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Version: 18.x

Database Access with AlloyDB

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Teleport can provide secure access to AlloyDB via the Teleport Database Service. This allows for fine-grained access control through Teleport's RBAC.

In this guide, you will:

  1. Configure your AlloyDB database with a service account.
  2. Add the database to your Teleport cluster.
  3. Connect to the database via Teleport.

How it works​

The Teleport Database Service uses IAM authentication to communicate with AlloyDB. When a user connects to the database via Teleport, the Teleport Database Service obtains Google Cloud credentials and authenticates to Google Cloud as an IAM principal with permissions to access the database.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Teleport cluster. If you want to get started with Teleport, sign up for a free trial or set up a demo environment.

  • The tctl and tsh clients.

    Installing tctl and tsh clients

    1. Determine the version of your Teleport cluster. The tctl and tsh clients must be at most one major version behind your Teleport cluster version. Send a GET request to the Proxy Service at /v1/webapi/find and use a JSON query tool to obtain your cluster version. Replace teleport.example.com:443 with the web address of your Teleport Proxy Service:

      TELEPORT_DOMAIN=teleport.example.com:443
      TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl -s https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/find | jq -r '.server_version')"

    2. Follow the instructions for your platform to install tctl and tsh clients:

      Download the signed macOS .pkg installer for Teleport, which includes the tctl and tsh clients:

      curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-${TELEPORT_VERSION?}.pkg

      In Finder double-click the pkg file to begin installation.

      danger

      Using Homebrew to install Teleport is not supported. The Teleport package in Homebrew is not maintained by Teleport and we can't guarantee its reliability or security.

  • Google Cloud account with an AlloyDB cluster and instance deployed. Ensure that your instance is configured to use IAM database authentication.
  • Command-line client psql installed and added to your system's PATH environment variable.
  • A host, e.g., a Compute Engine instance, where you will run the Teleport Database Service.
  • To check that you can connect to your Teleport cluster, sign in with tsh login, then verify that you can run tctl commands using your current credentials. For example, run the following command, assigning teleport.example.com to the domain name of the Teleport Proxy Service in your cluster and [email protected] to your Teleport username: 
    tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=[email protected]
    tctl status
    Cluster  teleport.example.com
    Version  18.2.0
    CA pin   sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678
    If you can connect to the cluster and run the tctl status command, you can use your current credentials to run subsequent tctl commands from your workstation. If you host your own Teleport cluster, you can also run tctl commands on the computer that hosts the Teleport Auth Service for full permissions.

Step 1/5: Configure GCP IAM​

IAM setup: roles for the database user and database service​

To grant Teleport access to your AlloyDB instances, you need to create two service accounts:

  • teleport-db-service: for the Teleport Database Service to access AlloyDB metadata.
  • alloydb-user: for end-users to authenticate to the database.

Create a service account for the Teleport Database Service​

A GCP service account will be used by the Teleport Database Service to create ephemeral access tokens for other GCP service accounts when it's acting on the behalf of authorized Teleport users.

Go to the Service Accounts page and create a service account:

The Teleport Database Service needs permissions to call Google Cloud APIs to fetch database connection information and generate client certificates.

Assign the predefined roles/alloydb.client (Cloud AlloyDB Client) role to the teleport-db-service service account. This role grants the necessary permissions.

Create a service account for a database user​

note

If you already have a standard GCP service account for database access, you can use it instead of creating a new one. Ensure it has the required permissions listed below.

Teleport uses service accounts to connect to AlloyDB databases.

Go to the IAM & Admin Service Accounts page and create a new service account named alloydb-user:

Click "Create and continue".

Assign the following predefined roles to the alloydb-user service account:

Grant access to the service account​

The Teleport Database Service must be able to impersonate this service account. Navigate to the alloydb-user service account overview page and select the "Principals with Access" tab:

Click "Grant Access" and add the teleport-db-service principal ID. Select the "Service Account Token Creator" role and save the change:

Step 2/5: Database configuration​

Enabling IAM Authentication

Teleport uses IAM database authentication with AlloyDB instances.

Ensure that your instance is configured to use IAM authentication. Navigate to your instance settings and check the presence of the alloydb.iam_authentication flag under Advanced Configuration Options section.

Create a database user​

note

If your AlloyDB instance already has an IAM user configured for your designated service account, you can skip this step.

Go to the Users page of your AlloyDB instance and add a new user account. In the sidebar, choose "Cloud IAM" authentication type and add the alloydb-user service account that you created earlier.

Press "Add" and your Users table should look similar to this:

Step 3/5: Create a host for the Database Service​

note

If you already have a host running the Teleport Database Service, you can skip this step. Just ensure that the host is configured with the teleport-db-service service account's credentials, either by attaching the service account (for GCE) or through workload identity.

