# Database Access with Self-Hosted CockroachDB Teleport can provide secure access to CockroachDB via the [Teleport Database Service](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/database-access.md). This allows for fine-grained access control through the [Teleport RBAC system](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/database-access/rbac.md). The Teleport Database Service proxies traffic from database clients to self-hosted databases in your infrastructure. Teleport maintains a certificate authority (CA) for database clients. You configure your database to trust the Teleport database client CA, and the Teleport Database Service presents certificates signed by this CA when proxying user traffic. With this setup, there is no need to store long-lived credentials for self-hosted databases. Meanwhile, the Teleport Database Service verifies self-hosted databases by checking their TLS certificates against either the Teleport database CA or a custom CA used with the database. In this guide, you will: 1. Configure your CockroachDB database for Teleport access. 2. Add the database to your Teleport cluster. 3. Connect to the database via Teleport. ## How it works The Teleport Database Service authenticates to your self-hosted CockroachDB database using mutual TLS. CockroachDB trusts the Teleport certificate authority for database clients, and presents a certificate signed by either the Teleport database CA or a custom CA. When a user initiates a database session, the Teleport Database Service presents a certificate signed by Teleport. The authenticated connection then proxies client traffic from the user. **Self-Hosted** ![Enrolling a CockroachDB instance with a self-hosted Teleport cluster](/docs/assets/images/cockroachdb_selfhosted-6c691b9080321e23afd0b11198d2ec7c.png) **Teleport Enterprise Cloud** ![Enrolling a CockroachDB instance with a cloud-hosted Teleport cluster](/docs/assets/images/cockroachdb_cloud-2012d3d4bbadb0c676e8c4daed4faef7.png) ## Prerequisites - A running Teleport cluster. If you want to get started with Teleport, [sign up](https://goteleport.com/signup) for a free trial or [set up a demo environment](https://goteleport.com/docs/get-started/deploy-community.md). - The `tctl` and `tsh` clients. Installing `tctl` and `tsh` clients 1. Determine the version of your Teleport cluster. The `tctl` and `tsh` clients must be at most one major version behind your Teleport cluster version. Send a GET request to the Proxy Service at `/v1/webapi/find` and use a JSON query tool to obtain your cluster version. Replace teleport.example.com:443 with the web address of your Teleport Proxy Service: ``` $ TELEPORT_DOMAIN=teleport.example.com:443 $ TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl -s https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/find | jq -r '.server_version')" ``` 2. Follow the instructions for your platform to install `tctl` and `tsh` clients: **Mac** Download the signed macOS .pkg installer for Teleport, which includes the `tctl` and `tsh` clients: ``` $ curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-${TELEPORT_VERSION?}.pkg ``` In Finder double-click the `pkg` file to begin installation. --- DANGER Using Homebrew to install Teleport is not supported. The Teleport package in Homebrew is not maintained by Teleport and we can't guarantee its reliability or security. --- **Windows - Powershell** ``` $ curl.exe -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v${TELEPORT_VERSION?}-windows-amd64-bin.zip Unzip the archive and move the `tctl` and `tsh` clients to your %PATH% NOTE: Do not place the `tctl` and `tsh` clients in the System32 directory, as this can cause issues when using WinSCP. Use %SystemRoot% (C:\Windows) or %USERPROFILE% (C:\Users\) instead. ``` **Linux** All of the Teleport binaries in Linux installations include the `tctl` and `tsh` clients. For more options (including RPM/DEB packages and downloads for i386/ARM/ARM64) see our [installation page](https://goteleport.com/docs/installation.md). ``` $ curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v${TELEPORT_VERSION?}-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz $ tar -xzf teleport-v${TELEPORT_VERSION?}-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz $ cd teleport $ sudo ./install Teleport binaries have been copied to /usr/local/bin ``` * CockroachDB cluster. * 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. For example, run the following command, assigning teleport.example.com to the domain name of the Teleport Proxy Service in your cluster and email\@example.com to your Teleport username: ``` $ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=email@example.com $ tctl status Cluster teleport.example.com Version 19.0.0-dev 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. * A certificate authority to issue CockroachDB certificates for nodes in your CockroachDB cluster. Why do I need my own CA? Distributed databases like CockroachDB use mTLS for node-to-node communication. Teleport requires that you have your own CA to issue certificates for node-to-node mTLS communication. Teleport uses a split-CA architecture for database access. The Teleport `db` CA issues server certificates and the `db_client` CA issues