Skip to main content
Version: 14.x

Database Access with Self-Hosted MySQL/MariaDB

Teleport can provide secure access to MySQL or MariaDB via the Teleport Database Service. This allows for fine-grained access control through Teleport's RBAC.

In this guide, you will:

  1. Configure an MySQL or MariaDB database with mutual TLS authentication.
  2. Join the MySQL or MariaDB database to your Teleport cluster.
  3. Connect to the MySQL or MariaDB database via the Teleport Database Service.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Teleport cluster version 14.3.33 or above. If you want to get started with Teleport, sign up for a free trial or set up a demo environment.

  • The tctl admin tool and tsh client tool.

    Visit Installation for instructions on downloading tctl and tsh.

  • A self-hosted MySQL or MariaDB instance.
  • A host, e.g., an Amazon EC2 instance, where you will run the Teleport Database Service.
  • To check that you can connect to your Teleport cluster, sign in with tsh login, then verify that you can run tctl commands using your current credentials. tctl is supported on macOS and Linux machines. For example: 
    $ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=email@example.com
    $ tctl status
    # Cluster  teleport.example.com
    # Version  14.3.33
    # CA pin   sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678
    If you can connect to the cluster and run the tctl status command, you can use your current credentials to run subsequent tctl commands from your workstation. If you host your own Teleport cluster, you can also run tctl commands on the computer that hosts the Teleport Auth Service for full permissions.

Step 1/4. Create the Teleport Database Token​

The Database Service requires a valid join token to join your Teleport cluster. Run the following tctl command and save the token output in /tmp/token on the server that will run the Database Service:

$ tctl tokens add --type=db --format=text
abcd123-insecure-do-not-use-this

Step 2/4. Create a certificate/key pair​

Teleport uses mutual TLS authentication with self-hosted databases. These databases must be configured with Teleport's certificate authority to be able to verify client certificates. They also need a certificate/key pair that Teleport can verify.

If you are using Teleport Cloud, your Teleport user must be allowed to impersonate the system role Db in order to be able to generate the database certificate.

Include the following allow rule in in your Teleport Cloud user's role:

allow:
  impersonate:
    users: ["Db"]
    roles: ["Db"]

From your local workstation, create the secrets:

# Export Teleport's certificate authority and generate certificate/key pair
# for host db.example.com with a 3-month validity period.
$ tctl auth sign --format=db --host=db.example.com --out=server --ttl=2190h

In this example, db.example.com is the hostname where the Teleport Database Service can reach the MySQL server.

TTL

We recommend using a shorter TTL, but keep mind that you'll need to update the database server certificate before it expires to not lose the ability to connect. Pick the TTL value that best fits your use-case.

The command will create 3 files: server.cas, server.crt and server.key which you'll need to enable mutual TLS on your MySQL server. Copy these files to the environment running MySQL

Step 3/4. Configure MySQL/MariaDB​

To configure MySQL to accept TLS connections, add the following to your MySQL configuration file, mysql.cnf:

[mysqld]
require_secure_transport=ON
ssl-ca=/path/to/server.cas
ssl-cert=/path/to/server.crt
ssl-key=/path/to/server.key

Additionally, your MySQL/MariaDB database user accounts must be configured to require a valid client certificate.

Create a new user:

CREATE USER 'alice'@'%' REQUIRE SUBJECT '/CN=alice';

By default, the created user may not have access to anything and won't be able to connect, so let's grant it some permissions:

GRANT ALL ON `%`.* TO 'alice'@'%';
warning

This is an example command that grants database-wide permissions to a user. In a production environment you should follow the principle of least privilege

See Configuring MySQL to Use Encrypted Connections in the MySQL documentation or Enabling TLS on MariaDB Server in the MariaDB documentation for more details.

Create a Teleport user​

tip

To modify an existing user to provide access to the Database Service, see Database Access Access Controls

Create a local Teleport user with the built-in access role:

$ tctl users add \
  --roles=access \
  --db-users="*" \
  --db-names="*" \
  alice
FlagDescription
--rolesList of roles to assign to the user. The builtin access role allows them to connect to any database server registered with Teleport.
--db-usersList of database usernames the user will be allowed to use when connecting to the databases. A wildcard allows any user.
--db-namesList of logical databases (aka schemas) the user will be allowed to connect to within a database server. A wildcard allows any database.
warning

Database names are only enforced for PostgreSQL and MongoDB databases.

For more detailed information about database access controls and how to restrict access see RBAC documentation.

Configure and Start the Database Service​

Install and configure Teleport where you will run the Teleport Database Service:

Select an edition, then follow the instructions for that edition to install Teleport.

The following command updates the repository for the package manager on the local operating system and installs the provided Teleport version:

$ curl https://cdn.teleport.dev/install-v14.3.33.sh | bash -s 14.3.33

On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, start Teleport with the appropriate configuration.

Note that a single Teleport process can run multiple different services, for example multiple Database Service agents as well as the SSH Service or Application Service. The step below will overwrite an existing configuration file, so if you're running multiple services add --output=stdout to print the config in your terminal, and manually adjust /etc/teleport.yaml.

Generate a configuration file at /etc/teleport.yaml for the Database Service:

$ sudo teleport db configure create \
   -o file \
   --token=/tmp/token \
   --proxy=teleport.example.com:443 \
   --name=example-mysql \
   --protocol=mysql \
   --uri=mysql.example.com:3306 \
   --labels=env=dev

Configure the Teleport Database Service to start automatically when the host boots up by creating a systemd service for it. The instructions depend on how you installed the Teleport Database Service.

On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, enable and start Teleport:

$ sudo systemctl enable teleport
$ sudo systemctl start teleport

You can check the status of the Teleport Database Service with systemctl status teleport and view its logs with journalctl -fu teleport.

Tip

A single Teleport process can run multiple services, for example multiple Database Service instances as well as other services such the SSH Service or Application Service.

Step 4/4. Connect​

Once the Database Service has joined the cluster, log in to see the available databases:

$ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice
$ tsh db ls
# Name          Description   Labels
# ------------- ------------- --------
# example-mysql Example MySQL env=dev

Note that you will only be able to see databases your role has access to. See the RBAC guide for more details.

To retrieve credentials for a database and connect to it:

$ tsh db connect --db-user=root --db-name=mysql example-mysql
Note

The mysql or mariadb command-line client should be available in PATH in order to be able to connect. mariadb is a default command-line client for MySQL and MariaDB.

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

# Remove credentials for a particular database instance.
$ tsh db logout example-mysql
# Remove credentials for all database instances.
$ tsh db logout