Skip to main content
Version: 17.x (unreleased)

Database Access with ClickHouse

The Teleport Clickhouse integration allows you to enroll ClickHouse databases with Teleport.

This guide will help you to:

  • Install and configure a Teleport database agent.
  • Set up Teleport to access your self-hosted ClickHouse database.
  • Connect to your database through Teleport.

How it works​

The Teleport Database Service authenticates to ClickHouse using x509 certificates, which are available for the ClickHouse HTTP and Native (TCP) interfaces. The Teleport Database Service can communicate in both the ClickHouse Native (TCP) and HTTP protocols, and you can select which protocol to use when configuring the Teleport Database Service.

Teleport audit logs for query activity are only supported for the ClickHouse HTTP interface. Teleport support for ClickHouse's native interfaces does not include audit logs for database query activity.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Teleport cluster version 17.0.0-dev 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.

  • Either a Linux host or Kubernetes cluster where you will run the Teleport Database Service.

You will also need the following, depending on the ClickHouse protocol you choose:

  • A self-hosted deployment of ClickHouse Server v22.3 or later.
  • Optional: a certificate authority that issues certificates for your self-hosted database.

Step 1/5. Create a Teleport token and user​

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
tip

To modify an existing user to provide access to the Database Service, see Database 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, MongoDB, and Cloud Spanner databases.

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

Step 2/5. Create a certificate/key pair​

Teleport uses mutual TLS authentication with self-hosted databases. These databases must be able to verify certificates presented by the Teleport Database Service. Self-hosted databases also need a certificate/key pair that Teleport can verify.

By default, the Teleport Database Service trusts certificates issued by a certificate authority managed by the Teleport Auth Service. You can either:

  • Configure your self-hosted database to trust this CA, and instruct Teleport to issue a certificate for the database to present to the Teleport Database Service.
  • Configure the Database Service to trust a custom CA.

To configure the database to trust the Teleport CA and issue a certificate for the database, follow these instructions on your workstation:

  1. To use tctl from your workstation, 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 user's role:

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

  2. Export Teleport's certificate authority and a generate certificate/key pair. This example generates a certificate with a 1-year validity period. db.example.com is the hostname where the Teleport Database Service can reach the Clickhouse server.

    $ tctl auth sign --format=db --host=db.example.com --out=server --ttl=2190h
    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 creates 3 files: server.cas, server.crt and server.key.

Step 3/5. Configure ClickHouse​

Use the generated secrets to enable mutual TLS in your clickhouse-server/config.xml configuration file:

<openSSL>
    <server>
       <privateKeyFile>/path/to/server.key</privateKeyFile>
       <caConfig>/path/to/server.cas</caConfig>
       <certificateFile>/path/to/server.crt</certificateFile>
       <verificationMode>strict</verificationMode>
    </server>
</openSSL>

Restart the ClickHouse Server to enable this configuration. Additionally, your ClickHouse database user accounts must be configured to require a valid client certificate:

CREATE USER alice IDENTIFIED WITH ssl_certificate 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;

Step 4/5. Configure and start the Database Service​

Install and configure Teleport on the host or Kubernetes cluster where you will run the Teleport Database Service. Assign protocol to clickhouse-http for the HTTP protocol and clickhouse for the native ClickHouse protocol:

Install Teleport on your Linux server:

  1. Assign edition to one of the following, depending on your Teleport edition:

    EditionValue
    Teleport Enterprise Cloudcloud
    Teleport Enterprise (Self-Hosted)enterprise
    Teleport Community Editionoss

  2. Get the version of Teleport to install. If you have automatic agent updates enabled in your cluster, query the latest Teleport version that is compatible with the updater:

    $ TELEPORT_DOMAIN=example.teleport.com
    $ TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/automaticupgrades/channel/default/version | sed 's/v//')"

    Otherwise, get the version of your Teleport cluster:

    $ TELEPORT_DOMAIN=example.teleport.com
    $ TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/ping | jq -r '.server_version')"

  3. Install Teleport on your Linux server:

    $ curl https://cdn.teleport.dev/install-v15.4.11.sh | bash -s ${TELEPORT_VERSION} edition

    The installation script detects the package manager on your Linux server and uses it to install Teleport binaries. To customize your installation, learn about the Teleport package repositories in the installation guide.

note

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.

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.

Run the following command to generate a configuration file at /etc/teleport.yaml for the Database Service. Update teleport.example.com:443 to use the host and port of the Teleport Proxy Service:

$ sudo teleport db configure create \
   -o file \
   --token=/tmp/token \
   --proxy=teleport.example.com:443 \
   --name=example-clickhouse \
   --protocol=protocol \
   --uri=clickhouse.example.com:8443 \
   --labels=env=dev

To configure the Teleport Database Service to trust a custom CA:

  1. Export a CA certificate for the custom CA and make it available at /var/lib/teleport/db.ca on the Teleport Database Service host.

  2. Run a variation of the command above that uses the --ca-cert-file flag. This configures the Teleport Database Service to use the CA certificate at db.ca to verify traffic from the database:

    $ sudo teleport db configure create \
       -o file \
       --token=/tmp/token \
       --proxy=teleport.example.com:443 \
       --name=example-clickhouse \
       --protocol=protocol \
       --uri=clickhouse.example.com:8443 \
       --ca-cert-file="/var/lib/teleport/db.ca" \
       --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 5/5. Connect​

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

Log in to Teleport and list the databases you can connect to. You should see the ClickHouse database you enrolled earlier:

$ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice
$ tsh db ls
# Name                      Description Allowed Users Labels  Connect
# ------------------------- ----------- ------------- ------- -------
# example-clickhouse-http               [*]           env=dev

Create an authenticated proxy tunnel so you can connect to ClickHouse via a GUI database client, or send a request via curl:

$ tsh proxy db --db-user=alice --tunnel example-clickhouse-http
# Started authenticated tunnel for the Clickhouse (HTTP) database "clickhouse-http" in cluster "teleport.example.com" on 127.0.0.1:59215.
# To avoid port randomization, you can choose the listening port using the --port flag.
#
# Use the following command to connect to the database or to the address above using other database GUI/CLI clients:
#   $ curl http://localhost:59215/

To test the connection you can run the following command:

$ echo 'select currentUser();' | curl http://localhost:59215/  --data-binary @-
# alice

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

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

Next steps​

  • Take a look at the YAML configuration reference.