RDS Logging Disabled

What this rule checks

Detects RDS DBInstance and DBCluster resources without EnableCloudwatchLogsExports configured. Engine logs (error, slow query, audit) are not exported to CloudWatch for retention or analysis.

How to fix it

1. 1Set EnableCloudwatchLogsExports to the engine's relevant log types (e.g. ['error','slowquery'] for MySQL, ['postgresql'] for PostgreSQL)
2. 2Configure a CloudWatch Logs retention policy on the resulting log group
3. 3For Aurora, enable both DBCluster and per-instance log exports

import { Stack, App } from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import { Construct } from 'constructs';
import * as rds from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-rds';

new rds.CfnDBInstance(this, 'Db', {
  engine: 'postgres',
  dbInstanceClass: 'db.t3.micro',
  allocatedStorage: '20',
});

import { Stack, App } from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import { Construct } from 'constructs';
import * as rds from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-rds';

new rds.CfnDBInstance(this, 'Db', {
  engine: 'postgres',
  dbInstanceClass: 'db.t3.micro',
  allocatedStorage: '20',
  enableCloudwatchLogsExports: ['postgresql', 'upgrade'],
});

CDK Insights pinpoints the exact file and line in your CDK source for every finding, so you can jump straight to the fix.

Affected resource types

Intentional? Suppress this finding

Sometimes a flag is deliberate — a genuinely public endpoint, say. You can dismiss rds-logging-disabled and the reason is kept in the report, not silently hidden.

In .cdk-insights.json:

{
  "ignoreRules": [
    { "id": "rds-logging-disabled", "reason": "Why this is intentional" }
  ]
}

Or inline in your CDK code:

Validations.of(scope).acknowledge({
  id: 'cdk-insights::rds-logging-disabled',
  reason: 'Why this is intentional',
});

Use the rule ID rds-logging-disabled shown above — not the CDK-* ID from SARIF / GitHub code scanning. To dismiss every finding on one construct instead, use ignorePaths. Suppression docs →

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