Fork me on GitHub

Teleport

Database Access with Snowflake

Improve

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.
Teleport Database Access Snowflake Self-Hosted

Prerequisites

  • A running Teleport cluster. For details on how to set this up, see one of our Getting Started guides.

  • The tctl admin tool and tsh client tool version >= 12.1.1.

    tctl version

    Teleport v12.1.1 go1.19

    tsh version

    Teleport 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 and tsh client tool version >= 12.1.1, which you can download by visiting the customer portal.

    tctl version

    Teleport Enterprise v12.1.1 go1.19

    tsh version

    Teleport v12.1.1 go1.19

Cloud is not available for Teleport v.
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.
  • 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.

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 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 status

Cluster 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:

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 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

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-$SYSTEM-ARCH-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-v12.1.1-linux-$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

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.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 ...

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

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

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-$SYSTEM-ARCH-fips-bin.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 teleport-ent-v12.1.1-linux-$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
Cloud is not available for Teleport v.
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=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
FlagDescription
--rolesList of roles to assign to the user. The builtin access role allows them to connect to any database server registered with Teleport.
--db-usersList of database usernames the user will be allowed to use when connecting to the databases. A wildcard allows any user.
--db-namesList 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.

Log in to your Snowflake instance and execute the SQL statement below:

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

Log in to your Teleport cluster and see the available databases:

tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice
tsh db ls

Name Description Labels

----------------- ------------------- --------

example-snowflake Example Snowflake ❄ env=dev

Cloud is not available for Teleport v.
Please use the latest version of Teleport Enterprise documentation.

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

  • Take a look at the YAML configuration reference.