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Running a Microservices Access Proxy with AWS RDS IAM Connect

Andrios Robert

• 1 min read

The API gateway was silent, waiting for the first request. Then the microservices woke, hungry for data locked inside Amazon RDS.

Running a Microservices Access Proxy with AWS RDS IAM Connect changes how services reach databases. It removes passwords. It uses AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication. The database connection is short-lived, signed with an AWS token. This reduces attack surface and simplifies secrets management across many services.

A typical pattern:

  • Each microservice calls the access proxy.
  • The proxy requests an IAM authentication token via AWS SDK.
  • The token lasts 15 minutes, enough to query RDS securely.
  • The proxy handles role-based access, mapped to IAM roles, not static credentials.

This works with Amazon Aurora MySQL and PostgreSQL, as well as standard AWS RDS. You enable IAM DB authentication in the RDS instance settings. Assign IAM roles to your services. The AWS CLI or SDK can generate tokens. In production, the proxy runs in the same VPC for low latency. Connections are encrypted over TLS by default.

Why use a microservices access proxy here?

  • Centralize IAM token generation logic.
  • Control and log database connection requests.
  • Reduce duplication of IAM logic in each service.
  • Provide a single security choke point.

Best practices:

  1. Keep the proxy lightweight with minimal dependencies.
  2. Use AWS STS AssumeRole for cross-account access.
  3. Cache tokens carefully, aware of their short lifespan.
  4. Rotate IAM roles and audit CloudTrail logs.
  5. Monitor connection count to avoid hitting RDS limits.

When building, combine AWS RDS IAM Connect with security groups and subnet rules that match each microservice’s trust boundaries. This ensures that even with IAM authentication, only authorized network paths reach the proxy.

Deploying in Kubernetes or ECS is straightforward. The proxy container holds no credentials. It pulls tokens from AWS at runtime. Horizontal scaling is simple: the proxy is stateless between requests except for token caching.

The result is faster onboarding for new microservices, tighter security without sharing passwords, and compliance alignment for regulated environments. It gives you centralized control over how services touch your databases.

You can see this pattern live in minutes. Visit hoop.dev and set up a Microservices Access Proxy for AWS RDS IAM Connect now.