---
id: learn
title: Learn Steampipe
sidebar_label: Learn Steampipe
slug: /
---

# Learn Steampipe

Steampipe provides zero-ETL tools for fetching data directly from APIs and services.  Steampipe is offered in several distributions:
- The **Steampipe CLI** exposes APIs and services as a high-performance relational database, enabling you to write SQL-based queries to explore dynamic data. The Steampipe CLI is a turnkey solution that includes its own PostgreSQL database including plugin management.
- **[Steampipe Postgres FDWs](/docs/steampipe_postgres/overview)** are native Postgres Foreign Data Wrappers that translate APIs to foreign tables.  Unlike Steampipe CLI, which ships with its own Postgres server instance, the Steampipe Postgres FDWs can be installed in any supported Postgres database version.
- **[Steampipe SQLite Extensions](/docs/steampipe_sqlite/overview)** provide SQLite virtual tables that translate your queries into API calls, transparently fetching information from your API or service as you request it.
- **[Steampipe Export CLIs](/docs/steampipe_export/overview)** provide a flexible mechanism for exporting information from cloud services and APIs.  Each exporter is a stand-alone binary that allows you to extract data using Steampipe plugins *without a database*.
- **[Turbot Pipes](/docs/steampipe-cloud)** is the only intelligence, automation & security platform built specifically for DevOps. Pipes provides hosted Steampipe database instances, shared dashboards, snapshots, and more!


This tutorial uses the Steampipe CLI.   Let's dive in...

## Install the AWS plugin

This tutorial uses the [AWS plugin](https://hub.steampipe.io/plugins/turbot/aws). To get started, [download and install Steampipe](/downloads), and then install the plugin:

```bash
steampipe plugin install aws
```

Steampipe will download and install additional components the first time you run `steampipe query` so it may take a few seconds to load initially.

Out of the box, Steampipe will use your default AWS credentials from your credential file and/or environment variables, so you'll need to make sure those are set up as well.  If you can run `aws ec2 describe-vpcs`, you're good to go.  (The AWS plugin provides additional examples to [configure your credentials](https://hub.steampipe.io/plugins/turbot/aws#configuring-aws-credentials), and even configure steampipe to query [multiple accounts](https://hub.steampipe.io/plugins/turbot/aws#multi-account-connections) and [multiple regions](https://hub.steampipe.io/plugins/turbot/aws#multi-region-connections
).)




## Explore
Steampipe provides commands that allow you to discover and explore the tables and data without leaving the query shell.  (Of course, this information is all available in [the hub](https://hub.steampipe.io/plugins/turbot/aws/tables) if online docs are more your speed...)

Let's fire up Steampipe!  Run `steampipe query` to open an interactive query session:

```bash
$ steampipe query
Welcome to Steampipe v0.5.0
For more information, type .help
>

```

Now run the `.tables` meta-command to list the available tables:

```
> .tables
==> aws
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| table                                  | description                                 |
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| aws_accessanalyzer_analyzer            | AWS Access Analyzer                         |
| aws_account                            | AWS Account                                 |
| aws_acm_certificate                    | AWS ACM Certificate                         |
| aws_api_gateway_api_key                | AWS API Gateway API Key                     |
...
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
```

As you can see, there are quite a few tables available in the AWS plugin!

It looks like there's an `aws_iam_role` table - let's run `.inspect` to see what's in that table:
```
> .inspect aws_iam_role
+---------------------------+-----------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| column                    | type                        | description                                                                                       |
+---------------------------+-----------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| account_id                | text                        | The AWS Account ID in which the resource is located.                                              |
| akas                      | jsonb                       | Array of globally unique identifier strings (also known as) for the resource.                     |
| arn                       | text                        | The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) specifying the role.                                               |
| assume_role_policy        | jsonb                       | The policy that grants an entity permission to assume the role.                                   |
| assume_role_policy_std    | jsonb                       | Contains the assume role policy in a canonical form for easier searching.                         |
| attached_policy_arns      | jsonb                       | A list of managed policies attached to the role.                                                  |
| create_date               | timestamp without time zone | The date and time when the role was created.                                                      |
| description               | text                        | A user-provided description of the role.                                                          |
| inline_policies           | jsonb                       | A list of policy documents that are embedded as inline policies for the role..                    |
| inline_policies_std       | jsonb                       | Inline policies in canonical form for the role.                                                   |
| instance_profile_arns     | jsonb                       | A list of instance profiles associated with the role.                                             |
| max_session_duration      | bigint                      | The maximum session duration (in seconds) for the specified role. Anyone who uses the AWS CLI, or |
|                           |                             |  API to assume the role can specify the duration using the optional DurationSeconds API parameter |
|                           |                             |  or duration-seconds CLI parameter.                                                               |
| name                      | text                        | The friendly name that identifies the role.                                                       |
| partition                 | text                        | The AWS partition in which the resource is located (aws, aws-cn, or aws-us-gov).                  |
| path                      | text                        | The path to the role.                                                                             |
| permissions_boundary_arn  | text                        | The ARN of the policy used to set the permissions boundary for the role.                          |
| permissions_boundary_type | text                        | The permissions boundary usage type that indicates what type of IAM resource is used as the permi |
|                           |                             | ssions boundary for an entity. This data type can only have a value of Policy.                    |
| region                    | text                        | The AWS Region in which the resource is located.                                                  |
| role_id                   | text                        | The stable and unique string identifying the role.                                                |
| role_last_used_date       | timestamp without time zone | Contains information about the last time that an IAM role was used. Activity is only reported for |
|                           |                             |  the trailing 400 days. This period can be shorter if your Region began supporting these features |
|                           |                             |  within the last year. The role might have been used more than 400 days ago.                      |
| role_last_used_region     | text                        | Contains the region in which the IAM role was used.                                               |
| tags                      | jsonb                       | A map of tags for the resource.                                                                   |
| tags_src                  | jsonb                       | A list of tags that are attached to the role.                                                     |
| title                     | text                        | Title of the resource.                                                                            |
+---------------------------+-----------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
```


