AWS one-click installation and database access

Management and Administration
#1

Hi guys, I recently installed openEMR on AWS using the one-click installation (I’m really new into this stuff). I guess that apart from the actual application, this installation has also created a mysql database on my AWS account (please correct me if I’m wrong).

So my questions are as follows:

  1. Do I have to change the default passwords that were created for this database for security purposes (for the root user and for any users created by openEMR)? Or does the one-click installation create different passwords for each installation/instance?

  2. Where do I find my database server name, username and password on AWS? I tried searching my account’s infrastructure on AWS but I can’t find any databases - which is strange because openEMR is already up and running.

Thanks!

#2

There’s two packages on AWS, “Express” and “Standard”.

Express, which I think you’re using, uses a MySQL server embedded in the instance – it doesn’t use further AWS resources. You won’t need to change those passwords, since they’re not accessible outside of the virtual machine.

Standard makes heavier use of AWS infrastructure and does include an Amazon RDS instance, whose passwords you’d set during initial launch.

#3

Thanks for your reply - you are right, I am using the Express edition so this explains why I don’t see the MySQL server in the AWS infrastructure.

But what happens if I need to access this MySQL server directly, to perform let’s say some maintenance work (doesn’t this require some maintenance?), or manually change the application’s admin password from the database tables in case we get locked out, etc?

Thanks.

#4

The automated installation should “do the right thing” with the passwords and I do not think you need to change them. I use the “Standard” installation, which creates a separate database “instance.” If you have a “Standard” installation, in the AWS console, you should be able to choose the relational database service RDS and see your database instance information. However, if you picked one of the options that installs the database locally on your instance, then you will need to connect to your instance using ssh from your personal computer command line to query your database and get information about it. I also strongly recommend getting (purchasing) the AWS technical support option unless you have an AWS expert at your disposal.
Enjoy!
–RBL

1 Like
#5

Try openemr-devops/packages/lightsail at master · openemr/openemr-devops · GitHub for more information about the internals of Express (which is basically just the OpenEMR dockers running in Ubuntu with the tiniest splash of scripting magic to make the installation compatible with AWS Marketplace security policies).

#6

Hi,
I know it has been a long since your post, but I wonder, were you able to connect to your embedded MySQL Server from outside your EC2?
I am trying to do so, I have opened MySQL 3306 in my security group, but I got a communications link failure.
Any advice?