Teleport

Database Access with Self-Hosted PostgreSQL

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This guide will help you to:

Install Teleport 11.3.2.
Set up Teleport to access your self-hosted PostgreSQL.
Connect to your databases through Teleport.

Prerequisites

A self-hosted PostgreSQL instance.
Command-line client psql installed and added to your system's PATH environment variable.
A host, e.g., an Amazon EC2 instance, where you will run the Teleport Database Service.

The tctl and tsh client tools version >= 11.3.2.
```
tctl version
Teleport v11.3.2 go1.19
tsh version
Teleport v11.3.2 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 and tsh client tools version >= 11.3.2, which you can download by visiting the customer portal.
```
tctl version
Teleport v11.3.2 go1.19
tsh version
Teleport v11.3.2 go1.19
```
A host where you will install the Teleport Auth Service and Proxy Service.
A registered domain name.

The tctl and tsh client tools version >= 11.2.1.

You can download these from Teleport Cloud Downloads.
```
tctl version
Teleport v11.2.1 go1.19
tsh version
Teleport v11.2.1 go1.19
```

Step 1/5. Set up the Teleport Auth and Proxy services

Teleport Database Access for PostgreSQL is available starting from the 6.0 release.

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 status
Cluster  teleport.example.com
Version  11.3.2
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 status
Cluster  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.

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.asc
Source variables about OS version
source /etc/os-release
Add 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/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 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 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

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-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./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_11.3.2_
.deb
Selecting previously unselected package teleport-ent.
(Reading database ... 30810 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack teleport-ent_11.3.2_$SYSTEM_ARCH.deb ...
Unpacking teleport-ent 11.3.2 ...
Setting up teleport-ent 11.3.2 ...

After Downloading the .rpm file for your system architecture, install it with rpm:

rpm -i ~/Downloads/teleport-ent-11.3.2.
.rpm
warning: teleport-ent-11.3.2.$SYSTEM-ARCH.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA512 Signature, key ID 6282c411: NOKEY

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport-ent
sudo ./install

For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations of Teleport Enterprise, package URLs will be slightly different:

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v11.3.2-linux-
-fips-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport-ent
sudo ./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_
.deb
Selecting 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.
.rpm
warning: 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-ent-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xvf teleport-ent-v11.2.1-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport-ent
sudo ./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.

Create a Teleport user

Tip

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.

Warning

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 2/5. Create a certificate/key pair

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.

Create the secrets:

Export Teleport's certificate authority and a generate certificate/key pair
for host db.example.com with a 1-year validity period.
tctl auth sign --format=db --host=db.example.com --out=server --ttl=2190h

TTL

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 3 files: server.cas, server.crt and server.key which you'll need to enable mutual TLS on your PostgreSQL server.

Step 3/5. Configure your PostgreSQL server

To configure your PostgreSQL server to accept TLS connections, add the following to the PostgreSQL configuration file, postgresql.conf:

ssl = on
ssl_cert_file = '/path/to/server.crt'
ssl_key_file = '/path/to/server.key'
ssl_ca_file = '/path/toa/server.cas'

See Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSL in the PostgreSQL documentation for more details.

Additionally, PostgreSQL should be configured to require client certificate authentication from clients connecting over TLS. This can be done by adding the following entries to PostgreSQL's host-based authentication file pg_hba.conf:

hostssl all             all             ::/0                    cert
hostssl all             all             0.0.0.0/0               cert

You should also ensure that you have no higher-priority md5 authentication rules that will match, otherwise PostgreSQL will offer them first, and the certificate-based Teleport login will fail.

See The pg_hba.conf File in the PostgreSQL documentation for more details.

Step 4/5. Start the Database Service

On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, start Teleport with the appropriate configuration.

You can start the Teleport Database Service without configuration file using a CLI command:

teleport db start \   --token=/tmp/token \   --auth-server=teleport.example.com:3080 \   --name=test \   --protocol=postgres \   --uri=postgres.example.com:5432 \   --labels=env=dev

Note that 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.

Generate a configuration file at /etc/teleport.yaml for the Database Service:

teleport db configure create \   -o file \   --token=/tmp/token \   --proxy=teleport.example.com:3080 \   --name=test \   --protocol=postgres \   --uri=postgres.example.com:5432 \   --labels=env=dev

Tip

A single Teleport process can run multiple different services, for example multiple Database Service agents as well as the SSH Service or Application Service.

Start the database service:

teleport start --config=/path/to/teleport-db.yaml --token=/tmp/token

Step 5/5. Connect

Once the Database Service has joined the cluster, log in to see the available databases:

tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=testuser
tsh db ls
Name    Description        Labels
------- ------------------ --------
example Example PostgreSQL env=dev

Note that you will only be able to see databases your role has access to. See RBAC section for more details.

To retrieve credentials for a database and connect to it:

tsh db connect example

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=postgres --db-name=postgres example

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

Remove credentials for a particular database instance.
tsh db logout example
Remove credentials for all database instances.
tsh db logout

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