How to Connect a Django App to AWS RDS PostgreSQL Database (2025)

*YouTube Title:*
🔹 How to Connect a Django App to AWS RDS PostgreSQL Database | Step-by-Step Guide

---

*YouTube Description:*

🚀 *Learn How to Connect a Django App to AWS RDS PostgreSQL Database!*

In this tutorial, I’ll guide you through *setting up an AWS RDS PostgreSQL database* and connecting it to your *Django application**. If you're developing a **scalable Django app* and need a **managed PostgreSQL database**, this is the perfect solution!

---

🔹 *What You’ll Learn:*
✅ How to *create a PostgreSQL database on AWS RDS*
✅ How to *configure security groups for remote access*
✅ How to *install and configure PostgreSQL in Django*
✅ How to *connect Django to AWS RDS PostgreSQL*
✅ How to *migrate Django models to RDS*

---

🔹 *Prerequisites:*
✔️ A *Django project* set up on your local machine
✔️ An *AWS account* ([Sign up here](https://aws.amazon.com/))
✔️ Basic understanding of *PostgreSQL and Django databases*

---

*Step 1: Create a PostgreSQL Database on AWS RDS*

1️⃣ *Log in to AWS Console* → Navigate to *RDS Service*
2️⃣ Click *Create database*
3️⃣ Select *Standard create*
4️⃣ Choose *PostgreSQL* as the database engine
5️⃣ Set up database details:
**DB instance identifier**: `mydb-instance`
**Master username**: `admin`
**Master password**: `yourpassword`
6️⃣ Under Connectivity, *enable Public Access* (for development)
7️⃣ Select a security group that *allows inbound PostgreSQL connections (port 5432)*
8️⃣ Click *Create database* and wait for it to be available

---

*Step 2: Install PostgreSQL Client on Your System*

To connect Django to AWS RDS, install the PostgreSQL client:

🔹 *On Ubuntu/Linux:*
```bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install postgresql-client
```

🔹 *On macOS:*
```bash
brew install postgresql
```

🔹 *On Windows:*
[Download PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/download/) and install it.

Verify installation with:
```bash
psql --version
```

---

*Step 3: Install PostgreSQL Adapter for Django*

Inside your *Django project* folder, activate your virtual environment and install `psycopg2`:

```bash
pip install psycopg2-binary
```

---

*Step 4: Configure Django Settings for AWS RDS PostgreSQL*

In your Django **settings.py**, update the `DATABASES` section:

```python
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
'NAME': 'your-db-name', # Replace with your AWS RDS database name
'USER': 'your-username', # AWS RDS username
'PASSWORD': 'your-password', # AWS RDS password
'HOST': 'your-db-endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com', # AWS RDS endpoint
'PORT': '5432', # Default PostgreSQL port
}
}
```

Replace *`your-db-name`**, **`your-username`**, **`your-password`**, and **`your-db-endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com`* with actual values from your RDS instance.

---

*Step 5: Run Database Migrations*

Once the settings are updated, apply migrations to set up the database schema:

```bash
python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
```

This will create necessary Django tables in **AWS RDS PostgreSQL**.

---

*Step 6: Test the Connection*

Run the Django development server:

```bash
python manage.py runserver
```

If everything is set up correctly, Django should connect to your AWS RDS PostgreSQL database 🎉.

To confirm, open *PostgreSQL CLI* and check if the tables are created:

```bash
psql -h your-db-endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com -U your-username -d your-db-name
```

Then, run:

```sql
SELECT datname FROM pg_database;
\c your-db-name;
\dt;
```

---

*Step 7: Secure Your Connection (Optional but Recommended)*

🔹 *Use environment variables* instead of hardcoding credentials in `settings.py`:

```python
import os

DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
'NAME': os.getenv('DB_NAME'),
'USER': os.getenv('DB_USER'),
'PASSWORD': os.getenv('DB_PASSWORD'),
'HOST': os.getenv('DB_HOST'),
'PORT': '5432',
}
}
```

Then, store credentials in a `.env` file:

```
DB_NAME=your-db-name
DB_USER=your-username
DB_PASSWORD=your-password
DB_HOST=your-db-endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com
```

Use *python-dotenv* to load them:

```bash
pip install python-dotenv
```

And add this to `settings.py`:

```python
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()
```

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