---
title: Database Access AWS IAM Reference
description: AWS IAM policies for Teleport database access.
---

## Auto-discovery
With the appropriate IAM permissions, Teleport automatically discovers and
configures IAM policies for Amazon RDS and Redshift. Teleport also requires
permission to update database configurations, for example, to enable IAM
authentication on RDS databases.

For Amazon ElastiCache and MemoryDB, Teleport requires permission to
automatically discover the Redis clusters. Teleport also requires permission to
automatically discover and modify any Teleport-managed ElastiCache or MemoryDB
users and permission to manage the passwords in AWS Secrets Manager.

You can generate and manage the permissions with the [`teleport db configure
bootstrap`](../../database-access/reference/cli.mdx#teleport-db-configure-bootstrap)
command. For example, the following command would generate and print the
IAM policies:

```code
$ teleport db configure bootstrap --manual
```

Or if you prefer, you can manage the IAM permissions yourself. Examples of
policies for each discovery type are shown below.

### Aurora/RDS

<Tabs>
  <TabItem label="RDS / IAM user">
  Use this policy if you're connecting to RDS instances and your Teleport
  Database Service instance runs as an IAM user (for example, uses an AWS
  credentials file).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "rds:DescribeDBInstances",
                  "rds:ModifyDBInstance"
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetUserPolicy",
                  "iam:PutUserPolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteUserPolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:user/sample-user"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem label="RDS / IAM role">
  Use this policy if you're connecting to RDS instances and your Teleport
  Database Service runs as an IAM role (for example, on an EC2 instance with
  an attached IAM role).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "rds:DescribeDBInstances",
                  "rds:ModifyDBInstance"
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetRolePolicy",
                  "iam:PutRolePolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteRolePolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:role/sample-role"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem label="Aurora / IAM user">
  Use this policy if you're connecting to Aurora clusters and your Teleport
  Database Service runs as an IAM user (for example, uses an AWS credentials file).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
                  "rds:ModifyDBCluster"
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetUserPolicy",
                  "iam:PutUserPolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteUserPolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:user/sample-user"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem label="Aurora / IAM role">
  Use this policy if you're connecting to Aurora clusters and your Teleport
  Database Service runs as an IAM role (for example, on an EC2 instance with
  an attached IAM role).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
                  "rds:ModifyDBCluster"
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetRolePolicy",
                  "iam:PutRolePolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteRolePolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:role/sample-role"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

<Admonition type="note">
Teleport uses `rds:ModifyDBInstance` and `rds:DescribeDBClusters` to
automatically enable [IAM
authentication](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/UsingWithRDS.IAMDBAuth.html)
on the RDS instance and the Aurora cluster, respectively. You can omit these
permissions if IAM authentication is already enabled.
</Admonition>

### RDS Proxy

<Tabs>
  <TabItem label="IAM user">
  Use this policy if you're connecting to RDS Proxy instances and your Teleport
  Database Service instance runs as an IAM user (for example, uses an AWS
  credentials file).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "rds:DescribeDBProxies",
                  "rds:DescribeDBProxyEndpoints",
                  "rds:DescribeDBProxyTargets",
                  "rds:ListTagsForResource",
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetUserPolicy",
                  "iam:PutUserPolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteUserPolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:user/sample-user"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem label="IAM role">
  Use this policy if you're connecting to RDS Proxy instances and your Teleport
  Database Service runs as an IAM role (for example, on an EC2 instance with an
  attached IAM role).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "rds:DescribeDBProxies",
                  "rds:DescribeDBProxyEndpoints",
                  "rds:DescribeDBProxyTargets",
                  "rds:ListTagsForResource",
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetRolePolicy",
                  "iam:PutRolePolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteRolePolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:role/sample-role"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

### Redshift

<Tabs>
  <TabItem label="IAM user">
  Use this permission boundary if your Teleport Database Service runs as an IAM
  user (for example, it uses an AWS credentials file).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "redshift:DescribeClusters",
                  "redshift:GetClusterCredentials"
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetUserPolicy",
                  "iam:PutUserPolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteUserPolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:user/sample-user"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem label="IAM role">
  Use this permission boundary if your Teleport Database Service instance runs
  as an IAM role (for example, on an EC2 instance with an attached IAM role).

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "redshift:DescribeClusters",
                  "redshift:GetClusterCredentials",
              ],
              "Resource": "*"
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "iam:GetRolePolicy",
                  "iam:PutRolePolicy",
                  "iam:DeleteRolePolicy"
              ],
              "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::{account-id}:role/sample-role"
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

### ElastiCache/MemoryDB

In addition to database discovery, Teleport requires permissions to modify user
passwords, and save passwords in AWS Secrets Manager, if any ElastiCache or
MemoryDB users are tagged to be managed by Teleport.

<Tabs>
  <TabItem label="ElastiCache">
  Use this policy if you are connecting to ElastiCache clusters.

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "elasticache:ListTagsForResource",
                  "elasticache:DescribeReplicationGroups",
                  "elasticache:DescribeCacheClusters",
                  "elasticache:DescribeCacheSubnetGroups",
                  "elasticache:DescribeUsers",
                  "elasticache:ModifyUser"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "*"
              ]
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:CreateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:UpdateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:DeleteSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:PutSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:TagResource"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "arn:aws:secretsmanager:*:{account-id}:secret:teleport/*"
              ]
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem label="MemoryDB">
  Use this policy if you are connecting to MemoryDB clusters.

