PG Orbit · Guides

Connect to AWS RDS

RDS instances are usually private, and that's how it should be. PG Orbit connects three ways: directly (if your security group allows your IP), through an SSH bastion, or by discovering instances with a read-only IAM user.

Get your credentials

In the RDS console, open your instance and copy the Endpoint and Port from Connectivity & security. Your master username was set at creation; the database name is under Configuration.

Add the connection in PG Orbit

  1. Direct: add a connection with the endpoint as Host, port 5432, your database, user, and password; turn ON Use SSL
  2. Private instance: turn ON Use SSH Tunnel and enter your bastion's host, port, user, and key — PG Orbit tunnels the connection like ssh -L
  3. Discovery: Connections → cloud icon → AWS, then create the read-only discovery user with our CloudFormation quick-create template (pgorbit.com/pgorbit-setup.yaml) and paste its keys
  4. Tap Test, then save

Good to know

  • For direct connections your security group needs an inbound rule for your current IP — mobile IPs change, which is why the SSH bastion route is more reliable on the go.
  • The discovery IAM user gets rds:Describe* and tag reads only — it cannot touch your data.

Get PG Orbit

A real PostgreSQL client on your phone — and your Mac. Free for read-only.