
Teleport
Database Access with Self-Hosted MongoDB
- Version 15.x
- Version 14.x
- Version 13.x
- Version 12.x
- Older Versions
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- OpenSource
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- Cloud
- Enterprise

Setting up Teleport Database Access for MongoDB
Length: 12:54
Teleport can provide secure access to MongoDB via the Teleport Database Service. This allows for fine-grained access control through Teleport's RBAC.
In this guide, you will:
- Configure an MongoDB cluster with mutual TLS authentication.
- Join the MongoDB database to your Teleport cluster.
- Connect to the MongoDB database via the Teleport Database Service.
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
Prerequisites
-
A Teleport Team account. If you don't have an account, sign up to begin your free trial.
-
The Enterprise
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool, version >= 14.0.0.You can download these tools by visiting your Teleport account workspace.
-
A running Teleport cluster. For details on how to set this up, see the Getting Started guide.
-
The
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 14.0.0.See Installation for details.
-
A running Teleport Enterprise cluster. For details on how to set this up, see the Enterprise Getting Started guide.
-
The Enterprise
tctl
admin tool andtsh
client tool version >= 14.0.0.You can download these tools by visiting your Teleport account workspace.
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
To check version information, run the tctl version
and tsh version
commands.
For example:
tctl versionTeleport Enterprise v13.3.9 git:api/14.0.0-gd1e081e go1.21
tsh versionTeleport v13.3.9 go1.21
Proxy version: 13.3.9Proxy: teleport.example.com
- MongoDB cluster (standalone or replica set) version
3.6
or newer.
Teleport database access supports MongoDB 3.6
and newer.
Older versions have not been tested and are not guaranteed to work. MongoDB
3.6
was released in November 2017 and reached EOL in
April 2021 so if you're still using an older version, consider upgrading.
- To check that you can connect to your Teleport cluster, sign in with
tsh login
, then verify that you can runtctl
commands on your administrative workstation using your current credentials. For example:If you can connect to the cluster and run thetsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=[email protected]tctl statusCluster teleport.example.com
Version 14.0.0
CA pin sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678
tctl status
command, you can use your current credentials to run subsequenttctl
commands from your workstation. If you host your own Teleport cluster, you can also runtctl
commands on the computer that hosts the Teleport Auth Service for full permissions.
Step 1/3. Install and configure Teleport
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 and configure Teleport where you will run the Teleport Database Service:
Select an edition, then follow the instructions for that edition to install Teleport.
Teleport Edition
- Teleport Team
- Open Source
- Enterprise
- Enterprise Cloud
curl https://goteleport.com/static/install.sh | bash -s 13.3.9
Before installing a teleport
binary with a version besides
v13, 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.
curl https://goteleport.com/static/install.sh | bash -s 14.0.0
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 v14. 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/v14" \| 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 v14. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
First, get the major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v14/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 Zypper repository for v14. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use zypper to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo zypper addrepo --refresh --repo $(rpm --eval "https://zypper.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/cloud/teleport-zypper.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 v14. You'll need to update this
file for each major release of Teleport.
First, get the major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use the dnf config manager plugin to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo "$(rpm --eval "https://yum.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v14/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
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-releaseAdd the Teleport Zypper repository.
First, get the OS major version from $VERSION_ID so this fetches the correct
package version.
VERSION_ID=$(echo $VERSION_ID | grep -Eo "^[0-9]+")Use Zypper to add the teleport RPM repo
sudo zypper addrepo --refresh --repo $(rpm --eval "https://zypper.releases.teleport.dev/$ID/$VERSION_ID/Teleport/%{_arch}/stable/v14/teleport-zypper.repo")Install teleport
sudo zypper install teleport-ent
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips
package instead:
sudo zypper install teleport-ent-fips
In the example commands below, update $SYSTEM_ARCH
with the appropriate
value (amd64
, arm64
, or arm
). All example commands using this variable
will update after one is filled out.
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations of Teleport Enterprise, package URLs will be slightly different:
curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzshasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzVerify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v14.0.0-linux-$SYSTEM_ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gzcd teleport-entsudo ./install
OS repository channels
The following channels are available for APT, YUM, and Zypper repos. They may be used in place of
stable/v14
anywhere in the Teleport documentation.
