Configuring Amazon Kendra to use a VPC - Amazon Kendra
Connecting to a database in a VPC

Configuring Amazon Kendra to use a VPC

Amazon Kendra can connect to your Amazon Virtual Private Cloud to index content stored in data sources or databases running in your private cloud. When you create a data source connector or a database connector, you provide security group and subnet identifiers for the subnet that contains your data source or database. Amazon Kendra uses this information to create an elastic network interface that it uses to securely communicate with your data source or database.

If your data source or database isn't running on an Amazon VPC, you can connect your data source or database to your Amazon VPC using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). You get a default VPC when you create your Amazon account. For information about setting up a VPN, see the AWS VPN Documentation.

To use a VPC, you must tell Amazon Kendra the identifier of the subnet that the database belongs to and the identifiers of any security groups that Amazon Kendra must use to access the subnet. For example, if you're using the default port for a MySQL database, the security groups must allow Amazon Kendra to access port 3306 on the host that runs the database.

Only use private subnets in the VPC configuration of your data source or database. If your RDS instance is in a public subnet in your VPC, then you can't use that subnet directly to sync your data source or database. Instead, create a private subnet that has outbound access to a NAT gateway in the public subnet. When you configure the VPC for your data source or database, specify that private subnet. For a database data source configured with a VPC, the subnets must be in one of the following Availability Zone IDs:

  • US West (Oregon)—usw2-az1, usw2-az2, usw2-az3

  • US East (N. Virginia)—use1-az1, use1-az2, use1-az4

  • EU (Ireland)—euw1-az1, uew1-az2, euw1-az3

The identifiers for subnets and security groups are configured in the Amazon VPC control panel. To see the identifiers, open the Amazon VPC console as follows:

To view subnet identifiers

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon VPC console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/.

  2. From the navigation pane, choose Subnets.

  3. From the subnet list, choose the subnet that contains your database server.

  4. From the description tab, make a note of the identifier in the Subnet ID field.

To view security group identifiers

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon VPC console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/.

  2. From the navigation pane, choose Security Groups.

  3. From the security group list, choose the group that you want the identifier for.

  4. From the description tab, make a note of the identifier in the Group ID field.

If Amazon Kendra must route the connection between two or more subnets, you can provide multiple subnets. For example, if the subnet that contains your database server is out of IP addresses, Amazon Kendra can connect to a subnet with free IP addresses and route the connection to the first subnet. If you list multiple subnets, the subnets must be able to communicate with each other. Each subnet must be associated with a route table that provides outbound internet access using a network address translator (NAT) device.

You can also provide multiple security groups. The combined effect of the security groups must allow Amazon Kendra to access the data source or database server that you have specified in the connection configuration.

Connecting to a database in a VPC

The following example shows how to connect a MySQL database running in a VPC. The example assumes that you're starting with your default VPC and that you need to create a MySQL database. If you already have a VPC, make sure that it's configured as shown. If you have a MySQL database, you can use that instead of creating a new one.

Step 1: Configure a VPC

Configure your VPC so that you have a private subnet and a security group for Amazon Kendra to access a MySQL database running in the subnet. The subnets provided in the VPC configuration must be in either US West (Oregon), US East (N. Virginia), EU (Ireland).

To configure a VPC

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon VPC console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/.

  2. From the navigation pane, choose Route tables, then choose Create route table.

  3. For the Name tag field, enter Private subnet route table. In the VPC field, choose your VPC, and then choose Create. Choose Close to return to the list of route tables.

  4. From the navigation pane, choose NAT Gateways then choose Create NAT Gateway.

  5. In the Subnet field, choose the subnet that's the public subnet and note the subnet ID.

  6. If you don't have an Elastic IP address, choose Create New EIP, choose Create a NAT Gateway, and then choose Close.

  7. From the navigation pane, choose Route Tables.

  8. From the route table list, choose the Private subnet route table that you created in step 3. From Actions, choose Edit Routes.

  9. Choose Add route. Add the destination 0.0.0.0/0 to allow all outgoing traffic to the internet. For Target, choose NAT Gateway, and then choose the gateway that you created in step 4. Choose Save routes, and then choose Close.

  10. From Actions, choose Edit subnet associations.

  11. Choose the subnets that you want to be private. Don't choose the subnet with the NAT gateway that you noted previously.

Step 2: Configure security

Next, configure security groups for your database.

To create security groups

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon VPC console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc/.

  2. From the description of your VPC, note the IPv4 CIDR.

  3. From the navigation pane, choose Security Groups and then choose Create security group.

  4. In Security group name enter DataSourceInboundSecurityGroup. Provide a description, then choose your VPC from the list. Choose Create and then choose Close.

  5. Choose the Inbound tab.

  6. Choose Edit rules, and then choose Add Rule

  7. For a database, enter the port number for the Port Range. For example, for MySQL it's 3306, and, for HTTPS, it's 443. For the Source, type the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) of your VPC. Choose Save rules and then choose Close.

The security group allows anyone within the VPC to connect to the database, and it allows outbound connections to the internet.

Step 3: Create a database

Create a database to hold your documents, or you can use your existing database. See Using a database data source for a list of databases that Amazon Kendra supports.

For instructions on how to create a MySQL database, see Getting Starting with a MySQL database data source (console) using Amazon RDS.

Step 4: Create a database data source connector

After you configured your VPC and created your database, you can create a data source connector for the database. See Using a database data source.

Make sure that you configure your VPC, the private subnets that you created in your VPC, and the security group that you created in your VPC for your database.

For instructions on how to create a data source for a MySQL database, see Getting Starting with a MySQL database data source (console) using Amazon RDS.