# Deploying tbot on GCP This guide explains how to deploy the Machine & Workload Identity agent, `tbot`, on a Google Cloud Platform GCE instance and connect it to your Teleport cluster. --- NOTE The steps in this guide provide an example configuration to help you get started. Your environment or use case may require additional or different settings. Adjust the configuration to fit your specific requirements. --- ## How it works On GCP, virtual machines can be assigned a service account. These machines can then request a signed JSON web token from GCP, which allows third parties to verify information about them, including their service accounts, using the GCP public key. The Teleport `gcp` join method instructs `tbot` to use this service account JWT to prove its identity to the Teleport Auth Service and join your Teleport cluster without using long-lived secrets. Whilst the guide on this page focuses explicitly on deploying `tbot` on a GCP Virtual Machine, it is also possible to use the `gcp` join method with workloads running on Google Kubernetes Engine. To do so, you must configure [GCP Workload Identity](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/workload-identity) for the cluster and the Kubernetes service account that will be used by the `tbot` pod. See the [Kubernetes platform guide](https://goteleport.com/docs/machine-workload-identity/deployment/kubernetes.md) for further guidance on deploying `tbot` as a workload on Kubernetes. ## 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 ``` * 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 GCP service account you wish to grant access to your Teleport cluster that is not the GCP compute default service account. * A GCP Compute Engine VM that you wish to install `tbot` onto that has been configured with the GCP service account. ## Step 1/5. Install `tbot` **This step is completed on the GCP VM.** First, `tbot` needs to be installed on the VM that you wish to use Machine & Workload Identity on. Download and install the appropriate Teleport package for your platform: 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 ``` ## Step 2/5. Create a Bot **This step is completed on your local machine.** Next, you need to create a Bot. A Bot is a Teleport identity for a machine or group of machines. Like users, bots have a set of roles and traits which define what they can access. Create `bot.yaml`: ``` kind: bot version: v1 metadata: # name is a unique identifier for the Bot in the cluster. name: example spec: # roles is a list of roles to grant to the Bot. Don't worry if you don't know # what roles you need to specify here, the Access Guides will walk you through # creating and assigning roles to the already created Bot. roles: [] ``` Make sure you replace `example` with a unique, descriptive name for your Bot. Use `tctl` to apply this file: ``` $ tctl create bot.yaml ``` ## Step 3/5. Create a join token **This step is completed on your local machine.** Create `bot-token.yaml`: ``` kind: token version: v2 metadata: # name will be specified in the `tbot` to use this token name: example-bot spec: roles: [Bot] # bot_name should match the name of the bot created earlier in this guide. bot_name: example join_method: gcp gcp: # allow specifies the rules by which the Auth Service determines if `tbot` # should be allowed to join. allow: - project_ids: - my-project-123456 service_accounts: # This should be the full "name" of a GCP service account. The default # compute service account is not supported. - my-service-account@my-project-123456.iam.gserviceaccount.com ``` Replace: - `my-project-123456` with the ID of your GCP project - `example` with the name of the bot you created in the second step. - `my-service-account@my-project-123456.iam.gserviceaccount.com` with the email of the service account configured in the previous step. The default compute service account is not supported. Use `tctl` to apply this file: ``` $ tctl create -f bot-token.yaml ``` ## Step 4/5. Configure `tbot` **This step is completed on the GCP VM.** Next, you'll create a file to configure `tbot`. In this example, we'll be configuring `tbot` to use the `identity` service. This will generate a set of short-lived certificates which can be used by `tsh` or `tctl` to authenticate to your Teleport cluster as the bot. Create `/etc/tbot.yaml`: ``` version: v2 proxy_server: example.teleport.sh:443 onboarding: join_method: gcp token: example-bot storage: type: memory # services will be filled in during the completion of an access guide. services: - type: identity destination: type: directory path: /opt/machine-id ``` Replace: - `example.teleport.sh:443` with the address of your Teleport Proxy or Auth Service. Prefer using the address of a Teleport Proxy. - `example-bot` with the name of the token you created in the third step. - `/opt/machine-id` with a path to a directory where `tbot` should write the short-lived credentials. Ensure that the user `tbot` is running and has the appropriate permissions to create this directory. Now, you must