Using AWS Lambda with Amazon RDS

You can connect a Lambda function to an Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) database directly and through an Amazon RDS Proxy. Direct connections are useful in simple scenarios, and proxies are recommended for production. A database proxy manages a pool of shared database connections which enables your function to reach high concurrency levels without exhausting database connections.

We recommend using Amazon RDS Proxy for Lambda functions that make frequent short database connections, or open and close large numbers of database connections. For more information, see Automatically connecting a Lambda function and a DB instance in the Amazon Relational Database Service Developer Guide.

Configuring your function to work with RDS resources

In the Lambda console, you can provision, and configure, Amazon RDS database instances and proxy resources. You can do this by navigating to RDS databases under the Configuration tab. Alternatively, you can also create and configure connections to Lambda functions in the Amazon RDS console. When configuring an RDS database instance to use with Lambda, note the following criteria:

• To connect to a database, your function must be in the same Amazon VPC where your database runs.

• You can use Amazon RDS databases with MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or Microsoft SQL Server engines.

• You can also use Aurora DB clusters with MySQL or PostgreSQL engines.

• You need to provide a Secrets Manager secret for database authentication.

• An IAM role must provide permission to use the secret, and a trust policy must allow Amazon RDS to assume the role.

• The IAM principal that uses the console to configure the Amazon RDS resource, and connect it to your function must have the following permissions:

  Note

  You need the Amazon RDS Proxy permissions only if you configure an Amazon RDS Proxy to manage a pool of your database connections.

  Example permission policy

  {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
          "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
          "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
          "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
          "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
          "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress",
          "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress",
          "ec2:CreateNetworkInterface",
          "ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface",
          "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces"
        ],
        "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "rds-db:connect",
          "rds:CreateDBProxy",
          "rds:CreateDBInstance",
          "rds:CreateDBSubnetGroup",
          "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
          "rds:DescribeDBInstances",
          "rds:DescribeDBSubnetGroups",
          "rds:DescribeDBProxies",
          "rds:DescribeDBProxyTargets",
          "rds:DescribeDBProxyTargetGroups",
          "rds:RegisterDBProxyTargets",
          "rds:ModifyDBInstance",
          "rds:ModifyDBProxy"
        ],
        "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "lambda:CreateFunction",
          "lambda:ListFunctions",
          "lambda:UpdateFunctionConfiguration"
        ],
        "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "iam:AttachRolePolicy",
          "iam:AttachPolicy",
          "iam:CreateRole",
          "iam:CreatePolicy"
        ],
        "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "secretsmanager:GetResourcePolicy",
          "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
          "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret",
          "secretsmanager:ListSecretVersionIds",
          "secretsmanager:CreateSecret"
        ],
        "Resource": "*"
      }
    ]
  }
  

Amazon RDS charges an hourly rate for proxies based on the database instance size, see RDS Proxy pricing for details. For more information on proxy connections in general, see Using Amazon RDS Proxy in the Amazon RDS User Guide.

Lambda and Amazon RDS setup

Both Lambda and Amazon RDS consoles will assist you in automatically configuring some of the required resources to make a connection between Lambda and Amazon RDS.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function

The following code example shows how to implement a Lambda function that connects to an Amazon RDS database. The function makes a simple database request and returns the result.

Go

SDK for Go V2

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Serverless examples repository.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function using Go.

// Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
/*
Golang v2 code here.
*/

package main

import (
	"context"
	"database/sql"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"os"

