Connecting to AWS PrivateLink

To better protect your database connection, you can connect to a private endpoint using the Astra DB private endpoint. Private endpoints are available for only intra-region use. The region for your private endpoint in the AWS console and your Astra DB database must match.

For pricing related to using private endpoints, see Pricing and billing.

The following roles can manage private endpoints:

Organization Administrator
Database Administrator

Alternatively, you can use a custom role with permissions to manage private endpoints.

For more about AWS PrivateLink, see AWS PrivateLink.

Prerequisites

Create your Astra DB database using Astra Portal.
Ensure you have permission to manage private endpoints.
Get your application token.

Only VPC owners can create resources such as VPC endpoints, subnets, route tables, and NACLs. Participants cannot view, modify, or delete resources that belong to other participants or the VPC owner. Thus a user cannot create resources, including a private endpoint, in a shared VPC that is owned by a different AWS account. To see which account owns your VPC, look at the Owner ID in the AWS Console. Example:

For more, see Work with shared VPCs - Amazon Virtual Private Cloud.

To increase your security, restrict public access to your database using the access list.

If you are using Postman for your API calls, ensure you use the raw option to enter the body of your API call.

Connect to your AWS PrivateLink endpoint

Get the allowed principal from your AWS account.
1. In your AWS console on the Identify and Access Management (IAM) Users page, select your user name from the available users.
2. Select the User ARN as your allowed principal. For example, arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root.

Enter the allowed principal for your private endpoints to Astra DB:

cURL command (/v2)
Result

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://api.astra.datastax.com/v2/organizations/clusters/<databaseID>/datacenters/<datacenterID>/private-link' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <application_token>' \
  --data '{
      "allowedPrincipals": [
        "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/admin"
      ]
    }'

To confirm your datacenter ID, see your database Dashboard or use the DevOps API to get all datacenter IDs within your database.

{
  "serviceName": "com.amazonaws.vpce.us-east-1.vpce-svc-1148ea04af491da11",
  "allowedPrincipals": [
    "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/admin"
  ]
}

Use the serviceName to create an endpoint in your AWS Console.

CLI
AWS console

Get a list of available services:

aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoint-services

Results:

{
    "VpcEndpoints": [
        {
            "VpcEndpointId": "vpce-08a979e28f97a9f7c",
            "VpcEndpointType": "Interface",
            "VpcId": "vpc-06e4ab6c6c3b23ae3",
            "ServiceName": "com.amazonaws.us-east-2.monitoring",
            "State": "available",
            "PolicyDocument": "{\n  \"Statement\": [\n    {\n      \"Action\": \"*\", \n      \"Effect\": \"Allow\", \n      \"Principal\": \"*\", \n      \"Resource\": \"*\"\n    }\n  ]\n}",
            "RouteTableIds": [],
            "SubnetIds": [
                "subnet-0931fc2fa5f1cbe44"
            ],
            "Groups": [
                {
                    "GroupId": "sg-06e1d57ab87d8f182",
                    "GroupName": "default"
                }
            ],
            "PrivateDnsEnabled": false,
            "RequesterManaged": false,
            "NetworkInterfaceIds": [
                "eni-019b0bb3ede80ebfd"
            ],
            "DnsEntries": [
                {
                    "DnsName": "vpce-08a979e28f97a9f7c-4r5zme9n.monitoring.us-east-2.vpce.amazonaws.com",
                    "HostedZoneId": "ZC8PG0KIFKBRI"
                },
                {
                    "DnsName": "vpce-08a979e28f97a9f7c-4r5zme9n-us-east-2c.monitoring.us-east-2.vpce.amazonaws.com",
                    "HostedZoneId": "ZC8PG0KIFKBRI"
                }
            ],
            "CreationTimestamp": "2019-06-04T19:10:37.000Z",
            "Tags": [],
            "OwnerId": "123456789012"
        }
    ]

In the Amazon VPC console navigation pane, select Endpoints > Create Endpoint. The available serviceNames are listed in the Service Name section.

The status for your private endpoint should show pending acceptance.

Accept your AWS private endpoint connection with your serviceName:

cURL command (/v2)
Result

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://api.astra.datastax.com/v2/organizations/clusters/<databaseID>/datacenters/<datacenterID>/endpoints' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <application_token>' \
  --data '{
      "endpointID": "vpce-svc-1148ea04af491da11",
      "description": "project-desc-dev-app"
    }'

{
  "datacenters": [
    {
      "serviceName": "com.amazonaws.vpce.us-east-1.vpce-svc-1148ea04af491da11",
      "allowedPrincipals": [
        "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/admin"
      ],
      "datacenterID": "string",
      "endpoints": [
        {
          "endpointID": "vpce-svc-1148ea04af491da11",
          "description": "project-desc-dev-app",
          "status": "Accepted",
          "createdDateTime": "2021-04-10T23:00:00"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Your AWS console will show that it is in the available state. For more, see Accept and reject endpoint connect requests.

Create a DNS entry for your private endpoint.
1. Download your secure connect bundle for the region of your choice. Get your latest secure connect bundle.
2. Unzip the secure connect bundle.
3. In config.json, copy the host key’s value.
4. In the AWS Console, create a CNAME record that points to the DNS name found in your VPC Endpoint details.
5. In the AWS Console, create a private zone to route traffic to your virtual IP using Amazon Route 53. Update the following domains to use REST and CQL:
  REST
  
  CQL
  
  efe451fe-709e-4700-9185-5cf0fd3474a7-2-us-east-1.apps.astra.datastax.com
  
  efe451fe-709e-4700-9185-5cf0fd3474a7-2-us-east-1.db.astra.datastax.com
  For more, see Configuring Amazon Route 53 to route traffic to an Amazon VPC interface endpoint.
6. In the AWS Console, create a DNS entry for the key host value and map it to your virtual IP address.

You can now connect to your private endpoint using your updated secure connect bundle. For more, see Drivers for Astra.

Remove a private endpoint

Delete a private endpoint from your Astra DB:

cURL command (/v2)

curl --request DELETE \
  --url 'https://api.astra.datastax.com/v2/organizations/clusters/<databaseID>/datacenters/<datacenterID>/endpoints/<endpointID>' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <application_token>'

Remove your connection from AWS PrivateLink:
- CLI
- AWS Console
aws ec2 delete-vpc-endpoint-service-configurations --service-ids <serviceId>
In the Amazon VPC console navigation pane, select Endpoint Services.

For the service you want to delete, select Actions > Delete.

Select Yes, Delete to remove the connection.

What’s next?

AWS PrivateLink
DevOps API reference
Learn how to Manage access lists for public access.