Aws Services

AWS backing services (private, least-privilege)

When to use

Standing up or reviewing the managed data tier behind the app: RDS Postgres, ElastiCache Redis (Celery broker + Channels layer), and an S3 bucket. The invariant: nothing in this tier is reachable from the public internet, and the app authenticates to AWS by role, never by pasted keys.

Pattern

Three rules, held for every backing service:

1. Private by default. RDS and ElastiCache live in private subnets, are

not publicly accessible, and their security groups allow inbound only from the app's security group — not 0.0.0.0/0, not a CIDR.

1. Role, not keys. The app reads S3 through an IAM instance role attached

to the compute (EB / EC2). No AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID in code, env, or repo.

1. S3 is private. Block Public Access stays ON; objects are served via the

role + presigned URLs, never a public bucket policy.

Steps / idioms

The whole tier is one idiom: every data security group takes its source from the app SG id (never a CIDR), each store stays in a private subnet, and S3 blocks all public access. One Terraform slice shows all three; ElastiCache and Django wiring follow the same shape in prose below.

# App SG is referenced by every data SG — least privilege is SG-to-SG, not a CIDR.
# Rename "entreprise" to your project throughout.
resource "aws_security_group" "rds" {
  name   = "entreprise-rds"
  vpc_id = var.vpc_id
  ingress {
    from_port       = 5432
    to_port         = 5432
    protocol        = "tcp"
    security_groups = [aws_security_group.app.id]  # SG ref, never 0.0.0.0/0
  }
}
resource "aws_db_instance" "pg" {
  engine                 = "postgres"
  engine_version         = "17"      # pin to the PG major you run (e.g. 16/17/18)
  publicly_accessible    = false     # private subnet only
  db_subnet_group_name   = aws_db_subnet_group.private.name
  vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.rds.id]
  storage_encrypted      = true
  backup_retention_period = 7        # >0 enables automated backups + PITR; tune the window
  deletion_protection     = true     # a stray `terraform destroy`/console delete is blocked
  # password from Secrets Manager / env — never a literal here
}
resource "aws_s3_bucket_public_access_block" "media" {
  bucket                  = aws_s3_bucket.media.id
  block_public_acls       = true
  block_public_policy     = true
  ignore_public_acls      = true
  restrict_public_buckets = true
}
# The instance role gets a scoped policy (s3:GetObject/PutObject/DeleteObject on
# this bucket only) — the app never holds an AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID.

Durable, browser-reachable S3. Turn on bucket versioning so an overwritten or deleted object can be restored from a prior version — the bucket stays private throughout. Add a CORS rule whose AllowedOrigins is your frontend origin only (e.g. https://app.example.test), never *, so the browser can load assets via presigned URLs while Block Public Access stays ON.

ElastiCache Redis, same posture. A second SG allows only the app SG on 6379; that one endpoint backs both the Celery broker/result store and the Channels layer (channels_redis.core.RedisChannelLayer).

Django reads endpoints from env, resolved at deploy from Secrets Manager — e.g. DATABASE_URL (parsed with dj_database_url), REDIS_URL reused for CELERY_BROKER_URL and the channel layer, and S3_BUCKET. No credentials in settings; boto3 picks up the instance role automatically.

Adapt to your repo

Rename entreprise-* resource names, the VPC/subnet ids, the bucket name, and the region to match your project. Confirm the RDS/ElastiCache SGs reference your real app SG id (the one on the EB environment) and that publicly_accessible is false. Pin engine_version to the PG major you run (16/17/18). If you use CloudFormation/CDK/EB-.ebextensions instead of Terraform, the three rules are identical — only the syntax changes.

Gotchas

• A data SG whose ingress is a CIDR (0.0.0.0/0 or an office IP) instead of the

app SG id is a leak — SG-to-SG rules are the least-privilege form.

• publicly_accessible = true on RDS puts the DB on a public IP even inside a

VPC — keep it false and rely on the SG.

• An AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID/AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY pair anywhere (env, repo,

Beanstalk config) means you skipped the instance role — remove it.

• Block Public Access ON can still be undermined by a permissive bucket policy;

don't add one — serve via presigned URLs from the role.

• ElastiCache Redis has no auth by default; the SG is the perimeter, so never

widen it. Secrets belong in Secrets Manager, injected as env at deploy.

• A DB with deletion_protection = false and no backup retention is one typo away

from unrecoverable loss — automated backups give point-in-time recovery; keep both on.

• Keep the app, database, cache, and object storage in the same region. A store

in a different region from the compute is the classic can't-connect bug, adds latency, and bills cross-region transfer — confirm the region (keep it a variable) before creating each resource.

See also

• deploy-aws
• ci-cd

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Deadlymind
• Source: Deadlymind/nanolama
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.