ODBC Driver for Amazon DynamoDB

Build 25.0.9434

Linux DSN Configuration

This section describes how to set up ODBC connectivity and configure DSNs on several Linux distributions: Debian-based systems, like Ubuntu, and Red Hat Linux platforms, like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Fedora.

Minimum Linux Versions

Here are the minimum supported versions for Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems:

OSMin. Version
Ubuntu18.04
Debian10
RHEL8
Fedora28
SUSE15

Installing the Driver Dependencies

Run the following commands as root or with sudo to install the necessary dependencies:

  • Debian/Ubuntu: 
    apt-get install libc6 libstdc++6 zlib1g libgcc1
  • RHEL/Fedora: 
    yum install glibc libstdc++ zlib libgcc

Installing the Driver

You can use standard package management systems to install the driver.

On Debian-based systems, like Ubuntu, run the following command with root or sudo: 

dpkg -i /path/to/driver/setup/AmazonDynamoDBODBCDriverforUnix.deb

On systems that support the RPM package format, run the following command with root or sudo: 

rpm -ivh /path/to/driver/AmazonDynamoDBODBCDriverforUnix.rpm

Licensing the Driver

Run the following commands to license the driver. To activate a trial, omit the <key> input. 

cd /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-amazondynamodb/bin/
sudo ./install-license.sh <key>

Connecting through the Driver Manager

The driver manager loads the driver and passes function calls from the application to the driver. You need to register the driver with the driver manager and you define DSNs in the driver manager's configuration files.

The driver installation registers the driver with the unixODBC driver manager and creates a system DSN. The unixODBC driver manager can be used from Python and from many other applications. Your application may embed another driver manager.

Creating the DSN

See Using unixODBC to install unixODBC and configure DSNs. See Using the DataDirect Driver Manager to create a DSN to connect to OBIEE, Informatica, and SAS.

Connecting to DynamoDB

Specify the following to connect to data:

  • Domain: Set this if you want to use a domain name you have associated with AWS.
  • AWSRegion: Set this to the region where your Amazon DynamoDB data is hosted.

Authenticating to DynamoDB

Obtain AWS Keys

To obtain the credentials for an IAM user:
  1. Sign into the IAM console.
  2. In the navigation pane, select Users.
  3. To create or manage the access keys for a user, select the user and then navigate to the Security Credentials tab.
To obtain the credentials for your AWS root account:
  1. Sign into the AWS Management console with the credentials for your root account.
  2. Select your account name or number.
  3. In the menu that displays, select My Security Credentials.
  4. To manage or create root account access keys, click Continue to Security Credentials and expand the "Access Keys" section.

Root Credentials

To authenticate using account root credentials, set these parameters:

Note: Amazon discourages the use of this authentication scheme for anything but simple tests. The account root credentials have the full permissions of the user, making this the least secure authentication method.

If multi-factor authentication is required, specify the following:

  • CredentialsLocation: The location of the settings file where MFA credentials are saved. See the Credentials File Location page under Connection String Options for more information.
  • MFASerialNumber: The serial number of the MFA device if one is being used.
  • MFAToken: The temporary token available from your MFA device.
This causes the driver to submit the MFA credentials in the request to retrieve temporary authentication credentials.

Note: If you want to control the duration of the temporary credentials, set the TemporaryTokenDuration property (default: 3600 seconds).

Temporary Credentials

To authenticate using temporary credentials, specify the following:

The driver can now request resources using the same permissions provided by long-term credentials (such as IAM user credentials) for the lifespan of the temporary credentials.

To authenticate using both temporary credentials and an IAM role, set all the parameters described above, and specify these additional parameters:

  • AWSRoleARN: The Role ARN for the role you'd like to authenticate with. This prompts the driver to retrieve credentials for the specified role.
  • AWSExternalId (optional): Only required if you are assuming a role in another AWS account.