	"github.com/aws/aws-lambda-go/lambda"
	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/config"
	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/feature/rds/auth"
	_ "github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql"
)

type MyEvent struct {
	Name string `json:"name"`
}

func HandleRequest(event *MyEvent) (map[string]interface{}, error) {

	var dbName string = os.Getenv("DatabaseName")
	var dbUser string = os.Getenv("DatabaseUser")
	var dbHost string = os.Getenv("DBHost") // Add hostname without https
	var dbPort int = os.Getenv("Port")      // Add port number
	var dbEndpoint string = fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", dbHost, dbPort)
	var region string = os.Getenv("AWS_REGION")

	cfg, err := config.LoadDefaultConfig(context.TODO())
	if err != nil {
		panic("configuration error: " + err.Error())
	}

	authenticationToken, err := auth.BuildAuthToken(
		context.TODO(), dbEndpoint, region, dbUser, cfg.Credentials)
	if err != nil {
		panic("failed to create authentication token: " + err.Error())
	}

	dsn := fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s@tcp(%s)/%s?tls=true&allowCleartextPasswords=true",
		dbUser, authenticationToken, dbEndpoint, dbName,
	)

	db, err := sql.Open("mysql", dsn)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}

	defer db.Close()

	var sum int
	err = db.QueryRow("SELECT ?+? AS sum", 3, 2).Scan(&sum)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	s := fmt.Sprint(sum)
	message := fmt.Sprintf("The selected sum is: %s", s)

	messageBytes, err := json.Marshal(message)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	messageString := string(messageBytes)
	return map[string]interface{}{
		"statusCode": 200,
		"headers":    map[string]string{"Content-Type": "application/json"},
		"body":       messageString,
	}, nil
}

func main() {
	lambda.Start(HandleRequest)
}

Java

SDK for Java 2.x

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Serverless examples repository.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function using Java.

import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.Context;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.RequestHandler;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.events.APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.events.APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent;
import software.amazon.awssdk.auth.credentials.DefaultCredentialsProvider;
import software.amazon.awssdk.regions.Region;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.rdsdata.RdsDataClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.rdsdata.model.ExecuteStatementRequest;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.rdsdata.model.ExecuteStatementResponse;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.rdsdata.model.Field;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;

public class RdsLambdaHandler implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {

    @Override
    public APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent handleRequest(APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent event, Context context) {
        APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent response = new APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent();

        try {
            // Obtain auth token
            String token = createAuthToken();

            // Define connection configuration
            String connectionString = String.format("jdbc:mysql://%s:%s/%s?useSSL=true&requireSSL=true",
                    System.getenv("ProxyHostName"),
                    System.getenv("Port"),
                    System.getenv("DBName"));

            // Establish a connection to the database
            try (Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(connectionString, System.getenv("DBUserName"), token);
                 PreparedStatement statement = connection.prepareStatement("SELECT ? + ? AS sum")) {

                statement.setInt(1, 3);
                statement.setInt(2, 2);

                try (ResultSet resultSet = statement.executeQuery()) {
                    if (resultSet.next()) {
                        int sum = resultSet.getInt("sum");
                        response.setStatusCode(200);
                        response.setBody("The selected sum is: " + sum);
                    }
                }
            }

        } catch (Exception e) {
            response.setStatusCode(500);
            response.setBody("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        }

        return response;
    }

    private String createAuthToken() {
        // Create RDS Data Service client
        RdsDataClient rdsDataClient = RdsDataClient.builder()
                .region(Region.of(System.getenv("AWS_REGION")))
                .credentialsProvider(DefaultCredentialsProvider.create())
                .build();

        // Define authentication request
        ExecuteStatementRequest request = ExecuteStatementRequest.builder()
                .resourceArn(System.getenv("ProxyHostName"))
                .secretArn(System.getenv("DBUserName"))
                .database(System.getenv("DBName"))
                .sql("SELECT 'RDS IAM Authentication'")
                .build();

        // Execute request and obtain authentication token
        ExecuteStatementResponse response = rdsDataClient.executeStatement(request);
        Field tokenField = response.records().get(0).get(0);

        return tokenField.stringValue();
    }
}

JavaScript

SDK for JavaScript (v2)

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Serverless examples repository.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function using Javascript.

// Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
/* 
Node.js code here.
*/
// ES6+ example
import { Signer } from "@aws-sdk/rds-signer";
import mysql from 'mysql2/promise';

async function createAuthToken() {
  // Define connection authentication parameters
  const dbinfo = {

    hostname: process.env.ProxyHostName,
    port: process.env.Port,
    username: process.env.DBUserName,
    region: process.env.AWS_REGION,

  }

  // Create RDS Signer object
  const signer = new Signer(dbinfo);

  // Request authorization token from RDS, specifying the username
  const token = await signer.getAuthToken();
  return token;
}

async function dbOps() {

  // Obtain auth token
  const token = await createAuthToken();
  // Define connection configuration
  let connectionConfig = {
    host: process.env.ProxyHostName,
    user: process.env.DBUserName,
    password: token,
    database: process.env.DBName,
    ssl: 'Amazon RDS'
  }
  // Create the connection to the DB
  const conn = await mysql.createConnection(connectionConfig);
  // Obtain the result of the query
  const [res,] = await conn.execute('select ?+? as sum', [3, 2]);
  return res;

}

export const handler = async (event) => {
  // Execute database flow
  const result = await dbOps();
  // Return result
  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify("The selected sum is: " + result[0].sum)
  }
};

PHP

SDK for PHP

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Serverless examples repository.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function using PHP.

<?php
# Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

# using bref/bref and bref/logger for simplicity

use Bref\Context\Context;
use Bref\Event\Handler as StdHandler;
use Bref\Logger\StderrLogger;
use Aws\Rds\AuthTokenGenerator;
use Aws\Credentials\CredentialProvider;

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

class Handler implements StdHandler
{
    private StderrLogger $logger;
    public function __construct(StderrLogger $logger)
    {
        $this->logger = $logger;
    }


    private function getAuthToken(): string {
        // Define connection authentication parameters
        $dbConnection = [
            'hostname' => getenv('DB_HOSTNAME'),
            'port' => getenv('DB_PORT'),
            'username' => getenv('DB_USERNAME'),
            'region' => getenv('AWS_REGION'),
        ];

        // Create RDS AuthTokenGenerator object
        $generator = new AuthTokenGenerator(CredentialProvider::defaultProvider());

        // Request authorization token from RDS, specifying the username
        return $generator->createToken(
            $dbConnection['hostname'] . ':' . $dbConnection['port'],
            $dbConnection['region'],
            $dbConnection['username']
        );
    }

    private function getQueryResults() {
        // Obtain auth token
        $token = $this->getAuthToken();

        // Define connection configuration
        $connectionConfig = [
            'host' => getenv('DB_HOSTNAME'),
            'user' => getenv('DB_USERNAME'),
            'password' => $token,
            'database' => getenv('DB_NAME'),
        ];

        // Create the connection to the DB
        $conn = new PDO(
            "mysql:host={$connectionConfig['host']};dbname={$connectionConfig['database']}",
            $connectionConfig['user'],
            $connectionConfig['password'],
            [
                PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA => '/path/to/rds-ca-2019-root.pem',
                PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT => true,
            ]
        );

        // Obtain the result of the query
        $stmt = $conn->prepare('SELECT ?+? AS sum');
        $stmt->execute([3, 2]);

        return $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
    }

    /**
     * @param mixed $event
     * @param Context $context
     * @return array
     */
    public function handle(mixed $event, Context $context): array
    {
        $this->logger->info("Processing query");

        // Execute database flow
        $result = $this->getQueryResults();

        return [
            'sum' => $result['sum']
        ];
    }
}

$logger = new StderrLogger();
return new Handler($logger);

Python

SDK for Python (Boto3)

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Serverless examples repository.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function using Python.

import json
import os
import boto3
import pymysql

# RDS settings
proxy_host_name = os.environ['PROXY_HOST_NAME']
port = int(os.environ['PORT'])
db_name = os.environ['DB_NAME']
db_user_name = os.environ['DB_USER_NAME']
aws_region = os.environ['AWS_REGION']


# Fetch RDS Auth Token
def get_auth_token():
    client = boto3.client('rds')
    token = client.generate_db_auth_token(
        DBHostname=proxy_host_name,
        Port=port
        DBUsername=db_user_name
        Region=aws_region
    )
    return token

