Teleport

Database Access with Snowflake

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Database access for Snowflake is available starting from Teleport 10.0.

This guide will help you to:

Install and configure Teleport.
Assign Teleport's public key to a Snowflake user.
Connect to Snowflake through Teleport.

Prerequisites

Snowflake account with SECURITYADMIN role or higher.
snowsql installed and added to your system's PATH environment variable.
A host where you will run the Teleport Database Service. Teleport version 10.0 or newer must be installed.

See Installation for details.

The tctl and tsh client tools version >= 11.1.0.
```
tctl version
Teleport v11.1.0 go1.19
tsh version
Teleport v11.1.0 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 >= 11.1.0, which you can download by visiting the customer portal.
```
tctl version
Teleport v11.1.0 go1.19
tsh version
Teleport v11.1.0 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 >= 10.3.8.

You can download these from Teleport Cloud Downloads.
```
tctl version
Teleport v10.3.8 go1.19
tsh version
Teleport v10.3.8 go1.19
```

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  11.1.0
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  10.3.8
CA pin   sha256:sha-hash-here

You must run subsequent tctl commands in this guide on your local machine.

Step 1/5. Install and configure Teleport

Set up the Teleport Auth and Proxy Services

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  11.1.0
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  10.3.8
CA pin   sha256:sha-hash-here

You must run subsequent tctl commands in this guide on your local machine.

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:

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:  Using 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-v11.1.0-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v11.1.0-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v11.1.0-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xzf teleport-v11.1.0-linux-amd64-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./install

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xzf teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./install

curl https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm64-bin.tar.gz.sha256
<checksum> <filename>
curl -O https://get.gravitational.com/teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm64-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm64-bin.tar.gz
Verify that the checksums match
tar -xzf teleport-v11.1.0-linux-arm64-bin.tar.gz
cd teleport
sudo ./install

Using this APT repo may result in breaking upgrades upon "apt upgrade" as all major versions will be
published under the same component. We recommend following the instructions in the
"Debian/Ubuntu (DEB)" tab instead.
Download Teleport's PGP public key
sudo curl https://deb.releases.teleport.dev/teleport-pubkey.asc \  -o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc
Add the Teleport APT repository
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] https://deb.releases.teleport.dev/ stable main" \ | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install teleport

sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo https://rpm.releases.teleport.dev/teleport.repo
sudo yum install teleport
Optional:  Using DNF on newer distributions
$ sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://rpm.releases.teleport.dev/teleport.repo
$ sudo dnf install teleport

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=example-snowflake \--protocol=snowflake \--uri=https://abc12345.snowflakecomputing.com \--labels=env=dev

Note

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.

Tip

You can start the Database Service using a configuration file instead of CLI flags. See the YAML reference for details.

Step 2/5. 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 3/5. Export a public key

Use the tctl auth sign command below to export a public key for your Snowflake user:

tctl auth sign --format=snowflake --out=server

The command will create a server.pub file with Teleport's public key. Teleport will use the corresponding private key to generate a JWT (JSON Web Token) that will be used to authenticate to Snowflake.

Certificate Rotation

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.

Step 4/5. Add the public key to your Snowflake user

Use the public key you generated earlier to enable key pair authentication.

alter user alice set rsa_public_key='MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAv3dHYw4LJCcZzdbhb3hV...LwIDAQAB';

In this statement, alice is the name of the Snowflake user and the rsa_public_key is the key generated earlier without the PEM header/footer (first and the last line).

You can use the describe user command to verify the user's public key:

desc user alice;

See the Snowflake documentation for more details.

Step 5/5. Connect

tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice
tsh db ls
Name              Description         Labels
----------------- ------------------- --------
example-snowflake Example Snowflake ❄ env=dev

tsh login --proxy=mytenant.teleport.sh --user=alice
tsh db ls
Name              Description         Labels
----------------- ------------------- --------
example-snowflake Example Snowflake ❄ env=dev

To retrieve credentials for a database and connect to it:

tsh db connect example-snowflake

You can optionally specify the database user and the database name to use by default when connecting to the database instance:

tsh db connect --db-user=alice --db-name=SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA example-snowflake

The snowsql command-line client should be available in the system PATH in order to be able to connect.

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

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

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.

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