Connect to Redshift using Python using IAM Role

Question

I'am using sqlalchemy and psycopg2 to connect python to redshift.

engine = create_engine('postgresql://user:password@hostname:port/database_name')

I want to avoid using my password to connect to redshift and using IAM Role.

Answer 1

AWS offers a way to request temporary credentials for access to Redshift clusters. Boto3 implements get_cluster_credentials, allowing you to do something like the following. Ensure that you have followed the instructions here on setting up your IAM Users and Roles.

def db_connection():
    logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

    RS_PORT = 5439
    RS_USER = 'myDbUser'
    DATABASE = 'myDb'
    CLUSTER_ID = 'myCluster'
    RS_HOST = 'myClusterHostName'

    client = boto3.client('redshift')

    cluster_creds = client.get_cluster_credentials(DbUser=RS_USER,
                                               DbName=DATABASE,
                                          ClusterIdentifier=CLUSTER_ID,
                                               AutoCreate=False)

    try:
      conn = psycopg2.connect(
        host=RS_HOST,
        port=RS_PORT,
        user=cluster_creds['DbUser'],
        password=cluster_creds['DbPassword'],
        database=DATABASE
      )
      return conn
    except psycopg2.Error:
      logger.exception('Failed to open database connection.')