We start off our cloud formation template by creating our new secret as previously described.

Then we add the database that we want to create. We will be building a small MySQL RDS database and will use our secrets manager password and username created above which is being dynamically referenced. As you will remember the password is being randomly generated at runtime which provides that extra layer of security.

We do have to circle back and update the properties of our newly created secret, so it understands we are dealing with an RDS database. This allows us to have our keys automatically rotated for us.

Finally, we will want to schedule the keys to do the actual rotation every 30 days. One interesting side note is that the keys will rotate immediately in order to prove this functionality is configured correctly. Further rotations will occur on whatever schedule you have programmed in. You will have to create the lambda function that does the actual rotation and put the ARN below

Here is a link to an AWS sample written in python:

https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-secrets-manager-rotation-lambdas/blob/master/SecretsManagerRotationTemplate/lambda_function.py

And with all of that combined together into one CloudFormation template, you will have the ability to automatically deploy an RDS database with a random password that is automatically rotated every 30 days. 

If your developers or applications ever need access to that password, you can configure their IAM permissions or roles to enable access.

Lectures

Course Introduction - Why Automate? - Automating with AWS - Keeping Your Environment Secure with AWS Secrets Manager - Creating a Secret - Wrap Up