client certificates. Databases are configured to trust the Teleport `db_client` CA for client authentication, but not the `db` CA. Additionally, Teleport only issues *ephemeral* `db_client` CA certificates. When a CockroachDB node connects to another CockroachDB node, it must present a certificate that the other node trusts for client authentication. Since Teleport does not issue long-lived `db_client` certificates, the node needs to have a long-lived certificate issued by another CA that its peer node trusts. The split `db` and `db_client` CA architecture was introduced as a security fix in Teleport versions 14.3.7 and 15. See [Database CA Migrations](https://goteleport.com/docs/zero-trust-access/management/security/db-ca-migrations.md) for more information. ## Step 1/4. Set up the Teleport Database Service 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 ``` Install and configure Teleport where you will run the Teleport Database Service: **Linux Server** To install a Teleport Agent on your Linux server: The recommended installation method is the cluster install script. It will select the correct version, edition, and installation mode for your cluster. 1. Assign teleport.example.com:443 to your Teleport cluster hostname and port, but not the scheme (https\://). 2. Run your cluster's install script: ``` $ curl "https://teleport.example.com:443/scripts/install.sh" | sudo bash ``` 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: **Teleport Enterprise/Enterprise Cloud** ``` $ sudo teleport db configure create \ -o file \ --token=/tmp/token \ --proxy=teleport.example.com:443 \ --name=roach \ --protocol=cockroachdb \ --uri=roach.example.com:26257 \ --labels=env=dev ``` **Teleport Community Edition** ``` $ sudo teleport db configure create \ -o file \ --token=/tmp/token \ --proxy=mytenant.teleport.sh:443 \ --name=roach \ --protocol=cockroachdb \ --uri=roach.example.com:26257 \ --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. **Package Manager** On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, enable and start Teleport: ``` $ sudo systemctl enable teleport $ sudo systemctl start teleport ``` **TAR Archive** On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, create a systemd service configuration for Teleport, enable the Teleport service, and start Teleport: ``` $ sudo teleport install systemd -o /etc/systemd/system/teleport.service $ 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`. **Kubernetes Cluster** Teleport provides Helm charts for installing the Teleport Database Service in Kubernetes Clusters. Configure Helm to fetch Teleport charts from the Teleport Helm repository: ``` $ helm repo add teleport https://charts.releases.teleport.dev ``` Refresh the local Helm cache by fetching the latest charts: ``` $ helm repo update ``` **Self-Hosted** Install the Teleport Kube Agent into your Kubernetes Cluster with the Teleport Database Service configuration. ``` $ JOIN_TOKEN=$(cat /tmp/token) $ helm install teleport-kube-agent teleport/teleport-kube-agent \ --create-namespace \ --namespace teleport-agent \ --set roles=db \ --set proxyAddr=teleport.example.com:443 \ --set authToken=${JOIN_TOKEN?} \ --set "databases[0].name=roach" \ --set "databases[0].uri=roach.example.com:26257" \ --set "databases[0].protocol=cockroachdb" \ --set "databases[0].static_labels.env=dev" \ --version 19.0.0-dev ``` **Cloud-Hosted** Install the Teleport Kube Agent into your Kubernetes Cluster with the Teleport Database Service configuration. ``` $ JOIN_TOKEN=$(cat /tmp/token) $ helm install teleport-kube-agent teleport/teleport-kube-agent \ --create-namespace \ --namespace teleport-agent \ --set roles=db \ --set proxyAddr=mytenant.teleport.sh:443 \ --set authToken=${JOIN_TOKEN?} \ --set "databases[0].name=roach" \ --set "databases[0].uri=roach.example.com:26257" \ --set "databases[0].protocol=cockroachdb" \ --set "databases[0].static_labels.env=dev" \ --version 18.7.3 ``` Make sure that the Teleport Agent pod is running. You should see one `teleport-kube-agent` pod with a single ready container: ``` $ kubectl -n teleport-agent get pods NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE teleport-kube-agent-0 1/1 Running 0 32s ``` --- TIP A single Teleport process can run multiple services, for example multiple Database Service instances as well as other services such as the SSH Service or Application Service. --- ## Step 2/4. Create a Teleport user --- TIP To modify an existing user to provide access to the Database Service, see [Database Access Controls](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/database-access/rbac.md) --- **Teleport Community Edition** Create a local Teleport user with the built-in `access` role: ``` $ tctl users add \ --roles=access \ --db-users="*" \ --db-names="*" \ alice ``` **Teleport Enterprise/Enterprise Cloud** Create a local Teleport user with the built-in `access` and `requester` roles: ``` $ tctl users add \ --roles=access,requester \ --db-users="*" \ --db-names="*" \ alice ``` | Flag | Description | | ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `--roles` | List of roles to assign to the user. The builtin `access` role allows them to connect to any database server registered with Teleport. | | `--db-users` | List