How to use IBM App Connect with Amazon RDS

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is a managed SQL database by Amazon Web Services that you can use to set up, run, and scale a relational database on the AWS Cloud. It provides cost-efficient security, high availability and durability, resizable capacity for an industry-standard relational database, and manages common database administration tasks.

Availability:

App Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release) 12.0.8.0-r2 or later
Local connector in containers (Long Term Support Cycle-2 release)

Connecting to Amazon RDS
General considerations
Events and actions
Examples

Connecting to Amazon RDS

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Connect > Applications and APIs page (previously the Catalog page) or flow editor. If necessary, work with your Amazon RDS administrator to obtain these values.

The Amazon RDS authorization types and connection fields:

BASIC: Secret access key: The secret access key of your Amazon RDS account. Get the secret access key from the Security Credentials page in the AWS Management Console.; Access key ID: The access key ID of your Amazon RDS account. Get the access key ID from the Security Credentials page in the AWS Management Console.; Region: The region of your Amazon RDS instance, for example, us-east-1. You can find the value for the Region parameter at the end of the URL when you are logged in to the AWS Management Console (for example, https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/console/home?region=us-east-2#).
Tip: For more information, see AWS service endpoints on the AWS documentation page.; Role ARN: The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that specifies an IAM role in AWS

BASIC OIDC: Region: The region of your Amazon RDS instance, for example, us-east-1. You can find the value for the Region parameter at the end of the URL when you are logged in to the AWS Management Console (for example, https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/console/home?region=us-east-2#).
Tip: For more information, see AWS service endpoints on the AWS documentation page.; Client ID: Specify the unique identifier assigned to an application within an OpenID Connect (OIDC) system; Client secret: Specify the client secret that is used to authenticate the client application; ID token: The security token in OpenID Connect (OIDC) that contains claims about the authentication of a user, such as their identity and session validity, typically represented as a JSON Web Token (JWT); Refresh token: The refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret; Role ARN: The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that specifies an IAM role in AWS, defining the permissions granted to users authenticated via an OpenID Connect-compatible identity provider; OIDC server URL: Specify the URL of the OpenID Connect (OIDC) server or identity provider that handles authentication and provides tokens for clients

OIDC WEB: Region: The region of your Amazon RDS instance, for example, us-east-1. You can find the value for the Region parameter at the end of the URL when you are logged in to the AWS Management Console (for example, https://us-east-2.console.aws.amazon.com/console/home?region=us-east-2#).
Tip: For more information, see AWS service endpoints on the AWS documentation page.; Client ID: Specify the unique identifier assigned to an application within an OpenID Connect (OIDC) system; Client secret: Specify the client secret that is used to authenticate the client application; Role ARN: The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that specifies an IAM role in AWS, defining the permissions granted to users authenticated via an OpenID Connect-compatible identity provider; OIDC server URL: Specify the URL of the OpenID Connect (OIDC) server or identity provider that handles authentication and provides tokens for clients

To obtain the connection values for Amazon RDS, see Obtaining connection values for Amazon RDS.

To connect to an Amazon RDS endpoint from the App Connect Designer Applications and APIs page for the first time, expand Amazon RDS, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Applications and APIs page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with Amazon RDS, take note of the following considerations:

(General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Applications and APIs page of the App Connect Designer.
For some applications, the events and actions depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.
(General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

Amazon RDS events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

Amazon RDS actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Object	Action	Description	Approximate time needed to complete asynchronous operation	Approximate number of API calls	Additional information	Reference link
Database clusters	Retrieve database clusters	Retrieves the database clusters
	Reboot database cluster	Reboots the database cluster	3 to 5 minutes	3 to 5	Use this operation only for a non-Aurora Multi-AZ DB cluster.	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_RebootDBCluster.html
	Start database cluster	Starts the database cluster	15 to 20 minutes	15 to 20	This operation applies to Aurora DB clusters only.	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_StartDBCluster.html
	Stop database cluster	Stops the database cluster	15 to 20 minutes	15 to 20	This operation applies to Aurora DB clusters only.	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_StopDBCluster.html
Database instances	Create database instance	Creates a database instance	10 minutes	10
	Retrieve database instances	Retrieves the database instances
	Update database instance	Updates the database instance
	Delete database instance	Deletes the database instance
	Reboot database instance	Reboots the database instance	3 to 5 minutes	3 to 5	If your DB instance is part of a Multi-AZ DB cluster, you can reboot the DB cluster with the `Reboot database cluster` operation.	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_RebootDBInstance.html
	Start database instance	Starts the database instance	5 to 10 minutes	5 to 10	This operation doesn't apply to RDS Custom, Aurora MySQL, and Aurora PostgreSQL. For Aurora DB clusters, use `Start database cluster` instead.	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_StartDBInstance.html
	Stop database instance	Stops the database instance	5 to 10 minutes	5 to 10	This operation doesn't apply to RDS Custom, Aurora MySQL, and Aurora PostgreSQL. For Aurora clusters, use `Stop database cluster` instead.	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_StopDBInstance.html
Database snapshots	Create database snapshot	Creates a database snapshot	5 minutes	5	An error message is displayed if you select cluster and instances under cluster (snapshot creation of instances under cluster is not possible).	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_CreateDBSnapshot.html
	Retrieve database snapshots	Retrieves the database snapshots
	Delete database snapshot	Deletes the database snapshot	10 minutes	10
Exports	Export to Amazon S3	Starts the export task	20 minutes	20	This operation is the Export of DB snapshot or DB cluster data to Amazon S3. You can't export cluster data from Multi-AZ DB clusters. Important: Provide a valid IAM role Amazon Resource Name (ARN) when you complete this operation. For more information, see Providing access to an Amazon S3 bucket using an IAM role.	https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/APIReference/API_StartExportTask.html
Tags	Retrieve tags	Retrieves the tags
	Add tags	Adds a tag
	Remove tags	Removes the tags

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Amazon RDS

Use templates to quickly create flows for Amazon RDS

Learn how to use App Connect templates to quickly create flows that complete actions on Amazon RDS. For example, open Discover, and then search for Amazon RDS.

Learn more

Use IBM® App Connect to build flows that integrate with Amazon RDS.

Read the blog in the IBM Community to learn how to stop or start or reboot the Amazon RDS instance whenever a Zendesk Service ticket gets created. Click Read the blog to go to the blog.

Read the blog