# Accessing an activity stream from Amazon Kinesis
<a name="DBActivityStreams.KinesisAccess"></a>

When you enable an activity stream for a database, a Kinesis stream is created for you. From Kinesis, you can monitor your database activity in real time. To further analyze database activity, you can connect your Kinesis stream to consumer applications. You can also connect the stream to compliance management applications such as IBM's Security Guardium or Imperva's SecureSphere Database Audit and Protection.

You can access your Kinesis stream either from the RDS console or the Kinesis console.

**To access an activity stream from Kinesis using the RDS console**

1. Open the Amazon RDS console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Databases**.

1. Choose the Amazon RDS database instance on which you started an activity stream.

1. Choose **Configuration**.

1. Under **Database activity stream**, choose the link under **Kinesis stream**.

1. In the Kinesis console, choose **Monitoring** to begin observing the database activity.

**To access an activity stream from Kinesis using the Kinesis console**

1. Open the Kinesis console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/kinesis](https://console.aws.amazon.com/kinesis).

1. Choose your activity stream from the list of Kinesis streams.

   An activity stream's name includes the prefix `aws-rds-das-db-` followed by the resource ID of the database. The following is an example. 

   ```
   aws-rds-das-db-NHVOV4PCLWHGF52NP
   ```

   To use the Amazon RDS console to find the resource ID for the database, choose your DB instance from the list of databases, and then choose the **Configuration** tab.

   To use the AWS CLI to find the full Kinesis stream name for an activity stream, use a [describe-db-instances](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/rds/describe-db-instances.html) CLI request and note the value of `ActivityStreamKinesisStreamName` in the response.

1. Choose **Monitoring** to begin observing the database activity.

For more information about using Amazon Kinesis, see [What Is Amazon Kinesis Data Streams?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/streams/latest/dev/introduction.html).