vpc-75d97a11
6. Multi-AZ :- N/A
7. Replication Role
8. Encrypted :- No

Status – Backing-up

 

Status – available

 

VPC

VPC Dashboard

VPC Resources

Here are our currently assigned VPC Resources

 

VPC Resources

Here is a current list of VPC Resources

Which one is our SQL Server Instance using?

Here is one way to determine our DB Instance’s VPC:

1. Access RDS Dashboard
   • Region Specific URL
     • us-west-2
       • https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/rds/home?region=us-west-2#dbinstances:
   • Our DB Instance is adriel
   • And, the VPC is vpc-75d97a11

 

DB Instance

 

VPC Resource – VPC Selected

 

1. VPC ID :- vpc-75d97a11
2. State :- available
3. VPC CIDR :- 172.30.0.0/16
4. Route Table :- rtb-8ba921ef
5. Network ACL :- acl-2b06b44f

 

Security

There are a couple of choices for guiding our DB Instance availability.

Those choices are Network ACLs and Network Groups.

Security Groups

URL

1. Region Specific
   • Region = us-west-2
     • https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/home?region=us-west-2#securityGroups:

 

Here are the Network Groups that are currently assigned to us:

 

 

Which Security Groups?

Which security groups are relevant to our VPC

1. VPC
   • We know that our VPC is vpc-75d97a11
     • And, so we will ignore Group ID sg-a95d78ce, at this time
     • And, focus on sg-32fbc955 ( default ) and sg-07fbc960 ( rds-launch-wizard )

Took to the Net and found

What are the default security groups created when I set up AWS EB for the first time?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27829620/what-are-the-default-security-groups-created-when-i-set-up-aws-eb-for-the-first

 

Here is Scuba Dev’s response

1. rds-launch-web
   • When you manually launch an EC2 VM from the web console, AWS will provide you with the option of reusing an existing security group or creating a new one.
   • When you create a new one, the default rule is SSH (port 22) and a default security group name of “launch-wizard-#“.
2. default
   • When you create your VPC, a default security group is created alongside with it. When EC2 instances are launched into a VPC subnet, they will have the default security group assigned to them if another is not specified. (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_SecurityGroups.html#DefaultSecurityGroup).

It looks like either will do.

Out of curiosity let us dig deeper, by clicking on each security group and reviewing its present construct.

VPC Security Group – default

 

VPC Security Group – RDS Launch Wizard

Tabulated

Group Name Group ID Type Product Port Range Source Default sg-32fbc955  All Traffic  ALL  ALL  sg-32fbc955 rds-launch-wizard  sg-07fbc960  MS SQL (1433)  TCP (6)  1433  207.140.111.60/32

 

Explanation

1. Default
   • The default group is wide open
2. RDS Launch Wizard
   • Type = MS SQL Server (1433)
   • Product = TCP (6)
   • Port Range = 1433
   • Source = 207.140.111.60 / 32
     • Because the subnet is 32, the range is the lone host ( 207.140.111.60 )

Specificity is good here and so we will choose the “RDC Launch Wizard”

Security Groups – RDC Launch Wizard

Expand to Self

Get Public IP Address

Authorizing Access to an instance
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/authorizing-access-to-an-instance.html
Decide who requires access to your instance; for example, a single host or a specific network that you trust. In this case, we use your local system’s public IP address. You can get the public IP address of your local computer using a service. For example, we provide the following service: http://checkip.amazonaws.com. To locate another service that provides your IP address, use the search phrase “what is my IP address”. If you are connecting through an ISP or from behind your firewall without a static IP address, you need to find out the range of IP addresses used by client computers.

When we access http://checkip.amazonaws.com/, we received http://checkip.amazonaws.com/.

As suggested, you can simply google same, what is my ip address ( https://www.google.com/#q=what+is+my+ip+address ).

 

Review & Add Public IP Address

Let us expand our IP Addresses by adding our public IP Address

Here are the currently listed IP Addresses

 

Acknowledgement.

Only now did I notice that our public listed IP Address is the one auto-added, in the first place.

