Connect to TiDB Cloud Starter or Essential via Alibaba Cloud Private Endpoint

This tutorial walks you through the steps to connect to your TiDB Cloud Starter or Essential cluster via a private endpoint on Alibaba Cloud. Connecting through a private endpoint allows secure and private communication between your services and your TiDB Cloud cluster without using the public internet.

Restrictions

• Currently, TiDB Cloud Starter and TiDB Cloud Essential support private endpoint connections when the endpoint service is hosted on AWS or Alibaba Cloud. If the service is hosted on another cloud provider, the private endpoint is not applicable.
• Private endpoint connection across regions is not supported.

Set up a private endpoint with Alibaba Cloud

To connect to your TiDB Cloud Starter or TiDB Cloud Essential cluster via a private endpoint, follow these steps:

1. Choose a TiDB cluster
2. Create a private endpoint on Alibaba Cloud
3. Connect to your TiDB cluster using the private endpoint

Step 1. Choose a TiDB cluster

1. On the Clusters page, click the name of your target TiDB Cloud cluster to go to its overview page.
2. Click Connect in the upper-right corner. A connection dialog is displayed.
3. In the Connection Type drop-down list, select Private Endpoint.
4. Take a note of Service Name, Availability Zone ID, and Region ID.

Step 2. Create a private endpoint on Alibaba Cloud

To use the Alibaba Cloud Management Console to create a VPC interface endpoint, perform the following steps:

1. Sign in to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console.

2. Navigate to VPC > Endpoints.

3. Under the Interface Endpoints tab, click Create Endpoint.

4. Fill out the endpoint information:

   • Region: select the same region as your TiDB Cloud cluster.
   • Endpoint Name: choose a name for the endpoint.
   • Endpoint Type: select Interface Endpoint.
   • Endpoint Service: select Other Endpoint Services.

5. Paste the Endpoint Service Name you copied from TiDB Cloud.

6. Click Verify. A green check will appear if the service is valid.

7. Choose the VPC, Security Group, and Zone to use for the endpoint.

8. Click OK to create the endpoint.

9. Wait for the endpoint status to become Active and the connection status to become Connected.

Step 3: Connect to your TiDB cluster using the private endpoint

After you have created the interface endpoint, go back to the TiDB Cloud console and take the following steps:

1. On the Clusters page, click the name of your target cluster to go to its overview page.

2. Click Connect in the upper-right corner. A connection dialog is displayed.

3. In the Connection Type drop-down list, select Private Endpoint.

4. In the Connect With drop-down list, select your preferred connection method. The corresponding connection string is displayed at the bottom of the dialog.

   For the host, go to the Endpoint Details page in Alibaba Cloud, and copy the Domain Name of Endpoint Service as your host.

5. Connect to your cluster with the connection string.