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    token = get_auth_token()
    try:
        connection = pymysql.connect(
            host=proxy_host_name,
            user=db_user_name,
            password=token,
            db=db_name,
            port=port,
            ssl={'ca': 'Amazon RDS'}  # Ensure you have the CA bundle for SSL connection
        )
        
        with connection.cursor() as cursor:
            cursor.execute('SELECT %s + %s AS sum', (3, 2))
            result = cursor.fetchone()

        return result
        
    except Exception as e:
        return (f"Error: {str(e)}")  # Return an error message if an exception occurs 
    

Ruby

SDK for Ruby

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Serverless examples repository.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function using Ruby.

# Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
# Ruby code here.

require 'aws-sdk-rds'
require 'json'
require 'mysql2'

def lambda_handler(event:, context:)
  endpoint = ENV['DBEndpoint'] # Add the endpoint without https"
  port = ENV['Port']           # 3306
  user = ENV['DBUser']
  region = ENV['DBRegion']     # 'us-east-1'
  db_name = ENV['DBName']

  credentials = Aws::Credentials.new(
    ENV['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'],
    ENV['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'],
    ENV['AWS_SESSION_TOKEN']
  )
  rds_client = Aws::RDS::AuthTokenGenerator.new(
    region: region, 
    credentials: credentials
  )

  token = rds_client.auth_token(
    endpoint: endpoint+ ':' + port,
    user_name: user,
    region: region
  )

  begin
    conn = Mysql2::Client.new(
      host: endpoint,
      username: user,
      password: token,
      port: port,
      database: db_name,
      sslca: '/var/task/global-bundle.pem', 
      sslverify: true,
      enable_cleartext_plugin: true
    )
    a = 3
    b = 2
    result = conn.query("SELECT #{a} + #{b} AS sum").first['sum']
    puts result
    conn.close
    {
      statusCode: 200,
      body: result.to_json
    }
  rescue => e
    puts "Database connection failed due to #{e}"
  end
end

Rust

SDK for Rust

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Serverless examples repository.

Connecting to an Amazon RDS database in a Lambda function using Rust.

use aws_config::BehaviorVersion;
use aws_credential_types::provider::ProvideCredentials;
use aws_sigv4::{
    http_request::{sign, SignableBody, SignableRequest, SigningSettings},
    sign::v4,
};
use lambda_runtime::{run, service_fn, Error, LambdaEvent};
use serde_json::{json, Value};
use sqlx::postgres::PgConnectOptions;
use std::env;
use std::time::{Duration, SystemTime};

const RDS_CERTS: &[u8] = include_bytes!("global-bundle.pem");

async fn generate_rds_iam_token(
    db_hostname: &str,
    port: u16,
    db_username: &str,
) -> Result<String, Error> {
    let config = aws_config::load_defaults(BehaviorVersion::v2024_03_28()).await;

    let credentials = config
        .credentials_provider()
        .expect("no credentials provider found")
        .provide_credentials()
        .await
        .expect("unable to load credentials");
    let identity = credentials.into();
    let region = config.region().unwrap().to_string();

    let mut signing_settings = SigningSettings::default();
    signing_settings.expires_in = Some(Duration::from_secs(900));
    signing_settings.signature_location = aws_sigv4::http_request::SignatureLocation::QueryParams;

    let signing_params = v4::SigningParams::builder()
        .identity(&identity)
        .region(&region)
        .name("rds-db")
        .time(SystemTime::now())
        .settings(signing_settings)
        .build()?;

    let url = format!(
        "https://{db_hostname}:{port}/?Action=connect&DBUser={db_user}",
        db_hostname = db_hostname,
        port = port,
        db_user = db_username
    );

    let signable_request =
        SignableRequest::new("GET", &url, std::iter::empty(), SignableBody::Bytes(&[]))
            .expect("signable request");

    let (signing_instructions, _signature) =
        sign(signable_request, &signing_params.into())?.into_parts();

    let mut url = url::Url::parse(&url).unwrap();
    for (name, value) in signing_instructions.params() {
        url.query_pairs_mut().append_pair(name, &value);
    }

    let response = url.to_string().split_off("https://".len());