Create a Google Compute Engine (GCE) instance where you will run the Teleport Database Service.

When creating the instance, in the "Security" section, attach the teleport-db-service service account you created earlier. This allows the Teleport Database Service to authenticate with Google Cloud APIs.

Attaching a service account to an existing GCE instance

If you have an existing GCE instance, you can attach the service account through the Google Cloud Console.

  1. Navigate to the VM instances page and open your instance.
  2. Stop the instance. Wait for it to fully stop.
  3. Edit the instance details.
  4. Find the Service account dropdown in the Identity and API access section.
  5. Select the teleport-db-service service account.
  6. Save the changes and restart the instance.

If you are running the Teleport Database Service on a different host, you will need to provide credentials to the service. We recommend using workload identity.

Using service account keys (insecure)

Alternatively, go to that service account's Keys tab and create a new key.

Make sure to choose JSON format.

Save the file. Set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable to point to the JSON credentials file you downloaded earlier. For example, if you use systemd to start teleport, then you should edit the service's EnvironmentFile to include the env var:

echo 'GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/credentials.json' | sudo tee -a /etc/default/teleport
warning

A service account key can be a security risk - we only describe using a key in this guide for simplicity. We do not recommend using service account keys in production. See authentication in the Google Cloud documentation for more information about service account authentication methods.

Step 4/5: Configure Teleport​

Install the Teleport Database Service​

To install a Teleport Agent on your Linux server:

The easiest installation method, for Teleport versions 17.3 and above, is the cluster install script. It will use the best version, edition, and installation mode for your cluster.

  1. Assign teleport.example.com:443 to your Teleport cluster hostname and port, but not the scheme (https://).

  2. Run your cluster's install script:

    curl "https://teleport.example.com:443/scripts/install.sh" | sudo bash

On older Teleport versions:

  1. Assign edition to one of the following, depending on your Teleport edition:

    EditionValue
    Teleport Enterprise Cloudcloud
    Teleport Enterprise (Self-Hosted)enterprise
    Teleport Community Editionoss

  2. Get the version of Teleport to install. If you have automatic agent updates enabled in your cluster, query the latest Teleport version that is compatible with the updater:

    TELEPORT_DOMAIN=teleport.example.com:443
    TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/automaticupgrades/channel/default/version | sed 's/v//')"

    Otherwise, get the version of your Teleport cluster:

    TELEPORT_DOMAIN=teleport.example.com:443
    TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/ping | jq -r '.server_version')"

  3. Install Teleport on your Linux server:

    curl https://cdn.teleport.dev/install.sh | bash -s ${TELEPORT_VERSION} edition

    The installation script detects the package manager on your Linux server and uses it to install Teleport binaries. To customize your installation, learn about the Teleport package repositories in the installation guide.

Create a join token​

The Database Service requires a valid join token to join your Teleport cluster. Run the following tctl command and save the token output in /tmp/token on the server that will run the Database Service:

tctl tokens add --type=db --format=text
abcd123-insecure-do-not-use-this

Configure and start the Database Service​

In the command below, replace teleport.example.com:443 with the host and port of your Teleport Proxy Service or Enterprise Cloud site, and replace connection-uri with your AlloyDB connection URI.

The connection URI has the format projects/PROJECT/locations/REGION/clusters/CLUSTER/instances/INSTANCE. You can copy it from the AlloyDB instance details page in the Google Cloud console.

Run the command as follows. Make sure to include the mandatory alloydb:// prefix in the specified URI.

sudo teleport db configure create \   -o file \   --name=alloydb \   --protocol=postgres \   --labels=env=dev \   --token=/tmp/token \   --proxy=teleport.example.com:443  \   --uri=alloydb://connection-uri

This command will generate a Teleport Database Service configuration file and save it to /etc/teleport.yaml.

Choose how Teleport connects to AlloyDB

By default, Teleport uses private AlloyDB endpoint. To change this to either public or PSC endpoints, update the endpoint_type field:

db_service:
  resources:
    - name: alloydb
      protocol: postgres
      uri: alloydb://projects/PROJECT/locations/REGION/clusters/CLUSTER/instances/INSTANCE
      gcp:
        alloydb:
          # one of: private | public | psc (default: private)
          endpoint_type: private
      static_labels:
        env: dev
Dynamic resource

As an alternative to configuring the database in teleport.yaml, you can create a dynamic database resource. This allows you to add or update databases without restarting the Database Service.

Create a file named alloydb.yaml with the following content:

kind: db
version: v3
metadata:
  name: alloydb-dynamic
  labels:
    env: dev
spec:
  protocol: "postgres"
  uri: "alloydb://connection-uri"
  gcp:
    alloydb:
      # one of: private | public | psc (default: private)
      endpoint_type: private

Replace connection-uri with your AlloyDB connection URI.