decide if you want to run `tbot` as a daemon or in one-shot mode. In daemon mode, `tbot` runs continually, renewing the short-lived credentials for the configured outputs on a fixed interval. This is often combined with a service manager (such as systemd) in order to run `tbot` in the background. This is the default behaviour of `tbot`. In one-shot mode, `tbot` generates short-lived credentials and then exits. This is useful when combining `tbot` with scripting (such as in CI/CD) as it allows further steps to be dependent on `tbot` having succeeded. It is important to note that the credentials will expire if not renewed and to ensure that the TTL for the certificates is long enough to cover the length of the CI/CD job. #### Configuring `tbot` as a daemon By default, `tbot` will run in daemon mode. However, this must then be configured as a service within the service manager on the Linux host. The service manager will start `tbot` on boot and ensure it is restarted if it fails. **If tbot was installed using the Teleport install script or `teleport-update` command, the `tbot` systemd service is automatically created for you.** After `tbot.yaml` is created, enable and start the service: ``` $ sudo systemctl enable tbot --now ``` Check the service has started successfully: ``` $ sudo systemctl status tbot ``` Service properties like `User` and `Group` may be configured using `systemctl edit tbot`. **If tbot was installed manually, service configuration will need to be performed manually as well.** For this guide, systemd will be demonstrated but `tbot` should be compatible with all common alternatives. Use `tbot install systemd` to generate a systemd service file: ``` $ sudo tbot install systemd \ --write \ --config /etc/tbot.yaml \ --user teleport \ --group teleport \ --pid-file /run/tbot.pid \ --anonymous-telemetry ``` Ensure that you replace: - `teleport` with the name of Linux user you wish to run `tbot` as. - `/etc/tbot.yaml` with the path to the configuration file you have created. - `/run/tbot.pid` with a path that the user configured for `tbot` has write access to. By default, `tbot` writes its PID file to `/run/tbot.pid`. You can omit `--write` to print the systemd service file to the console instead of writing it to disk. `--anonymous-telemetry` enables the submission of anonymous usage telemetry. This helps us shape the future development of `tbot`. You can disable this by omitting this. Next, enable the service so that it will start on boot and then start the service: ``` $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload $ sudo systemctl enable tbot --now ``` Check the service has started successfully: ``` $ sudo systemctl status tbot ``` #### Configuring `tbot` for one-shot mode To use `tbot` in one-shot mode, modify `/etc/tbot.yaml` to add `oneshot: true`: ``` version: v2 oneshot: true proxy_server: ... ``` Now, you should test your `tbot` configuration. When started, several log messages will be emitted before it exits with status 0: ``` $ export TELEPORT_ANONYMOUS_TELEMETRY=1 $ tbot start -c /etc/tbot.yaml ``` `TELEPORT_ANONYMOUS_TELEMETRY` enables the submission of anonymous usage telemetry. This helps us shape the future development of `tbot`. You can disable this by omitting this. ## Step 5/5. Testing your `tbot` configuration `tbot` will now be producing a set of short-lived credentials within `/opt/machine-id`. To verify that is working correctly, we'll now test these credentials using `tsh`. On the host where you have deployed `tbot`, run the following, replacing `--proxy` with the address of your Teleport Proxy Service and `-i` with the path to the `identity` file within your configured directory: ``` $ tsh --proxy example.teleport.sh:443 -i /opt/machine-id/identity status > Profile URL: https://example.teleport.sh:443 Logged in as: bot-example Cluster: example.teleport.sh Roles: access Logins: support, ubuntu Kubernetes: disabled Valid until: 2025-11-12 14:08:34 +0000 GMT [valid for 58m] Extensions: bot-instance-id@goteleport.com, bot-name@goteleport.com, disallow-reissue, impersonator, login-ip, permit-agent-forwarding, permit-port-forwarding, permit-pty, private-key-policy ``` You have now prepared a basic deployment of `tbot` for your platform, and verified that it can produce a simple output that can be used with `tsh` and `tctl`. For guidance on how to configure `tbot` for your use case, follow one of the [access guides](https://goteleport.com/docs/machine-workload-identity/access-guides.md) and replace the example `identity` service you configured in this guide. ## Next steps - Follow the [access guides](https://goteleport.com/docs/machine-workload-identity/access-guides.md) to finish configuring `tbot` for your environment. - Read the [configuration reference](https://goteleport.com/docs/reference/machine-workload-identity/configuration.md) to explore all the available configuration options. - [More information about `TELEPORT_ANONYMOUS_TELEMETRY`.](https://goteleport.com/docs/reference/machine-workload-identity/telemetry.md)