Requiring an SSL connection to a PostgreSQL DB instance You can require that connections to your PostgreSQL DB instance use SSL by using the rds.force_ssl parameter. By default, the rds.force_ssl parameter is set to 0 (off). You can set the rds.force_ssl parameter to 1 (on) to require SSL for connections to your DB instance. Updating the rds.force_ssl parameter also sets the PostgreSQL ssl parameter to 1 (on) and modifies your DB instance's pg_hba.conf file to support the new SSL configuration. You can set the rds.force_ssl parameter value by updating the parameter group for your DB instance. If the parameter group for your DB instance isn't the default one, and the ssl parameter is already set to 1 when you set rds.force_ssl to 1, you don't need to reboot your DB instance. Otherwise, you must reboot your DB instance for the change to take effect. For more information on parameter groups, see Working with DB parameter groups.