Create the resource:

tctl create -f alloydb.yaml

Finally, start the Teleport Database Service:

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 teleport
sudo 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.

Step 5/5: Connect to your database​

Grant access to the database​

note

The following commands create a new Teleport user and role. If you have an existing Teleport user and a role that grants access to resources with the env: dev label, you can skip these steps.

tip

To modify an existing user to provide access to the Database Service, see Database 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, MongoDB, and Cloud Spanner databases.

For more detailed information about database access controls and how to restrict access see RBAC documentation.

Connect​

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

tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=alice
tsh db ls
Name    Description Labels
------- ----------- -------
alloydb GCP AlloyDB env=dev
note

You will only be able to see databases that your Teleport role has access to. See our RBAC guide for more details.

When connecting to the database, use the name of the database's service account that you added as an IAM database user earlier, minus the .gserviceaccount.com suffix. The database user name is shown on the Users page of your AlloyDB instance.

In the command below, replace project-id with your Google Cloud project ID. Retrieve credentials for the alloydb example database and connect to it:

tsh db connect --db-user=alloydb-user@project-id.iam --db-name=postgres alloydb
Tip

Starting from version 17.1, you can now access your PostgreSQL databases using the Web UI.

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

Remove credentials for a particular database instance:
tsh db logout alloydb
Or remove credentials for all databases:
tsh db logout

Optional: least-privilege access​

When possible, enforce least-privilege by defining custom IAM roles that grant only the required permissions.

Custom role for the Teleport Database Service​

The Teleport Database Service, running as the teleport-db-service service account, needs permissions to access the AlloyDB instance.

Create a custom role with the following permissions:

# Used to generate client certificate
alloydb.clusters.generateClientCertificate
# Used to fetch connection information
alloydb.instances.connect

For impersonating the alloydb-user service account, the built-in "Service Account Token Creator" IAM role is broader than necessary. To restrict permissions for that service account, create a custom role that includes only:

iam.serviceAccounts.getAccessToken

Custom role for the database user​

The alloydb-user service account used for database access requires permissions to connect to the instance and authenticate as a database user. Create a custom role with:

alloydb.instances.connect
alloydb.users.login
serviceusage.services.use

Troubleshooting​

Could not find default credentials​

This error can come from either your client application or Teleport.

For a client application, ensure that you disable GCP credential loading. Your client should not attempt to load credentials because GCP credentials will be provided by the Teleport Database Service.

If you see the credentials error message in the Teleport Database Service logs (at DEBUG log level), then the Teleport Database Service does not have GCP credentials configured correctly.

If you are using a service account key, then ensure that the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/credentials.json is set and restart your Teleport Database Service to ensure that the env var is available to teleport. For example, if your Teleport Database Service runs as a systemd service:

echo 'GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/credentials.json' | sudo tee -a /etc/default/teleport
sudo systemctl restart teleport

See authentication in the Google Cloud documentation for more information about service account authentication methods.

Unable to cancel a query​

If you use a PostgreSQL cli client like psql, and you try to cancel a query with Ctrl+C, but it doesn't cancel the query, then you need to connect using a tsh local proxy instead. When psql cancels a query, it establishes a new connection without TLS certificates, however Teleport requires TLS certificates not only for authentication, but also to route database connections.

If you enable TLS Routing in Teleport then tsh db connect will automatically start a local proxy for every connection. Alternatively, you can connect via Teleport Connect which also uses a local proxy. Otherwise, you need to start a tsh local proxy manually using tsh proxy db and connect via the local proxy.

If you have already started a long-running query in a psql session that you cannot cancel with Ctrl+C, you can start a new client session to cancel that query manually:

First, find the query's process identifier (PID):

SELECT pid,usename,backend_start,query FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'active';

Next, gracefully cancel the query using its PID. This will send a SIGINT signal to the postgres backend process for that query:

SELECT pg_cancel_backend(<PID>);

You should always try to gracefully terminate a query first, but if graceful cancellation is taking too long, then you can forcefully terminate the query instead. This will send a SIGTERM signal to the postgres backend process for that query:

SELECT pg_terminate_backend(<PID>);

See the PostgreSQL documentation on admin functions for more information about the pg_cancel_backend and pg_terminate_backend functions.

SSL SYSCALL error​

You may encounter the following error when your local psql is not compatible with newer versions of OpenSSL:

tsh db connect --db-user postgres --db-name postgres postgres
psql: error: connection to server at "localhost" (::1), port 12345 failed: Connection refused    Is the server running on that host and accepting TCP/IP connections?connection to server at "localhost" (127.0.0.1), port 12345 failed: SSL SYSCALL error: Undefined error: 0

Please upgrade your local psql to the latest version.

Next steps​

  • Take a look at the YAML configuration reference.