
In this getting started guide we will use Teleport 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
-
A running Teleport cluster. For details on how to set this up, see one of our Getting Started guides.
-
The
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 13.0.3.tctl versionTeleport v13.0.3 go1.20
tsh versionTeleport v13.0.3 go1.20
See Installation for details.
-
A running Teleport Enterprise cluster. For details on how to set this up, see our Enterprise Getting Started guide.
-
The Enterprise
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 13.0.3, which you can download by visiting your Teleport account.tctl versionTeleport Enterprise v13.0.3 go1.20
tsh versionTeleport v13.0.3 go1.20
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
- 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.
- Make sure you can connect to Teleport. Log in to your cluster using
tsh
, then usetctl
remotely:tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com [email protected]tctl statusCluster teleport.example.com
Version 13.0.3
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.
Step 1/4. 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 2/4. 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
For users with a lot of infrastructure in AWS, or who might create or recreate many instances, consider alternative methods for joining new EC2 instances running Teleport:
Install Teleport on the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service:
Use the appropriate commands for your environment to install your package.
Teleport Edition
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 v13. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/v13" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/nullsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install teleport
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v13. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v13/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
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v13. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
Use the dnf config manager plugin to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v13/teleport.repo")"Install teleport
sudo dnf 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
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM_ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzcd teleportsudo ./install
Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.ascSource variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport APT repository for v13. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/v13" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/nullsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install teleport-ent
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo apt-get install teleport-ent-fips
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v13. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v13/teleport.repo")"sudo yum install teleport-entTip: 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
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo yum install teleport-ent-fips
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v13. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
Use the dnf config manager plugin to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v13/teleport.repo")"Install teleport
sudo dnf install teleport-entTip: 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
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo dnf install teleport-ent-fips
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM_ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations of Teleport Enterprise, package URLs will be slightly different:
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v13.0.3-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
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.
Step 3/4. 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 4/4. 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.