This guide provides step-by-step instructions to connect your AWS RDS database to Sequin.

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Enable logical replication on RDS

By default, logical replication is not enabled on RDS. You can double check if logical replication is enabled by connecting to your database and running the following command:

SHOW rds.logical_replication;

If the output is off, then logical replication is not enabled.

To enable it, follow these steps:

Enabling replication requires a restart of your database.
1

Create an RDS parameter group

In the AWS RDS console, create a new parameter group for your database (RDS > Parameter groups > Create parameter group):

Create parameter group
  • Parameter group family: Select your Postgres version.
  • Parameter group name: Enter a name for your parameter group.
  • Description: Optionally, enter a description for your parameter group.
2

Enable logical replication

Edit the parameter group to enable logical replication by setting rds.logical_replication to 1:

Edit parameter group
3

Apply the parameter group to your database

Open your database options (RDS > Databases > Modify) Then set the DB parameter group to the parameter group you created in the previous step. Select to Apply immediately.

Modify DB instance
4

Restart your database

Navigate to your database (RDS > Databases) and click on your database instance. Then click on the Actions button and select Reboot.

Reboot DB instance

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Connect Sequin to your RDS database

After enabling logical replication on RDS, you’ll now connect to your database in Sequin.

1

Enter connection details in Sequin

In the Sequin Console, click on the Connect Database button and enter the credentials for your RDS database:

You can find these connection details in your RDS console under the Connectivity & security section. For security reasons, we recommend using a read-only database user for the connection:

CREATE ROLE [username] WITH LOGIN NOSUPERUSER NOCREATEDB NOCREATEROLE NOREPLICATION PASSWORD '[password]';
  • Host: Your RDS host (e.g., mydbinstance.abcdefghijkl.us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com)
  • Port: 5432 (default Postgres port)
  • Database: Your database name
  • Username: Your database username
  • Password: The password for your database user

Make sure to enable the SSL option for secure connection.

2

Create a replication slot

Connect to your database using the SQL client of your choice and execute the following SQL query to create a replication slot:

SELECT pg_create_logical_replication_slot('sequin_slot', 'pgoutput');

This creates a replication slot named sequin_slot.

3

Create a publication

Next, create a publication to indicate which tables will publish changes to the replication slot. Run the following SQL command:

CREATE PUBLICATION sequin_pub FOR TABLE table1, table2, table3;

If you want to publish changes from all tables, you can use:

CREATE PUBLICATION sequin_pub FOR ALL TABLES;
4

Enter the replication slot details in Sequin

Back in the Sequin Console, enter the name of the replication slot (e.g. sequin_slot) and publication (e.g. sequin_pub) you just created. Then, name your database and click Create Database.

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Create a consumer

With your RDS database connected to Sequin via a replication slot and publication, Sequin is now detecting changes to your tables. Now create a consumer to process your data changes and send them to your application.

Click the Add a consumer button and select your RDS database as the source. Follow the instructions in our quickstart guide to complete the process.

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Next steps

With your RDS database connected to Sequin, you can now:

  • Set up filters to capture specific changes.
  • Use Sequin’s observability features to monitor and debug your data flows.
  • Explore Sequin’s replay and backfill features for historical data processing.

For more information on these features, check out our core concepts documentation.

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