If multi-factor authentication is required, specify the following:

  • CredentialsLocation: The location of the settings file where MFA credentials are saved. See the Credentials File Location page under Connection String Options for more information.
  • MFASerialNumber: The serial number of the MFA device if one is being used.
  • MFAToken: The temporary token available from your MFA device.
This causes the driver to submit the MFA credentials in the request to retrieve temporary authentication credentials.

Note: If you want to control the duration of the temporary credentials, set the TemporaryTokenDuration property (default: 3600 seconds).

Using AWS From an EC2 Instance

Set AuthScheme to AwsEC2Roles.

If you are using the driver from an EC2 Instance and have an IAM Role assigned to the instance, you can use the IAM Role to authenticate. Since the driver automatically obtains your IAM Role credentials and authenticates with them, it is not necessary to specify AWSAccessKey and AWSSecretKey.

If you are also using an IAM role to authenticate, you must additionally specify the following:

  • AWSRoleARN: Specify the Role ARN for the role you'd like to authenticate with. This will cause the driver to attempt to retrieve credentials for the specified role.
  • AWSExternalId (optional): Only required if you are assuming a role in another AWS account.

IMDSv2 Support

The Amazon DynamoDB driver now supports IMDSv2. Unlike IMDSv1, the new version requires an authentication token. Endpoints and response are the same in both versions.

In IMDSv2, the Amazon DynamoDB driver first attempts to retrieve the IMDSv2 metadata token and then uses it to call AWS metadata endpoints. If it is unable to retrieve the token, the driver reverts to IMDSv1.

AWS Web Identity

Set AuthScheme to AwsWebIdentity.

If you are either using Amazon DynamoDB from a container configured to assume role with web identity (such as a Pod in an EKS cluster with an OpenID Provider) OR have authenticated with a web identity provider associated with an IAM role (and have thus obtained an identity token), you can exchange the web identity token and IAM role information for temporary security credentials to authenticate and access AWS services.

If the container has AWS_ROLE_ARN and AWS_WEB_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE specified in the environment variables, Amazon DynamoDB automatically obtains the credentials.

You can also authenticate by specifying both AWSRoleARN and AWSWebIdentityToken to execute the AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity API operation.

AWS IAM Roles

To authenticate through AWS, set AuthScheme to AwsIAMRoles.

To authenticate as an AWS role, set these properties:

  • AWSAccessKey: The access key of the IAM user to assume the role for.
  • AWSSecretKey: The secret key of the IAM user to assume the role for.
  • AWSRoleARN: Specify the Role ARN for the role you'd like to authenticate with. This will cause the driver to attempt to retrieve credentials for the specified role.
  • AWSExternalId (optional): Only required if you are assuming a role in another AWS account.

If multi-factor authentication is required, specify the following:

  • CredentialsLocation: The location of the settings file where MFA credentials are saved. See the Credentials File Location page under Connection String Options for more information.
  • MFASerialNumber: The serial number of the MFA device if one is being used.
  • MFAToken: The temporary token available from your MFA device.
This causes the driver to submit the MFA credentials in the request to retrieve temporary authentication credentials.

Note: If you want to control the duration of the temporary credentials, set the TemporaryTokenDuration property (default: 3600 seconds).

Note: In some circumstances it might be preferable to use an IAM role for authentication, rather than the direct security credentials of an AWS root user. If you are specifying the AWSAccessKey and AWSSecretKey of an AWS root user, you cannot use roles.

ADFS

To connect to ADFS, set these properties:

Example connection string: 

AuthScheme=ADFS; AWSRegion=Ireland; [email protected]; Password=CH8WerW121235647iCa6; SSOLoginURL='https://adfs.domain.com'; AWSRoleArn=arn:aws:iam::1234:role/ADFS_SSO; AWSPrincipalArn=arn:aws:iam::1234:saml-provider/ADFSProvider; S3StagingDirectory=s3://athena/staging;

ADFS Integrated

The ADFS Integrated flow indicates you are connecting with the user credentials of the currently logged in Windows user. To use the ADFS Integrated flow, do not specify the User and Password, but otherwise follow the same steps noted above under ADFS.