RDS

Console

Review DB Instance

 

Explanation

1. Endpoint: adriel.[xxxxx].us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com:1433
2. DB Instance: adriel
3. Status : available
4. Connection Information
   • Publicly Accessible : No
   • Master Username: sa
   • Security Group Rules
     • Security Group
       • rds-launch-wizard
         • Type :- CIDR-IP – bound
         • Rule  :- 207.140.111.60/32

 

Client

SQL Server Management Studio

Connect to DB Instance

 

Error Messages

 

Image

Textual

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 25 - Connection string is not valid) (.Net SqlClient Data Provider)

Error Number: 87
Severity: 20
State: 0

VPC

VPC Security

Allow all hosts

Add All Source

Review Sources

 

RDC

Console

Connection Information

Rule

1. 207.140.111.60/32
2. 0.0.0.0/32

 

Make Publicly Available

CLI

Let us make publicly available via CLI

Code

Syntax

aws rds modify-db-instance --db-instance-identifier [instance-identifier] --publicly-accessible --apply-immediately

Sample

aws rds modify-db-instance --db-instance-identifier adriel --publicly-accessible --apply-immediately

Output

 

Console

Access DB Instance Modify Panel

We can modify the DB instance by doing the following

1. Access RDS Dashboard
2. Select the DB Instance
3. Click on the Instance Actions button
4. From the drop-down menu, select the Modify option

 

 

Modify DB Instance

 

 

Review RDS Dashboard – Instance – Connection Information

Same confirmed via RDS Dashboard – Connection Information …

Client

SQL Server Management Studio

Connected….

 

Summary

We were successfully able to create a new DB Instance.

We accessed the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) panels to expand the IP Addresses that are allowed access to our DB.

But, unfortunately none of our attempts succeeded.

We thus reverted to making the DB Instance itself publicly available.

 

References

AWS – Official

1. Creating a SQL Server DB Instance and Connecting to a Database on a SQL Server DB Instance
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/CHAP_GettingStarted.CreatingConnecting.SQLServer.html
2. AWS Documentation » Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) » User Guide » Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and Amazon RDS » Scenarios for Accessing a DB Instance in a VPC
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_VPC.Scenarios.html#USER_VPC.Scenario4
3. AWS Documentation » Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) » User Guide » MySQL on Amazon RDS » Modifying a DB Instance Running the MySQL Database Engine
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_ModifyInstance.MySQL.html
4. AWS Documentation » Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) » User Guide » Amazon RDS DB Instance Lifecycle » Modifying a DB Instance and Using the Apply Immediately Parameter
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Overview.DBInstance.Modifying.html
5. AWS Documentation » Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) » User Guide » Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and Amazon RDS » Working with an Amazon RDS DB Instance in a VPC
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_VPC.WorkingWithRDSInstanceinaVPC.html
6. AWS Documentation » Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) » User Guide » Amazon RDS DB Instance Lifecycle » Renaming a DB Instance
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_RenameInstance.html
7. AWS Documentation » Amazon Virtual Private Cloud » Getting Started Guide » Getting Started with Amazon VPC » Step 2: Create a Security Group
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/GettingStartedGuide/getting-started-create-security-group.html
8. Authorizing Inbound Traffic for Your Linux Instances
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/authorizing-access-to-an-instance.html

 

CLI

1. Modify DB Instance
   http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/rds/modify-db-instance.html

 

Network CIDR

1. Setting CIDR/IP so anyone can access it from any IP?
   http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6365773/setting-cidr-ip-so-anyone-can-access-it-from-any-ip

 

Sample Implementation

1. MySQL
   • Clearpath’s Blog on Clouds and the Tools to Make Them – Private, Public and Hybrid
     http://blog.clearpathsg.com/blog/bid/343084/Creating-a-MySQL-Instance-Using-AWS-RDS-and-Accessing-it-Using-MySQL-client
   • RightScale Docs > Cloud Management > Dashboard User’s Guide > clouds > Amazon Web Services (AWS) > AWS Actions
     http://docs.rightscale.com/cm/dashboard/clouds/aws/actions/rds_instances_actions.html
   • A First Look at the Amazon Relational Database Service
     http://www.arfon.org/a-first-look-at-the-amazon-relational-database-service
2. Apache
   • Building a Spark / SciPy / Cassandra “SparkLab” on AWS
     https://codetrips.com/2015/02/16/building-a-spark-scipy-cassandra-sparklab-on-aws/
3. MS SQL Server
   • Considerations When Using Azure SQL Database
     http://www.mariner-usa.com/blog/considerations-using-azure-sql-database/

StackOverflow

1. What are the default security groups created when I set up AWS EB for the first time?
   http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27829620/what-are-the-default-security-groups-created-when-i-set-up-aws-eb-for-the-first

 

SlideShare.Net

1. AWS Cloud – Network Security and Access Control in AWS
   http://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/network-security-and-access-control-in-aws