## Query

Now that we know what columns are available in the `aws_iam_role` table, let's run a simple query to list the roles:

```sql
 select name from aws_iam_role
```

```
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name                                                             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AWSServiceRoleForOrganizations                                   |
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-service-role                                |
| admin                                                            |
| AWSServiceRoleForAmazonElasticsearchService                      |
| user                                                             |
| AWSServiceRoleForAccessAnalyzer                                  |
| CLoudtrailRoleForCloudwatchLogs                                  |
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role                                    |
| rds_metadata                                                     |
| metadata                                                         |
| AWSServiceRoleForAutoScaling                                     |
| operator                                                         |
| s3crr_role_for_vanedaly-replicated-bucket-01_to_test-repl-dest-f |
| iam_owner                                                        |
| ec2_owner                                                        |
| ec2_operator                                                     |
| AWSServiceRoleForSSO                                             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

```

Now let's ask a more interesting question.  Let's find roles that have no boundary policy applied:

```sql
select
  name
from
  aws_iam_role
where
  permissions_boundary_arn is null;
```

```
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name                                                             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| AWSServiceRoleForOrganizations                                   |
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-service-role                                |
| AWSServiceRoleForAmazonElasticsearchService                      |
| AWSServiceRoleForAccessAnalyzer                                  |
| CLoudtrailRoleForCloudwatchLogs                                  |
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role                                    |
| AWSServiceRoleForAutoScaling                                     |
| s3crr_role_for_vanedaly-replicated-bucket-01_to_test-repl-dest-f |
| AWSServiceRoleForSSO                                             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

```

Like any database, we can join tables together as well.  For instance, we can find all the roles that have AWS-managed policies attached:
```sql
select
  r.name,
  policy_arn,
  p.is_aws_managed
from
  aws_iam_role as r,
  jsonb_array_elements_text(attached_policy_arns) as policy_arn,
  aws_iam_policy as p
where
  p.arn = policy_arn
  and p.is_aws_managed;

```

```
+-------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+
| name                                                  | policy_arn                                                                         | is_aws_managed |
+-------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role                         | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSElasticBeanstalkWorkerTier                              | true           |
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role                         | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSElasticBeanstalkMulticontainerDocker                    | true           |
| admin                                                 | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/ReadOnlyAccess                                             | true           |
| AWSServiceRoleForSSO                                  | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/aws-service-role/AWSSSOServiceRolePolicy                   | true           |
| AWSServiceRoleForAccessAnalyzer                       | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/aws-service-role/AccessAnalyzerServiceRolePolicy           | true           |
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-service-role                     | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSElasticBeanstalkEnhancedHealth             | true           |
| AWSServiceRoleForElasticLoadBalancing                 | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/aws-service-role/AWSElasticLoadBalancingServiceRolePolicy  | true           |
| aws-elasticbeanstalk-service-role                     | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSElasticBeanstalkService                    | true           |
| AWSServiceRoleForOrganizations                        | arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/aws-service-role/AWSOrganizationsServiceTrustPolicy        | true           |
+-------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+

```


## What's Next?

We've merely scratched the surface of what you can do with Steampipe!  

- [Discover more plugins on the Steampipe Hub →](https://hub.steampipe.io/plugins/)
- [Run dashboards and benchmarks with Powerpipe →](https://powerpipe.io)
- [Build workflows as code with Flowpipe →](https://flowpipe.io)
- [Join #steampipe on Slack →](https://turbot.com/community/join)
- Want to share Steampipe with your team? [Try Turbot Pipes →](https://turbot.com/pipes)