Okta

To connect to Okta, set these properties:

If you are either using a trusted application or proxy that overrides the Okta client request OR configuring MFA, you must use combinations of SSOProperties to authenticate using Okta. Set any of the following, as applicable:

  • APIToken: When authenticating a user via a trusted application or proxy that overrides the Okta client request context, set this to the API Token the customer created from the Okta organization.
  • MFAType: If you have configured the MFA flow, set this to one of the following supported types: OktaVerify, Email, or SMS.
  • MFAPassCode: If you have configured the MFA flow, set this to a valid passcode.
    If you set this to empty or an invalid value, the driver issues a one-time password challenge to your device or email. After the passcode is received, reopen the connection where the retrieved one-time password value is set to the MFAPassCode connection property.
  • MFARememberDevice: True by default. Okta supports remembering devices when MFA is required. If remembering devices is allowed according to the configured authentication policies, the driver sends a device token to extend MFA authentication lifetime. If you do not want MFA to be remembered, set this variable to False.

Example connection string: 

AuthScheme=Okta; AWSRegion=Ireland; [email protected]; Password=CH8WerW121235647iCa6; SSOLoginURL='https://cdata-us.okta.com/home/amazon_aws/0oa35m8arsAL5f5NrE6NdA356/272'; SSOProperties='ApiToken=01230GGG2ceAnm_tPAf4MhiMELXZ0L0N1pAYrO1VR-hGQSf;'; AWSRoleArn=arn:aws:iam::1234:role/Okta_SSO; AWSPrincipalARN=arn:aws:iam::1234:saml-provider/OktaProvider; S3StagingDirectory=s3://athena/staging;

PingFederate

To connect to PingFederate, set these properties:

  • AuthScheme: PingFederate.
  • User: The authenticating PingFederate user.
  • Password: The authenticating user's PingFederate password.
  • SSOLoginURL: The SSO provider's login URL.
  • AWSRoleARN (optional): If you have multiple role ARNs, specify the one you want to use for authorization.
  • AWSPrincipalARN (optional): If you have multiple principal ARNs, specify the one you want to use for authorization.
  • SSOExchangeURL: The Partner Service Identifier URI configured in your PingFederate server instance under: SP Connections > SP Connection > WS-Trust > Protocol Settings. This should uniquely identify a PingFederate SP Connection, so it is a good idea to set it to your AWS SSO ACS URL. You can find it under AWS SSO > Settings > View Details next to the Authentication field.
  • SSOProperties (optional): If you want to include your username and password as an authorization header in requests to Amazon S3, set this to Authscheme=Basic.

To enable mutual SSL authentication for SSOLoginURL, the WS-Trust STS endpoint, configure these SSOProperties:

Example connection string: 

authScheme=pingfederate;SSOLoginURL=https://mycustomserver.com:9033/idp/sts.wst;SSOExchangeUrl=https://us-east-1.signin.aws.amazon.com/platform/saml/acs/764ef411-xxxxxx;user=admin;password=PassValue;AWSPrincipalARN=arn:aws:iam::215338515180:saml-provider/pingFederate;AWSRoleArn=arn:aws:iam::215338515180:role/SSOTest2;

Credentials Files

You can use any credentials file to authenticate, including any configurations related to AccessKey/SecretKey authentication, temporary credentials, role authentication, or MFA.

To do this, set these properties:

For further information, see AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

AWS Cognito Credentials

If you want to use the driver with a user registered in a User Pool in AWS Cognito, set these properties:

Set the Driver Encoding

The ODBC drivers need to specify which encoding to use with the ODBC Driver Manager. By default, the CData ODBC Drivers for Unix are configured to use UTF-16 which is compatible with unixODBC, but other Driver Managers may require alternative encoding.

Alternatively, if you are using the ODBC driver from an application that uses the ANSI ODBC API it may be necessary to set the ANSI code page. For example, to import Japanese characters in an ANSI application, you can specify the code page in the config file '/opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-amazondynamodb/lib/cdata.odbc.amazondynamodb.ini': 

[Driver]
AnsiCodePage = 932

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Build 25.0.9434