of database usernames the user will be allowed to use when connecting to the databases. A wildcard allows any user. | | `--db-names` | List 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](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/database-access/rbac.md) documentation. ## Step 3/4. Configure CockroachDB ### Create a CockroachDB user Teleport uses mutual TLS authentication with CockroachDB. Client certificate authentication is available to all CockroachDB users. If you don't have one, connect to your Cockroach cluster and create it: ``` CREATE USER alice WITH PASSWORD NULL; ``` The `WITH PASSWORD NULL` clause prevents the user from using password auth and mandates client certificate auth. Make sure to assign the user proper permissions within the database cluster. Refer to [Create User](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/create-user.html) in the CockroachDB documentation for more information. ### Set up mutual TLS To set up mutual TLS authentication, you need to make sure that: - Teleport trusts certificates presented by CockroachDB nodes. - CockroachDB nodes trust client certificates signed by both your CockroachDB CA and your Teleport cluster's `db_client` CA. CockroachDB nodes need to trust the Teleport `db_client` CA so that Teleport users can authenticate to your CockroachDB cluster as clients. The CockroachDB CA needs to be trusted by each CockroachDB node so that nodes can authenticate themselves as clients to other nodes in the CockroachDB cluster. This is because CockroachDB uses mTLS for node-to-node communication. **Nodes serving your CockroachDB CA certs** In this configuration, your CockroachDB CA will be used to issue the server cert `node.crt` for each CockroachDB node. This configuration is simpler to set up, because an existing CockroachDB cluster already has `node.crt` issued for each node and you only need to configure the CockroachDB nodes to trust your Teleport `db_client` CA. Another benefit is that your CockroachDB nodes will continue to serve the same CockroachDB CA-issued cert, rather than serving a new cert signed by Teleport's `db` CA, so you don't have to configure other clients to trust a new CA. Copy your CockroachDB CA cert to `ca-client.crt` in the certs directory of each CockroachDB node: ``` $ CERTS_DIR=/path/to/cockroachdb/certs/dir $ cp "${CERTS_DIR}/ca.crt" "${CERTS_DIR}/ca-client.crt" ``` Next, for each CockroachDB node, export Teleport's `db_client` CA using `tctl` (or export it once and copy it to each node) and append the certificate to `ca-client.crt`: ``` $ tctl auth export --type=db-client >> /path/to/cockroachdb/certs/dir/ca-client.crt ``` Modify the Teleport Database Service to trust your CockroachDB CA, assigning /path/to/your/ca.crt to the path to your CA certificate: ``` databases: - name: "example-cockroachdb" protocol: "cockroachdb" uri: "cockroachdb.example.com:26257" static_labels: "env": "example" tls: ca_cert_file: "/path/to/your/ca.crt" ``` Now the Teleport Database Service will trust certificates presented by your CockroachDB. **Nodes serving your Teleport CA certs** In this configuration, Teleport's CA will be used to issue the server cert, `node.crt`, and your own custom CA will be used to issue the client certificate, `client.node.crt`, for each CockroachDB node. 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. To use issue certificates from your workstation with `tctl`, your Teleport user must be allowed to impersonate the system role `Db`. Include the following `allow` rule in your Teleport user's role: ``` allow: impersonate: users: ["Db"] roles: ["Db"] ``` Next, generate secrets for a CockroachDB node using `tctl`. If the output directory (i.e. the value of `--out`) does not already exist, it will be created. Secrets will be written to this directory: ``` $ tctl auth sign \ --format=cockroachdb \ --host=roach.example.com \ --out=/path/to/cockroachdb/certs/dir \ --ttl=2190h ``` --- TTL We recommend using a shorter TTL, but keep in 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 produce 4 files: - `ca.crt` with Teleport's `db` certificate authority - `ca-client.crt` with Teleport's `db_client` certificate authority - `node.crt` / `node.key` with the node's certificate and key. --- NOTE You can specify multiple comma-separated addresses e.g. `--host=roach,node-1,192.168.1.1`. However, you must include the hostname that Teleport will use to connect to the database. --- Do not rename these files as this is how CockroachDB expects them to be named. See [Node key and certificates](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/create-security-certificates-custom-ca#node-key-and-certificates) for details. Prepend your CockroachDB CA's certificate to `ca-client.crt`. Now issue a client certificate for the node using your CockroachDB CA: ``` $ cockroach cert create-client node \ --certs-dir=/path/to/cockroachdb/certs/dir \ --ca-key=ca-secrets/ca-client.key ``` Details Seeing an error message about TLS key mismatch? If you see an error message like: `tls: private key does not match public key`, it likely means you did not prepend your CockroachDB CA cert to `ca-client.crt` earlier. `cockroach cert create-client` expects the first certificate in `ca-client.crt` (in