AWS CLI create RDS with elasticbeanstalk create-environment

Question

How can I create an RDS instance with the create-environment or another subcommand of aws elasticbeanstalk? I've tried several combinations of parameters to no avail. Below is an example.

APP_NAME="randall-railsapp"
aws s3api create-bucket --bucket "$APP_NAME"
APP_VERSION="$(git describe --always)"
APP_FILE="deploy-$APP_NAME-$APP_VERSION.zip"
git archive -o "$APP_FILE" HEAD
aws s3 cp "$APP_FILE" "s3://$APP_NAME/$APP_FILE"

aws --region us-east-1 elasticbeanstalk create-application-version \
--auto-create-application \
--application-name "$APP_NAME" \
--version-label "$APP_VERSION" \
--source-bundle S3Bucket="$APP_NAME",S3Key="$APP_FILE"

aws --region us-east-1 elasticbeanstalk create-environment \
--application-name "$APP_NAME" \
--version-label "$APP_VERSION" \
--environment-name "$APP_NAME-env" \
--description "randall's rails app environment" \
--solution-stack-name "64bit Amazon Linux 2014.03 v1.0.0 running Ruby 2.1 (Puma)" \
--cname-prefix "$APP_NAME-test" \
--option-settings file://test.json

And the contents of test.json:

[
{
    "OptionName": "EC2KeyName",
    "Namespace": "aws:autoscaling:launchconfiguration",
    "Value": "a-key-is-here"
},
{
    "OptionName": "EnvironmentType",
    "Namespace": "aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment",
    "Value": "SingleInstance"
},
{
    "OptionName": "SECRET_KEY_BASE",
    "Namespace": "aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment",
    "Value": "HAHAHAHAHAHA"
},
{
    "OptionName": "DBPassword",
    "Namespace": "aws:rds:dbinstance",
    "Value": "hunter2"
},
{
    "OptionName": "DBUser",
    "Namespace": "aws:rds:dbinstance",
    "Value": "random"
},
{
    "OptionName": "DBEngineVersion",
    "Namespace": "aws:rds:dbinstance",
    "Value": "9.3"
},
{
    "OptionName": "DBEngine",
    "Namespace": "aws:rds:dbinstance",
    "Value": "postgres"
}
]

Anyone know why this is failing? Anything I specify with a aws:rds:dbinstance namespace seems to get removed from the configuration.

Answer 1

Just setting the aws:rds:dbinstance options does not create an RDS database. Currently you can create an RDS instance using one of the following techniques:

1. Create using AWS Console
2. Use eb cli
3. Use Resources section of ebextensions to create an RDS resource

The first two approaches are the most convenient as they do all the heavy lifting for you but for the third one you have to do some extra work. The third approach is what you would want to use if you are not using the console or eb CLI.

You can create an RDS resource for your beanstalk environment using the following ebextension snippet. Create a file called 01-rds.config in the .ebextensions directory of your app source.

Resources:
    AWSEBRDSDatabase:
        Type: AWS::RDS::DBInstance
        Properties:
            AllocatedStorage: 5
            DBInstanceClass: db.t2.micro
            DBName: myawesomeapp
            Engine: postgres
            EngineVersion: 9.3
            MasterUsername: myAwesomeUsername
            MasterUserPassword: myCrazyPassword

This file is in YAML format so indentation is important. You could also use JSON if you like. These are not option settings so you cannot pass it as --option-settings test.json. You just need to bundle this file with your app source.

Read more about what properties you can configure on your RDS database here. On this page you can also find what properties are required and what properties are optional.

Let me know if the above does not work for you or if you have any further questions.