In this getting started guide we will use Teleport Database Access to connect to a PostgreSQL AWS Aurora database.
Here's an overview of what we will do:
- Configure an AWS Aurora database with IAM authentication.
- Join the Aurora database to your Teleport cluster.
- Connect to the Aurora database via the Teleport Database Service.
Prerequisites
Teleport Database Access is available starting from the 6.0.0
Teleport
release.
- An AWS account with a PostgreSQL AWS Aurora database and permissions to create and attach IAM policies.
- A host, e.g., an EC2 instance, where you will run the Teleport Database Service.
-
The
tctl
andtsh
client tools version >= 11.3.1.tctl versionTeleport v11.3.1 go1.19
tsh versionTeleport v11.3.1 go1.19
See Installation for details.
-
A host where you will install the Teleport Auth Service and Proxy Service.
-
A registered domain name.
-
The
tctl
andtsh
client tools version >= 11.3.1, which you can download by visiting the customer portal.tctl versionTeleport v11.3.1 go1.19
tsh versionTeleport v11.3.1 go1.19
-
A host where you will install the Teleport Auth Service and Proxy Service.
-
A registered domain name.
-
The
tctl
andtsh
client tools version >= 11.2.1.You can download these from Teleport Cloud Downloads.
tctl versionTeleport v11.2.1 go1.19
tsh versionTeleport v11.2.1 go1.19
Step 1/3. Set up Aurora
In order to allow Teleport connections to an Aurora instance, the instance needs to support IAM authentication.
If you don't have a database provisioned yet, create an instance of an Aurora PostgreSQL in the RDS control panel. Make sure to choose the "Standard create" database creation method and enable "Password and IAM database authentication" in the Database Authentication dialog.
For existing Aurora instances, the status of IAM authentication is displayed on the Configuration tab and can be enabled by modifying the database instance.
Next, create the following IAM policy and attach it to the AWS user or service account. The Teleport Database Service will need to use the credentials of this AWS user or service account in order to use this policy.
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"rds-db:connect"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:rds-db:<region>:<account-id>:dbuser:<resource-id>/*"
]
}
]
}
This policy allows any database account to connect to the Aurora instance specified with resource ID using IAM auth.
The database resource ID is shown on the Configuration tab of a particular
database instance in the RDS control panel, under "Resource id". For regular
RDS database it starts with db-
prefix. For Aurora, use the database
cluster resource ID (cluster-
), not the individual instance ID.
Finally, connect to the database and create a database account with IAM auth support (or update an existing one). Once connected, execute the following SQL statements to create a new database account and allow IAM auth for it:
CREATE USER alice;
GRANT rds_iam TO alice;
For more information about connecting to the PostgreSQL instance directly, see the AWS documentation.
Step 2/3. Set up Teleport
Start the Auth Service and Proxy Service
On the host where you will run the Auth Service and Proxy Service, download the latest version of Teleport for your platform from our downloads page and follow the installation instructions.
Teleport requires a valid TLS certificate to operate and can fetch one automatically using Let's Encrypt's ACME protocol. Before Let's Encrypt can issue a TLS certificate for the Teleport Proxy host's domain, the ACME protocol must verify that an HTTPS server is reachable on port 443 of the host.
You can configure the Teleport Proxy service to complete the Let's Encrypt verification process when it starts up.
Run the following teleport configure
command, where tele.example.com
is the
domain name of your Teleport cluster and [email protected]
is an email address
used for notifications (you can use any domain):
teleport configure --acme [email protected] --cluster-name=tele.example.com > /etc/teleport.yaml
The --acme
, --acme-email
, and --cluster-name
flags will add the following
settings to your Teleport configuration file:
proxy_service:
enabled: "yes"
web_listen_addr: :443
public_addr: tele.example.com:443
acme:
enabled: "yes"
email: [email protected]
Port 443 on your Teleport Proxy Service host must allow traffic from all sources.
Next, start the Teleport Auth and Proxy Services:
sudo teleport start
If you do not have a Teleport Cloud account, use our signup form to get started. Teleport Cloud manages instances of the Proxy Service and Auth Service, and automatically issues and renews the required TLS certificate.
To connect to Teleport, log in to your cluster using tsh
, then use tctl
remotely:
tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com [email protected]tctl statusCluster teleport.example.com
Version 11.3.1
CA pin sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678
You can run subsequent tctl
commands in this guide on your local machine.
For full privileges, you can also run tctl
commands on your Auth Service host.
To connect to Teleport, log in to your cluster using tsh
, then use tctl
remotely:
tsh login --proxy=myinstance.teleport.sh [email protected]tctl statusCluster myinstance.teleport.sh
Version 11.2.1
CA pin sha256:sha-hash-here
You must run subsequent tctl
commands in this guide on your local machine.
Start the Teleport Database Service
The Database Service requires a valid auth token to connect to the cluster. Generate
one by running the following command against your Teleport Auth Service and save
it in /tmp/token
on the node that will run the Database Service:
tctl tokens add --type=db
Install Teleport on the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service:
Next, use the appropriate commands for your environment to install your package.
Teleport Edition
Add the Teleport repository to your repository list:
Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.ascSource variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport APT repository for v11. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
Note: if using a fork of Debian or Ubuntu you may need to use '$ID_LIKE'
and the codename your distro was forked from instead of '$ID' and '$VERSION_CODENAME'.
