diff --git a/lms/envs/aws_migrate.py b/lms/envs/aws_migrate.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..595da6d78f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lms/envs/aws_migrate.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+"""
+A Django settings file for use on AWS while running 
+database migrations, since we don't want to normally run the 
+LMS with enough privileges to modify the database schema.
+"""
+
+# Import everything from .aws so that our settings are based on those.
+from .aws import *
+import os
+
+USER = os.environ.get('DB_MIGRATION_USER', 'root')
+PASSWORD = os.environ.get('DB_MIGRATION_PASS', None)
+
+if not PASSWORD:
+   raise ImproperlyConfigured("No database password was provided for running "
+                              "migrations.  This is fatal.")
+
+DATABASES['default']['USER'] = USER
+DATABASES['default']['PASSWORD'] = PASSWORD