the `--certs-dir` specified) to be the certificate signed by `--ca-key`. Ensure that your CockroachDB CA certificate is the first certificate in `ca-client.crt`. Now copy /path/to/cockroachdb/certs/dir to the CockroachDB node and repeat these steps for all of your other CockroachDB nodes. Restart your CockroachDB nodes, passing them the directory with generated secrets via the `--certs-dir` flag: ``` $ cockroach start \ --certs-dir=/path/to/cockroachdb/certs/dir \ # other flags... ``` Alternatively, if the nodes were already started with `--certs-dir=/path/to/cockroachdb/certs/dir`, you can send a `SIGHUP` signal to the `cockroach` process to reload certificates without restarting the node. You must send `SIGHUP` as the same user that started the `cockroach` process: ``` $ pkill -SIGHUP -x cockroach ``` ## Step 4/4. Connect Log in to your Teleport cluster. Your CockroachDB cluster should appear in the list of available databases: **Self-Hosted** ``` $ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice $ tsh db ls Name Description Labels ----- ------------------- ------- roach Example CockroachDB env=dev ``` **Cloud** ``` $ tsh login --proxy=mytenant.teleport.sh --user=alice $ tsh db ls Name Description Labels ----- ------------------- ------- roach Example CockroachDB env=dev ``` To retrieve credentials for a database and connect to it: ``` $ tsh db connect roach ``` You can optionally specify the database name and the user to use by default when connecting to the database server: ``` $ tsh db connect --db-user=alice roach ``` --- NOTE Either the `cockroach` or `psql` command-line client should be available in `PATH` in order to be able to connect. --- --- TIP You can also [access your CockroachDB databases using the Web UI.](https://goteleport.com/docs/connect-your-client/teleport-clients/web-ui.md#starting-a-database-session) --- To log out of the database and remove credentials: ``` $ tsh db logout roach ``` ## Troubleshooting ### Unimplemented client encoding error You may encounter the `unimplemented client encoding: "sqlascii"` error when connecting to your CockroachDB database if your `psql` uses SQL\_ASCII encoding. CockroachDB supports only UTF8 client encoding. To enforce the encoding, set the following environment variable in the shell running `tsh db connect`: ``` export PGCLIENTENCODING='utf-8' ``` If you are connecting the CockroachDB database with Teleport Connect, add the environment variable to your shell startup scripts and restart the Teleport Connect app. ### Unable to cancel a query If you use a PostgreSQL cli client like `psql`, and you try to cancel a query with `Ctrl+C`, but it doesn't cancel the query, then you need to connect using a tsh local proxy instead. When `psql` cancels a query, it establishes a new connection without TLS certificates, however Teleport requires TLS certificates not only for authentication, but also to route database connections. If you [enable TLS Routing in Teleport](https://goteleport.com/docs/zero-trust-access/deploy-a-cluster/tls-routing.md) then `tsh db connect` will automatically start a local proxy for every connection. Alternatively, you can connect via [Teleport Connect](https://goteleport.com/docs/connect-your-client/teleport-clients/teleport-connect.md) which also uses a local proxy. Otherwise, you need to start a tsh local proxy manually using `tsh proxy db` and connect via the local proxy. If you have already started a long-running query in a `psql` session that you cannot cancel with `Ctrl+C`, you can start a new client session to cancel that query manually: First, find the query's process identifier (PID): ``` SELECT pid,usename,backend_start,query FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'active'; ``` Next, gracefully cancel the query using its PID. This will send a SIGINT signal to the postgres backend process for that query: ``` SELECT pg_cancel_backend(); ``` You should always try to gracefully terminate a query first, but if graceful cancellation is taking too long, then you can forcefully terminate the query instead. This will send a SIGTERM signal to the postgres backend process for that query: ``` SELECT pg_terminate_backend(); ``` See the PostgreSQL documentation on [admin functions](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/functions-admin.html#functions-admin-signal) for more information about the `pg_cancel_backend` and `pg_terminate_backend` functions. ## Next steps - Learn how to [restrict access](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/database-access/rbac.md) to certain users and databases. * View the [High Availability (HA)](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/agents/high-availability.md) guide. - Take a look at the YAML configuration [reference](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/database-access/reference/configuration.md). * See the full CLI [reference](https://goteleport.com/docs/enroll-resources/database-access/reference/cli.md). - [CockroachDB client authentication](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/authentication.html#client-authentication) - [CockroachDB using split CA certificates](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/authentication#using-split-ca-certificates)