Prerequisites

Meet these prerequisites to follow along with Consuming AWS RDS on Tanzu Application Platform (TAP) with AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK).

1. Install the AWS CLI or gain access to the Amazon Cloud Console

2. Gain the AWS privileges required to configure the IAM permissions and identity used by the ACK service controller for RDS

3. Create an Amazon EKS cluster. The quickest and simplest way to create an EKS cluster is to use eksctl, as in this example:

   eksctl create cluster -r YOUR-REGION -m 6 -M 8 -n YOUR-CLUSTER-NAME --version 1.22
   

   Note: Using an EKS Kubernetes version of 1.23 or above may require extra configuration with TAP. See troubleshooting guide.

4. Tanzu Application Platform v1.2.0 or later and Cluster Essentials v1.2.0 or later have to be installed on the Kubernetes cluster.

   Note: To check if you have an appropriate version, run the following:

   kubectl api-resources | grep secrettemplate
   

   This command returns the SecretTemplate API. If it does not for you, verify that Cluster Essentials for VMware Tanzu v1.2.0 or later is installed.

5. Install the ACK service controller for RDS and configure it in the cluster. It is recommended to install the latest stable version of the Operator (v0.0.25 is known to work with this specific use case). For instructions, see Install an ACK Controller. This entails installing the RDS ACK service controller, which entails updating some of the environment variables used throughout the official documentation. In particular, note the following changes:

   • Set the SERVICE environment variable to rds by running:

     export SERVICE=rds
     

   • Set the AWS_REGION environment variable to the AWS region where the RDS instances is created by running:

     export AWS_REGION=us-east-1
     

6. After the operator is installed, configure IAM permissions. Set the following environment variables accordingly:

   • Set the SERVICE environment variable to rds by running:

     export SERVICE=rds
     

   • Set the EKS_CLUSTER_NAME environment variable to the name of your EKS cluster by running:

     export EKS_CLUSTER_NAME=<YOUR_CLUSTER_NAME>
     

   • Set the AWS_REGION environment variable to the AWS region where the RDS instances is created by running:

     export AWS_REGION=us-east-1