    Ok(response)
}

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    run(service_fn(handler)).await
}

async fn handler(_event: LambdaEvent<Value>) -> Result<Value, Error> {
    let db_host = env::var("DB_HOSTNAME").expect("DB_HOSTNAME must be set");
    let db_port = env::var("DB_PORT")
        .expect("DB_PORT must be set")
        .parse::<u16>()
        .expect("PORT must be a valid number");
    let db_name = env::var("DB_NAME").expect("DB_NAME must be set");
    let db_user_name = env::var("DB_USERNAME").expect("DB_USERNAME must be set");

    let token = generate_rds_iam_token(&db_host, db_port, &db_user_name).await?;

    let opts = PgConnectOptions::new()
        .host(&db_host)
        .port(db_port)
        .username(&db_user_name)
        .password(&token)
        .database(&db_name)
        .ssl_root_cert_from_pem(RDS_CERTS.to_vec())
        .ssl_mode(sqlx::postgres::PgSslMode::Require);

    let pool = sqlx::postgres::PgPoolOptions::new()
        .connect_with(opts)
        .await?;

    let result: i32 = sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT $1 + $2")
        .bind(3)
        .bind(2)
        .fetch_one(&pool)
        .await?;

    println!("Result: {:?}", result);

    Ok(json!({
        "statusCode": 200,
        "content-type": "text/plain",
        "body": format!("The selected sum is: {result}")
    }))
}

Processing event notifications from Amazon RDS

You can use Lambda to process event notifications from an Amazon RDS database. Amazon RDS sends notifications to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic, which you can configure to invoke a Lambda function. Amazon SNS wraps the message from Amazon RDS in its own event document and sends it to your function.

For more information about configuring an Amazon RDS database to send notifications, see Using Amazon RDS event notifications.

Example Amazon RDS message in an Amazon SNS event

{
        "Records": [
          {
            "EventVersion": "1.0",
            "EventSubscriptionArn": "arn:aws:sns:us-east-2:123456789012:rds-lambda:21be56ed-a058-49f5-8c98-aedd2564c486",
            "EventSource": "aws:sns",
            "Sns": {
              "SignatureVersion": "1",
              "Timestamp": "2023-01-02T12:45:07.000Z",
              "Signature": "tcc6faL2yUC6dgZdmrwh1Y4cGa/ebXEkAi6RibDsvpi+tE/1+82j...65r==",
              "SigningCertUrl": "https://sns.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/SimpleNotificationService-ac565b8b1a6c5d002d285f9598aa1d9b.pem",
              "MessageId": "95df01b4-ee98-5cb9-9903-4c221d41eb5e",
              "Message": "{\"Event Source\":\"db-instance\",\"Event Time\":\"2023-01-02 12:45:06.000\",\"Identifier Link\":\"https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/home?region=eu-west-1#dbinstance:id=dbinstanceid\",\"Source ID\":\"dbinstanceid\",\"Event ID\":\"http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_Events.html#RDS-EVENT-0002\",\"Event Message\":\"Finished DB Instance backup\"}",
              "MessageAttributes": {},
              "Type": "Notification",
              "UnsubscribeUrl": "https://sns.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/?Action=Unsubscribe&SubscriptionArn=arn:aws:sns:us-east-2:123456789012:test-lambda:21be56ed-a058-49f5-8c98-aedd2564c486",
              "TopicArn":"arn:aws:sns:us-east-2:123456789012:sns-lambda",
              "Subject": "RDS Notification Message"
            }
          }
        ]
      }

Complete Lambda and Amazon RDS tutorial

• Using a Lambda function to access an Amazon RDS database – From the Amazon RDS User Guide, learn how to use a Lambda function to write data to an Amazon RDS database through an Amazon RDS Proxy. Your Lambda function will read records from an Amazon SQS queue and write new items to a table in your database whenever a message is added.