Overview
Developers may wish to access the fully-managed RDS shared databases that the MiDatabase team makes available to Container Service customers from outside of the production Container Service cluster. For data security and reliability reasons, the shared MariaDB RDS instance is only accessible from within the Container Service cluster, and via the phpMyAdmin instance listed below. The shared Postgres instance can be accessed via computers in an on-campus data center, such as a MiServer, and via laptops on the VPN.
Dedicated RDS instances can be created for those who have different access requirements. The charges for dedicated instances are billed directly to the requesting group. Similarly, on-campus MiDatabase instances can be modified to allow direct access from specified systems and networks. Contact the Container Service ([email protected]) if you wish to request a dedicated RDS instance.
List of Potential Solutions
The following methods can be used to directly access either the shared MariaDB or Postgres RDS instances:
- Install the database client in your container image. You can then use oc rsh command to access the running pod and run the database client from there. More information on the use of the oc rsh command is available in the OpenShift Documentation.
- Use a web client with access to the RDS database instances:
- MariaDB/MySQL: phpMyAdmin (requires U-M Faculty/Staff/Student VPN): https://phpmyadmin.it.umich.edu/
- Postgres: phpPgAdmin (contact [email protected] for estimated date)
The following method can be used to access the shared Postgres RDS instance: containerprod-pg.aws.vdc.it.umich.edu
- Access the VPN from your current computer. Once this is done, you should be able to access the shared Postgres RDS instance.
- Access a MiServer, for example via ssh. Once this is done, you should be able to access the shared Postgres RDS instance.
Please contact [email protected] if you have questions about these methods.