Database Access with Azure Cache for Redis

This guide will help you to:

• Install and configure Teleport.
• Set up access to Azure Cache for Redis.
• Connect to the database server through Teleport.

Prerequisites

• Deployed Azure Redis server or Azure Redis Enterprise cluster.
• Azure administrative privileges to manage service principals and access controls.
• A host, e.g., an Azure VM instance, where you will run the Teleport Database Service.
• redis-cli version 6.2 or newer installed and added to your system's PATH environment variable.

tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com [email protected]
tctl status
Cluster  teleport.example.com
Version  12.1.1
CA pin   sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678

tsh login --proxy=myinstance.teleport.sh [email protected]
tctl status
Cluster  myinstance.teleport.sh
Version  12.1.1
CA pin   sha256:sha-hash-here

Step 1/5. Create a Teleport user

Create a local Teleport user with the built-in access role:

tctl users add \  --roles=access \  --db-users=\* \  --db-names=\* \  alice

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

Step 2/5. Create a Database Service configuration

Install Teleport on the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service:

Use the appropriate commands for your environment to install your package.

Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-release
Add the Teleport APT repository for v12. 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/v12" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install teleport

Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-release
Add the Teleport YUM repository for v12. 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/v12/teleport.repo")
sudo yum install teleport
Tip: 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

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./install

dpkg -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent_12.1.1_$SYSTEM-ARCH.deb
Selecting previously unselected package teleport-ent.
(Reading database ... 30810 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack teleport-ent_12.1.1_$SYSTEM_ARCH.deb ...
Unpacking teleport-ent 12.1.1 ...
Setting up teleport-ent 12.1.1 ...

rpm -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent-12.1.1.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpm
warning: teleport-ent-12.1.1.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA512 Signature, key ID 6282c411: NOKEY

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport-ent
sudo ./install

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport-ent
sudo ./install

Create the Database Service configuration, specifying a region like this:

teleport db configure create \  -o file \  --proxy=tele.example.com:443 \  --token=/tmp/token \  --azure-redis-discovery=eastus

The command will generate a Database Service configuration with Azure Cache for Redis auto-discovery enabled in the eastus region and place it at the /etc/teleport.yaml location.

Step 3/5. Configure IAM permissions for Teleport

The Teleport Database Service needs Azure IAM permissions to:

• Discover and register Azure Cache for Redis databases.
• Retrieve Redis access keys to authenticate with the databases.

Configure an Azure service principal

There are a couple of ways for the Teleport Database Service to access Azure resources:

• The Database Service can run on an Azure VM with attached managed identity. This is the recommended way of deploying the Database Service in production since it eliminates the need to manage Azure credentials.
• The Database Service can be registered as an Azure AD application (via AD's "App registrations") and configured with its credentials. This is only recommended for development and testing purposes since it requires Azure credentials to be present in the Database Service's environment.

• Using managed identity
• Using app registrations

Go to the Managed Identities page in your Azure portal and click Create to create a new user-assigned managed identity:

Pick a name and resource group for the new identity and create it:

Take note of the created identity's Client ID:

Next, navigate to the Azure VM that will run your Database Service instance and add the identity you've just created to it:

Attach this identity to all Azure VMs that will be running the Database Service.

Note

Registering the Database Service as Azure AD application is suitable for test and development scenarios, or if your Database Service does not run on an Azure VM. For production scenarios prefer to use the managed identity approach.

Go the the App registrations page of your Azure Active Directory and click on New registration:

Pick a name (e.g. DatabaseService) and register a new application. Once the app has been created, take note of its Application (client) ID and click on Add a certificate or secret:

Create a new client secret that the Database Service agent will use to authenticate with the Azure API:

The Teleport Database Service uses Azure SDK's default credential provider chain to look for credentials. Refer to Azure SDK Authorization to pick a method suitable for your use-case. For example, to use environment-based authentication with a client secret, the Database Service should have the following environment variables set:

export AZURE_TENANT_ID=
export AZURE_CLIENT_ID=
export AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=

Create a custom role

Teleport requires <resource-type>/read permissions for discovery and <resource-type>/listKeys/action permissions for authentication with the Redis servers, but Teleport only needs permissions for the resource types you have.

Here is a sample role definition allowing Teleport to read and list keys for both Azure Redis and Azure Redis Enterprise:

{
    "properties": {
        "roleName": "TeleportDiscovery",
        "description": "Allows Teleport to discover Azure Cache For Redis databases and list keys",
        "assignableScopes": [
            "/subscriptions/11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555"
        ],
        "permissions": [
            {
                "actions": [
                    "Microsoft.Cache/redis/read",
                    "Microsoft.Cache/redis/listKeys/action",
                    "Microsoft.Cache/redisEnterprise/read",
                    "Microsoft.Cache/redisEnterprise/databases/read",
                    "Microsoft.Cache/redisEnterprise/databases/listKeys/action"
                ],
                "notActions": [],
                "dataActions": [],
                "notDataActions": []
            }
        ]
    }
}

The assignableScopes field above includes a subscription /subscriptions/<subscription>, allowing the role to be assigned at any resource scope within that subscription or the subscription scope itself. If you want to further limit the assignableScopes, you can use a resource group /subscriptions/<subscription>/resourceGroups/<group> or a management group /providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/<group> instead.

Now go to the Subscriptions page and select a subscription.

Click on Access control (IAM) in the subscription and select Add > Add custom role:

In the custom role creation page, click the JSON tab and click Edit, then paste the JSON example and replace the subscription in assignableScopes with your own subscription id:

Create a role assignment for the Teleport Database Service principal

To grant Teleport permissions, the custom role you created must be assigned to the Teleport service principal - either the managed identity or the app registration you created earlier.

Navigate to the resource scope where you want to make the role assignment. Click Access control (IAM) and select Add > Add role assignment. Choose the custom role you created as the role and the Teleport service principal as a member.

Step 4/5. Start the Database Service

Once the service principal is configured with the required IAM permissions, start the Teleport Database Service:

teleport start --config=/etc/teleport.yaml

Step 5/5. Connect

Log in to your Teleport cluster. Your Azure Cache for Redis databases should appear in the list of available databases:

tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice
tsh db ls
Name                      Description                              Allowed Users Labels  Connect 
------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ------------- ------- ------- 
my-azure-redis            Azure Redis server in East US            [*]           ...
my-azure-redis-enterprise Azure Redis Enterprise server in East US [*]           ...

To retrieve credentials for a database and connect to it:

tsh db connect my-azure-redis

Note that the Teleport Database Service will retrieve the access key and authenticate with the Redis server on the backend automatically. Therefore, the AUTH <access-key> command is not required here once connected.

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

tsh db logout my-azure-redis

Troubleshooting

No credential providers error

If you see the error DefaultAzureCredential: failed to acquire a token. in Database Service logs then Teleport is not detecting the required credentials to connect to the Azure SDK. Check whether the credentials have been applied in the machine running the Teleport Database Service and restart the Teleport Database Service. Refer to Azure SDK Authorization for more information.

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 server-name.postgres.database.azure.com 5432
Connection to server-name.postgres.database.azure.com 5432 port [tcp/postgresql] succeeded!

Next steps

• Learn how to restrict access to certain users and databases.

• View the High Availability (HA) guide.

• Take a look at the YAML configuration reference.

• See the full CLI reference.

Further reading

• Understand Azure Role Definitions - AssignableScopes
• Azure RBAC custom roles