Channel name | Description |
---|---|
stable/<major> | Receives releases for the specified major release line, i.e. v14 |
stable/cloud | Rolling channel that receives releases compatible with current Cloud version |
stable/rolling | Rolling channel that receives all published Teleport releases |
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, start Teleport with the appropriate configuration.
Note that a single Teleport process can run multiple different services, for
example multiple Database Service agents as well as the SSH Service or Application
Service. The step below will overwrite an existing configuration file, so if
you're running multiple services add --output=stdout
to print the config in
your terminal, and manually adjust /etc/teleport.yaml
.
Generate a configuration file at /etc/teleport.yaml
for the Database Service:
sudo teleport db configure create \ -o file \ --token=/tmp/token \ --proxy=teleport.example.com:443 \ --name=example-mongo \ --protocol=mongodb \ --uri=mongo.example.com:27017 \ --labels=env=dev
sudo teleport db configure create \ -o file \ --token=/tmp/token \ --proxy=mytenant.teleport.sh:443 \ --name=example-mongo \ --protocol=mongodb \ --uri=mongo.example.com:27017 \ --labels=env=dev
Configure the Teleport Database Service to start automatically when the host boots up by creating a systemd service for it. The instructions depend on how you installed the Teleport Database Service.
On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, enable and start Teleport:
sudo systemctl enable teleportsudo systemctl start teleport
On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, create a systemd service configuration for Teleport, enable the Teleport service, and start Teleport:
sudo teleport install systemd -o /etc/systemd/system/teleport.servicesudo systemctl enable teleportsudo systemctl start teleport
You can check the status of the Teleport Database Service with systemctl status teleport
and view its logs with journalctl -fu teleport
.
Teleport provides Helm charts for installing the Teleport Database Service in Kubernetes Clusters.
To allow Helm to install charts that are hosted in the Teleport Helm repository, use helm repo add
:
helm repo add teleport https://charts.releases.teleport.dev
To update the cache of charts from the remote repository, run helm repo update
:
helm repo update
Install the Teleport Kube Agent into your Kubernetes Cluster with the Teleport Database Service configuration.
JOIN_TOKEN=$(cat /tmp/token)helm install teleport-kube-agent teleport/teleport-kube-agent \ --create-namespace \ --namespace teleport-agent \ --set roles=db \ --set proxyAddr=teleport.example.com:443 \ --set authToken=${JOIN_TOKEN?} \ --set "databases[0].name=example-mongo" \ --set "databases[0].uri=mongo.example.com:27017" \ --set "databases[0].protocol=mongodb" \ --set "labels.env=dev" \ --version 14.0.0
Install the Teleport Kube Agent into your Kubernetes Cluster with the Teleport Database Service configuration.
JOIN_TOKEN=$(cat /tmp/token)helm install teleport-kube-agent teleport/teleport-kube-agent \ --create-namespace \ --namespace teleport-agent \ --set roles=db \ --set proxyAddr=mytenant.teleport.sh:443 \ --set authToken=${JOIN_TOKEN?} \ --set "databases[0].name=example-mongo" \ --set "databases[0].uri=mongo.example.com:27017" \ --set "databases[0].protocol=mongodb" \ --set "labels.env=dev" \ --version 13.3.9
Make sure that the Teleport agent pod is running. You should see one
teleport-kube-agent
pod with a single ready container:
kubectl -n teleport get podsNAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGEteleport-kube-agent-0 1/1 Running 0 32s
A single Teleport process can run multiple services, for example multiple Database Service instances as well as other services such the SSH Service or Application Service.
You can specify either a single connection address or a MongoDB connection string as a URI. For example, when connecting to a replica set:
--uri="mongodb://mongo1.example.com:27017,mongo2.example.com:27017/?replicaSet=rs0"
By default, Teleport will connect to the primary replica set member. If you'd
like to connect to a secondary instead, Teleport will respect readPreference
connection string setting:
--uri="mongodb://mongo1.example.com:27017,mongo2.example.com:27017/?replicaSet=rs0&readPreference=secondary"
Create a Teleport user
To modify an existing user to provide access to the Database 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
Create a local Teleport user with the built-in access
and requester
roles:
tctl users add \ --roles=access,requester \ --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.
