
Database access for Elasticsearch is available starting from Teleport 10.3
.
This guide will help you to configure secured access to an Elasticsearch database using Teleport Database Access.
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 >= 12.1.1.tctl versionTeleport v12.1.1 go1.19
tsh versionTeleport v12.1.1 go1.19
See Installation for details.
-
A running Teleport cluster. For details on how to set this up, see our Enterprise Getting Started guide.
-
The Enterprise
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 12.1.1, which you can download by visiting the customer portal.tctl versionTeleport Enterprise v12.1.1 go1.19
tsh versionTeleport v12.1.1 go1.19
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
-
A self-hosted Elasticsearch database. Elastic Cloud does not support client certificates, which are required for setting up Database Access.
-
A host where you will run the Teleport Database Service. If you are already running the Teleport Database Service, you must ensure that it uses Teleport version 10.3 or newer in order to connect to Elasticsearch. This can also be the same instance of Teleport running your Auth and/or Proxy service(s).
See Installation for details.
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 12.1.1
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 12.1.1
CA pin sha256:sha-hash-here
You must run subsequent tctl
commands in this guide on your local machine.
Step 1/5. Set up 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. Make sure you've selected your installation type (OSS, Enterprise, Cloud):
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 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?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/v12" \| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/nullsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install teleport
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport YUM repository for v12. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
Note: if using a fork of RHEL/CentOS or Amazon Linux you may need to use '$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 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 $SYSTEM-ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gzcd teleportsudo ./install
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM-ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
After Downloading the .deb
file for your system architecture, install it with
dpkg
. The example below assumes the root
user:
dpkg -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent_12.1.1_$SYSTEM-ARCH.debSelecting previously unselected package teleport-ent.
(Reading database ... 30810 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack teleport-ent_12.1.1_$SYSTEM_ARCH.deb ...
Unpacking teleport-ent 12.1.1 ...
Setting up teleport-ent 12.1.1 ...
After Downloading the .rpm
file for your system architecture, install it with rpm
:
rpm -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent-12.1.1.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpmwarning: 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-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations of Teleport Enterprise, package URLs will be slightly different:
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
Start the Teleport Database Service, pointing the --auth-server
flag to the
address of your Teleport Proxy Service:
teleport db start \ --token=/tmp/token \ --auth-server=teleport.example.com:3080 \ --name=myelastic \ --protocol=elastic \ --uri=elasticsearch.example.com:9200 \ --labels=env=dev
The --auth-server
flag must point to the Teleport cluster's Proxy Service
endpoint because the Database Service always connects back to the cluster over a
reverse tunnel.
Configure teleport.yaml
using the example below:
version: v3
teleport:
auth_token: <insert token here>
proxy_server: teleport.example.com
# disable services that are on by default
ssh_service: { enabled: no }
proxy_service: { enabled: no }
auth_service: { enabled: no }
# db service config
db_service:
enabled: "yes"
resources:
- labels:
"*": "*"
databases:
- name: myelastic
protocol: elasticsearch
uri: elasticsearch.example.com:9200
static_labels:
env: dev
Adjust for your environment, then start or restart Teleport. See the YAML reference for details.
Step 2/5. Create a Teleport user
To modify an existing user to provide access to the Database Access service, see Database Access Access Controls
Create a local Teleport user with the built-in access
role:
tctl users add \ --roles=access \ --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. |
Database names are only enforced for PostgreSQL and MongoDB databases.
For more detailed information about database access controls and how to restrict access see RBAC documentation.
Step 3/5. Create a role mapping
Define a role mapping in Elasticsearch to assign your Teleport user(s) or role(s) to an Elasticsearch role.
The example below maps the Teleport user alice
to the user
role in Elasticsearch.
curl -u elastic:your_elasticsearch_password -X POST "https://elasticsearch.example.com:9200/_security/role_mapping/mapping1?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{
"roles": [ "user"],
"enabled": true,
"rules": {
"field" : { "username" : "alice" }
},
"metadata" : {
"version" : 1
}
}
'
In a scenario where Teleport is using single sign-on you may want to define a mapping for all users to a role:
curl -u elastic:your_elasticsearch_password -X POST "https://elasticsearch.example.com:9200/_security/role_mapping/mapping1?pretty" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'{
"roles": [ "monitoring"],
"enabled": true,
"rules": {
"field" : { "username" : "*@example.com" }
},
"metadata" : {
"version" : 1
}
}
'
Step 4/5. Set up mutual TLS
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.
We will show you how to use tctl auth sign
below.
To securely access your Elasticsearch database, sign the certificate for the hostname Teleport will connect to.
For example, if your Elasticsearch server is accessible at elastic.example.com
,
run:
tctl auth sign --format=elasticsearch --host=elastic.example.com --out=elastic --ttl=2160hDatabase credentials have been written to elastic.key, elastic.crt, elastic.cas.
We recommend using a shorter TTL, but keep 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 create three files:
elastic.cas
with Teleport's certificate authorityelastic.key
with a generated private keyelastic.crt
with a generated host certificate
Teleport 10.0 introduced a new certificate authority that is only used by Database Access. Older Teleport versions use a host certificate to sign Database Access certificates.
After upgrading to Teleport 10.0, the host certificate authority will still be used by Database Access to maintain compatibility. The first certificate rotation will rotate host and database certificates.
New Teleport 10.0+ installations generate the database certificate authority when they first start, and are not affected by the rotation procedure described above.
Use the generated secrets to enable mutual TLS in your elasticsearch.yml
configuration
file:
xpack.security.http.ssl:
certificate_authorities: /path/to/elastic.cas
certificate: /path/to/elastic.crt
key: /path/to/elastic.key
enabled: true
client_authentication: required
verification_mode: certificate
xpack.security.authc.realms.pki.pki1:
order: 1
enabled: true
certificate_authorities: /path/to/elastic.cas
Once mutual TLS has been enabled, you will no longer be able to connect to the cluster without
providing a valid client certificate. You can set xpack.security.http.ssl.client_authentication
to optional
to allow connections from clients that do not present a certificate, using other
methods like username and password.
Step 5/5. Connect
Log into your Teleport cluster and see available databases:
tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alicetsh db lsName Description Allowed Users Labels Connect
--------------------------- ----------- ------------- ------- ------------------------
> myelastic (user: elastic) [*] env=dev tsh db connect myelastic
tsh login --proxy=mytennant.teleport.sh --user=alicetsh db lsName Description Allowed Users Labels Connect
--------------------------- ----------- ------------- ------- ------------------------
> myelastic (user: elastic) [*] env=dev tsh db connect myelastic
To connect to a particular database instance:
tsh db connect myelastic --db-user=alice
To log out of the database and remove credentials:
Remove credentials for a particular database instance.
tsh db logout myelasticRemove credentials for all database instances.
tsh db logout
Tunneled connection example
We can create a tunneled connection to Elasticsearch to use with GUI applications like Elasticvue:
tsh proxy db myelastic --db-user=alice --tunnelStarted authenticated tunnel for the Elasticsearch database "myelastic" in cluster "teleport.example.com" on 127.0.0.1:53657.
Use one of the following commands to connect to the database:
* interactive SQL connection:
$ elasticsearch-sql-cli http://localhost:53657/
* run single request with curl:
$ curl http://localhost:53657/
Note the assigned port, and provide it to your GUI client:

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.
- For more information on configuring security settings in Elasticsearch, see: Security settings in Elasticsearch