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "memorydb:ListTags",
                  "memorydb:DescribeClusters",
                  "memorydb:DescribeSubnetGroups",
                  "memorydb:DescribeUsers",
                  "memorydb:UpdateUser"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "*"
              ]
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:CreateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:UpdateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:DeleteSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:PutSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:TagResource"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "arn:aws:secretsmanager:*:{account-id}:secret:teleport/*"
              ]
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

## Manual registration
If you prefer to register RDS, Redshift, ElastiCache or MemoryDB databases
manually using a [static configuration](./configuration.mdx) or
[`tctl`](../guides/dynamic-registration.mdx) and manage IAM yourself, example
IAM policies with the required permissions are shown below.

### RDS, Aurora, or RDS Proxy policy

To connect to an RDS database, the Database Service instance's IAM identity
needs to have `rds-db:connect` permissions for it:

<Details title="Example IAM policy document" opened={false}>
```json
{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
   "Statement": [
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action": [
             "rds-db:connect"
         ],
         "Resource": [
             // Use db-XXX as a resource identifier for RDS instances.
             "arn:aws:rds-db:us-east-2:1234567890:dbuser:db-ABCDEFGHIJKL01234/*",
             // Use cluster-XXX as a resource identifier for Aurora clusters.
             "arn:aws:rds-db:us-east-2:1234567890:dbuser:cluster-ABCDEFGHIJKL01234/*"
             // Use prx-XXX as a resource identifier for RDS proxies.
             "arn:aws:rds-db:us-east-2:1234567890:dbuser:prx-ABCDEFGHIJKL01234/*"
         ]
      }
   ]
}
```
</Details>

The resource ARN in the policy has the following format:

```
arn:aws:rds-db:<region>:<account-id>:dbuser:<resource-id>/<db-user>
```

| Parameter     | Description |
| ------------- | ----------- |
| `region`      | AWS region where the database cluster is deployed. |
| `account-id`  | AWS account ID the database cluster is deployed under. |
| `resource-id` | Database AWS resource identifier: `db-XXX` for RDS instances, `cluster-XXX` for Aurora clusters, "prx-XXX` for RDS Proxy. Can be found under Configuration section in the RDS control panel. |
| `db-user`     | Database user to associate with IAM authentication. Can be a wildcard. |

See [Creating and using an IAM policy for IAM database access](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/UsingWithRDS.IAMDBAuth.IAMPolicy.html)
for more information.

### Redshift policy
Teleport uses temporary credentials generated by AWS to authenticate with
Redshift databases.

In order to authorize Teleport to generate temporary IAM tokens, create an IAM
role with the `GetClusterCredentials` permission:

<Details title="Example IAM policy document" opened={false}>
```json
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "redshift:GetClusterCredentials",
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:redshift:*:1234567890:dbuser:*/*",
                "arn:aws:redshift:*:1234567890:dbname:*/*",
                "arn:aws:redshift:*:1234567890:dbgroup:*/*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}
```
</Details>

The resource ARN string has the following format:

```
arn:aws:redshift:<region>:<account-id>:<resource>:<cluster-id>/<name>
```

Parameters:
| Parameter     | Description |
| ------------- | ----------- |
| `region`      | AWS region where your Redshift cluster is deployed, or a wildcard. |
| `account-id`  | ID of the AWS account where the Redshift cluster is deployed. |
| `resource`    | One of `dbuser`, `dbname` or `dbgroup` to restrict access to database accounts, names or groups respectively. |
| `cluster-id`  | Redshift cluster identifier, or a wildcard. |
| `name`        | Name of a particular database account, name or group (depending on the `resource`), or a wildcard. |

See [Create an IAM role or user with permissions to call
GetClusterCredentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/mgmt/generating-iam-credentials-role-permissions.html)
for more information.

### ElastiCache/MemoryDB policy

If any ElastiCache or MemoryDB users are tagged to be managed by Teleport,
below are the IAM permissions required for managing the ElastiCache or MemoryDB
users. Otherwise, no additional IAM permissions are required.

<Tabs>
  <TabItem label="ElastiCache">
  Use this policy for managing ElastiCache users.

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "elasticache:ListTagsForResource",
                  "elasticache:DescribeReplicationGroups",
                  "elasticache:DescribeUsers",
                  "elasticache:ModifyUser"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "*"
              ]
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:CreateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:UpdateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:DeleteSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:PutSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:TagResource"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "arn:aws:secretsmanager:*:{account-id}:secret:teleport/*"
              ]
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem label="MemoryDB">
  Use this policy for managing MemoryDB users.

  Replace `{account-id}` with your AWS Account ID:
  ```json
  {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                "memorydb:ListTags",
                "memorydb:DescribeClusters",
                "memorydb:DescribeUsers",
                "memorydb:UpdateUser"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "*"
              ]
          },
          {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                  "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:CreateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:UpdateSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:DeleteSecret",
                  "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:PutSecretValue",
                  "secretsmanager:TagResource"
              ],
              "Resource": [
                  "arn:aws:secretsmanager:*:{account-id}:secret:teleport/*"
              ]
          }
      ]
  }
  ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

If any custom key prefix or KMS key ID is used in the static configuration, add
the following to the IAM policy.

Replace `{account-id}`, `{my-prefix}` and `{my-kms-id}` accordingly:

```
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret",
                "secretsmanager:CreateSecret",
                "secretsmanager:UpdateSecret",
                "secretsmanager:DeleteSecret",
                "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue",
                "secretsmanager:PutSecretValue",
                "secretsmanager:TagResource"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:secretsmanager:*:{account-id}:secret:{my-prefix}/*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "kms:GenerateDataKey",
                "kms:Decrypt"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:kms:*:{account-id}:key/{my-kms-id}",
            ]
        }
    ]
}
```