Supported versions are listed here: https://github.com/gravitational/teleport/blob/master/build.assets/tooling/cmd/build-os-package-repos/runners.go#L42-L67
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/v11" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/nullsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install teleport
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v11. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
Note: if using a fork of RHEL/CentOS or Amazon Linux you may need to use '$ID_LIKE'
and the codename your distro was forked from instead of '$ID'
Supported versions are listed here: https://github.com/gravitational/teleport/blob/master/build.assets/tooling/cmd/build-os-package-repos/runners.go#L133-L153
sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo $(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v11/teleport.repo")sudo yum install teleportTip: Add /usr/local/bin to path used by sudo (so 'sudo tctl users add' will work as per the docs)
echo "Defaults secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin" > /etc/sudoers.d/secure_path
Optional: Use DNF on newer distributions
$ sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://rpm.releases.teleport.dev/teleport.repo
$ sudo dnf install teleport
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM-ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gzcd teleportsudo ./install
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM-ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
After Downloading the .deb
file for your system architecture, install it with
dpkg
. The example below assumes the root
user:
dpkg -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent_11.3.1_.debSelecting previously unselected package teleport-ent.
(Reading database ... 30810 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack teleport-ent_11.3.1_$SYSTEM_ARCH.deb ...
Unpacking teleport-ent 11.3.1 ...
Setting up teleport-ent 11.3.1 ...
After Downloading the .rpm
file for your system architecture, install it with rpm
:
rpm -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent-11.3.1..rpmwarning: teleport-ent-11.3.1.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA512 Signature, key ID 6282c411: NOKEY
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v11.3.1-linux--bin.tar.gzcd teleportsudo ./install
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations of Teleport Enterprise, package URLs will be slightly different:
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux--fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux--fips-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux--fips-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v11.3.1-linux--fips-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM-ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
After Downloading the .deb
file for your system architecture, install it with
dpkg
. The example below assumes the root
user:
dpkg -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent_11.2.1_.debSelecting previously unselected package teleport-ent.
(Reading database ... 30810 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack teleport-ent_11.2.1_$SYSTEM_ARCH.deb ...
Unpacking teleport-ent 11.2.1 ...
Setting up teleport-ent 11.2.1 ...
After Downloading the .rpm
file for your system architecture, install it with rpm
:
rpm -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent-11.2.1..rpmwarning: teleport-ent-11.2.1.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA512 Signature, key ID 6282c411: NOKEY
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.2.1-linux--bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gzcd teleportsudo ./install
Before installing a teleport
binary with a version besides v11,
read our compatibility rules to ensure that the binary is compatible with
Teleport Cloud.
When running multiple teleport
binaries within a cluster, the following rules
apply:
- Patch and minor versions are always compatible, for example, any 8.0.1 component will work with any 8.0.3 component and any 8.1.0 component will work with any 8.3.0 component.
- Servers support clients that are 1 major version behind, but do not support
clients that are on a newer major version. For example, an 8.x.x Proxy Service
is compatible with 7.x.x resource services and 7.x.x
tsh
, but we don't guarantee that a 9.x.x resource service will work with an 8.x.x Proxy Service. This also means you must not attempt to upgrade from 6.x.x straight to 8.x.x. You must upgrade to 7.x.x first. - Proxy Services and resource services do not support Auth Services that are on
an older major version, and will fail to connect to older Auth Services by
default. This behavior can be overridden by passing
--skip-version-check
when starting Proxy Services and resource services.
On the node where you will run the Teleport Database Service, start Teleport and
point it to your Aurora database instance. Make sure to update the database
endpoint and region appropriately. The --auth-server
flag must point to the
address of your Teleport Proxy Service.
teleport db start \ --token=/tmp/token \ --name=aurora \ --auth-server=teleport.example.com:3080 \ --protocol=postgres \ --uri=postgres-aurora-instance-1.abcdefghijklm.us-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com:5432 \ --aws-region=us-west-1
The node that connects to the database should have AWS credentials configured with the policy from step 1.
Create a user and role
Create the role that will allow a user to connect to any database using any database account:
tctl create <<EOFkind: roleversion: v3metadata: name: dbspec: allow: db_labels: '*': '*' db_names: - '*' db_users: - '*'EOF
Create the Teleport user assigned the db
role we've just created:
tctl users add --roles=access,db alice
Step 3/3. Connect
Now that Aurora is configured with IAM authentication, Teleport is running, and the local user is created, we're ready to connect to the database.
Log in to Teleport with the user we've just created.
tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice
Now we can inspect available databases:
tsh db ls
Finally, connect to the database:
tsh db connect --db-user=alice --db-name postgres aurora
Troubleshooting
Certificate error
If your tsh db connect
error includes the following text, you likely have an RDS database created before July 28, 2020, which presents an X.509 certificate that is incompatible with Teleport:
x509: certificate relies on legacy Common Name field, use SANs instead
AWS provides instructions to rotate your SSL/TLS certificate.
No credential providers error
If you see the error NoCredentialProviders: no valid providers in chain
in Database Service logs then Teleport
is not detecting the required credentials to connect via AWS IAM permissions. Check whether
the credentials or security role has been applied in the machine running the Teleport Database Service.
Timeout errors
The Teleport Database Service needs connectivity to your database endpoints. That may require
enabling inbound traffic on the database from the Database Service on the same VPC or routing rules from another VPC. Using the nc
program you can verify connections to databases:
nc -zv postgres-instance-1.sadas.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com 5432
Connection to postgres-instance-1.sadas.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com (172.31.24.172) 5432 port [tcp/postgresql] succeeded!
Next Steps
For the next steps, dive deeper into the topics relevant to your Database Access use-case, for example:
- Check out configuration guides.
- Learn how to configure GUI clients.
- Learn about Database Access role-based access control.
- See frequently asked questions.