If you opt for a stricter selection of database names for your user, which
differs from the wildcard approach illustrated in this guide, it is essential
to include the admin
database. This ensures MongoDB clients won't have
issues while connecting and executing operations such as retrieving server
information, listing databases, and aborting transactions.
Step 2/3. Configure MongoDB
Create a MongoDB user
Teleport will use X.509 authentication
when connecting to a MongoDB instance. Users authenticating with client certificates
must be created in the $external
MongoDB authentication database.
MongoDB treats the entire Subject
line of the client certificate as a username.
When connecting to a MongoDB server, say as a user alice
, Teleport will sign
an ephemeral certificate with the CN=alice
subject.
To create this user in the database, connect to it using the mongosh
or mongo
shell and run
the following command:
db.getSiblingDB("$external").runCommand(
{
createUser: "CN=alice",
roles: [
{ role: "readWriteAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }
]
}
)
Update the roles accordingly to grant the user appropriate database permissions.
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.
If you are using Teleport Cloud, your Teleport user must be allowed to
impersonate the system role Db
in order to be able to generate the database
certificate.
Include the following allow
rule in in your Teleport Cloud user's role:
allow:
impersonate:
users: ["Db"]
roles: ["Db"]
Create the secrets:
When connecting to standalone MongoDB, sign the certificate for the hostname over which Teleport will be connecting to it.
For example, if your MongoDB server is accessible at mongo.example.com
hostname, run:
tctl auth sign --format=mongodb --host=mongo.example.com --out=mongo --ttl=2190h
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 two files: mongo.cas
with Teleport's certificate
authority and mongo.crt
with the generated certificate and key pair. You will
need these files to enable mutual TLS on your MongoDB server.
When connecting to a MongoDB replica set, sign certificates for each member using the hostnames they're accessible at.
For example, if the first member is accessible at mongo1.example.com
and
the second at mongo2.example.com
, run:
tctl auth sign --format=mongodb --host=mongo1.example.com --out=mongo1 --ttl=2190htctl auth sign --format=mongodb --host=mongo2.example.com --out=mongo2 --ttl=2190h
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.
Each command will create two files: mongo1.cas
/mongo2.cas
with Teleport's
certificate authority and mongo1.crt
/mongo2.crt
with the generated certificate
and key pair. You will need these files to enable mutual TLS on your MongoDB
servers.
Use the generated secrets to enable mutual TLS in your mongod.conf
configuration
file and restart the database:
net:
ssl:
mode: requireSSL
PEMKeyFile: /etc/certs/mongo.crt
CAFile: /etc/certs/mongo.cas
net:
tls:
mode: requireTLS
certificateKeyFile: /etc/certs/mongo.crt
CAFile: /etc/certs/mongo.cas
When configuring a replica set, make sure to do it for each member and use secrets generated for the particular server.
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 use the
net.tls.allowConnectionsWithoutCertificates
setting to allow connections
from clients that do not present a certificate.
See Configure TLS/SSL in the MongoDB documentation for more details.
Step 3/3. Connect
Log in to your Teleport cluster and see available databases:
tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alicetsh db lsName Description Labels
------------- --------------- --------
example-mongo Example MongoDB env=dev
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
To retrieve credentials for a database and connect to it:
tsh db connect example-mongo
You can optionally specify the database name and the user to use by default when connecting to the database instance:
tsh db connect --db-user=alice example-mongo
Either the mongosh
or mongo
command-line clients should be available in PATH
in order to be
able to connect. The Database Service attempts to run mongosh
first and, if mongosh
is not in PATH
, runs mongo
.
Teleport 9.0 added support for mongosh
and made it the default Mongo DB client.
To log out of the database and remove credentials:
Remove credentials for a particular database instance.
tsh db logout example-mongoRemove credentials for all database instances.
tsh db logout
Next steps
- Learn how to restrict access to certain users and databases.
- Learn more about dynamic database registration.
- View the High Availability (HA) guide.
- See the YAML configuration reference for updating dynamic resource matchers or static database definitions.
- Take a look at the full CLI reference.