Use Liquibase with PostgreSQL on AWS RDS

PostgreSQL on AWS RDS allows users to deploy, manage, and scale your PostgreSQL database within the cloud. Learn how to set up Liquibase with PostgreSQL on AWS RDS below.

Verified Versions

  • 16
  • 15
  • 14
  • 13
  • 12

Deprecated Versions

  • Amazon AWS RDS for PostgreSQL 11 is deprecated as of November 9, 2023.

    • Liquibase support for this version ends on February 7, 2024.
    • Other versions remain supported.

Verification level

Note: A database's verification level indicates how well it works with different features in Liquibase and across different products, such as Liquibase Open Source and Liquibase Pro. For more information, see Database Verification Levels.

Advanced: Database has been tested and validated to deliver a minimum set of advanced capabilities around database inspection, support for long-running operations, as well as the Foundational level's basic functionality of change management and change tracking aligned with the database. The advanced database inspection capabilities include the ability to generate changelogs in at least one format and the support of at least two additional state-based commands (snapshots, diffs, etc). The Liquibase customer support team provides how-to/usage support around verified capabilities for commercial customers.

Prerequisites

  1. Introduction to Liquibase – Dive into Liquibase concepts.
  2. Install Liquibase – Download Liquibase on your machine.
  3. Get Started with Liquibase – Learn how to use Liquibase with an example database.
  4. Design Your Liquibase Project – Create a new Liquibase project folder and organize your changelogs
  5. How to Apply Your Liquibase Pro License Key – If you use Liquibase Pro, activate your license.

Install drivers

To use Liquibase and PostgreSQL, you need the JDBC driver JAR file (Maven download).

The latest version of Liquibase has a pre-installed driver for this database in the liquibase/internal/lib directory, so you don't need to install it yourself.

If you use Maven, you must instead include the driver JAR as a dependency in your pom.xml file. 

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
    <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
    <version>42.6.0</version>
</dependency>

Also, you can use the Liquibase PostgreSQL Extension JAR file, which is the vacuum extension that adds an additional changelog tag or command to support vacuuming.

Test your connection

PostgreSQL on AWS RDS

  1. Ensure your PostgreSQL database is configured.

    1. Check the connection by using any standard SQL client application, including the psql command line utility that is part of a PostgreSQL installation, and running the following:

      • Linux, macOS, or Unix

        • psql \
--host=<DB instance endpoint> \
--port=<port> \
--username=<master username> \
--password \
--dbname=<database name>

      • Windows

        • psql ^
--host=<DB instance endpoint> ^
--port=<port> ^
--username=<master username> ^
--password ^
--dbname=<database name>

      2. Note: If this is the first time you are connecting to your DB instance, you can try using the default database name postgres for the --dbname option.

      Tip: The alternative way is to connect with pgAdmin, which is an open-source administration and development tool for PostgreSQL.

    2. You can find the connection information in the AWS Management Console:

      1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console.
      2. In the upper-right corner of the console, choose the AWS Region of your DB instance.
      3. Find the host and port for your DB Instance:
        • Select Databases and choose the needed PostgreSQL DB instance to display the instance details.
        • Select Connectivity & security. You will see all information under Endpoint & Port.

      3. Note: To find the connection information using the AWS CLI, call the describe-db-instances command: aws rds describe-db-instances. Alternatively, you can use the Amazon RDS API DescribeDBInstances operation.

  2. Specify the database URL in the liquibase.properties file (defaults file), along with other properties you want to set a default value for. Liquibase does not parse the URL. You can either specify the full database connection string or specify the URL using your database's standard connection format:
    3. url: jdbc:postgresql://<instance_host>:<instance_port>/<database_name>?user=userName&password=password

    Example: url: jdbc:postgresql://myinstance.123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:5432/postgresql?user=user&password=password

    Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: licenseKey: <paste code here>

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