Connect Liquibase with MySQL on AWS RDS

Last updated: July 14, 2025

MySQL is a fast, multi-user SQL database service. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software. For more information, see the MySQL documentation page.

Verified database versions

MySQL Server

AWS Aurora – MySQL

AWS RDS – MySQL

Azure Database for MySQL

Google Cloud SQL – MySQL

Download the driver

Before you begin

Install Liquibase.
Ensure you have Java installed. Liquibase requires Java to run. If you used the Liquibase Installer, Java is included automatically. Otherwise, you must install Java manually.
If you use Liquibase Pro, or a Liquibase Pro extension, confirm that you have a valid license key.

Procedure

Install drivers

You need additional files to use Liquibase with this database. Use the buttons above to navigate to the required downloads and extract them to your Liquibase /lib folder.

If you prefer, you can use environment variables to point to the directory where Liquibase is installed on your machine. You can set environment variables using your operating system's shell. The location of $LIQUIBASE_HOME will depend on where Liquibase was installed on your machine.

Note for Maven users: If you're running Liquibase using the Maven plugin using mvn liquibase: update, installing the extension with Maven ensures the right files are available and everything works together automatically. You can manage these extensions by adding them as dependencies in your project’s pom.xml file. Configuring Maven this way ensures that the necessary JAR files are retrieved from Maven Central during the build phase.

Configure your connection

1. Check the connection by using the mysql command-line client and running the following.

mysql -h <endpoint> -P 3306 -u <mymainuser> -p

Note: The alternative way is to connect with the SSL certificate.

You can find the connection information in the AWS Management Console. Open the Amazon RDS console > Select Databases and choose the needed database > Select Connectivity & security. You will see all information under Endpoint & Port.

To find the connection information using the AWS CLI and RDS API, refer to the Connecting to a DB instance running the MySQL database engine documentation.

2. Specify the database URL in the liquibase.properties file as follows.

url: jdbc:mysql://<endpoint>:<port>/<dbname>

Example: url:jdbc:mysql://mydb.123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:3306/myTestDB?autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false

Test your connection

1. Create a text file called changelog (.sql, .yaml, .json, or .xml) in your project directory and add a changeset.

If you already created a changelog using the init project command, you can use that instead of creating a new file. When adding onto an existing changelog, be sure to only add the changeset and to not duplicate the changelog header.

--liquibase formatted sql
--changeset your.name:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (
  test_id INT NOT NULL,
  test_column INT,
  PRIMARY KEY (test_id) NOT ENFORCED
)

--liquibase formatted sql
--changeset your.name:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (
  test_id INT NOT NULL,
  test_column INT,
  PRIMARY KEY (test_id) NOT ENFORCED
)

2. Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful:

liquibase status --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

Note: You can specify arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.

If your connection is successful, you'll see a message like this:

4 changesets have not been applied to <your_connection_url> Liquibase command 'status' was executed successfully.

3. Inspect the deployment SQL with the update-sql command

liquibase update-sql --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

If the SQL that Liquibase generates isn't what you expect, you should review your changelog file and make any necessary adjustments.

4. Then execute these changes to your database with the update command:

liquibase update --changelog-file=<changelog.xml>

If your update is successful, Liquibase runs each changeset and displays a summary message ending with:

Liquibase: Update has been successful. Liquibase command 'update' was executed successfully.

5. From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the test_table object you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.