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Version: 19.x (unreleased)

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, configured for IAM database authentication.
  • psql installed and in your system PATH.
  • A host (e.g., a Compute Engine instance) to run the Teleport Database Service.
  • Check that you can connect to your Teleport cluster and verify that you can run tctl and tsh commands using your current credentials.

    1. Assign teleport.example.com to the domain name of the Teleport Proxy Service in your cluster and [email protected] to your Teleport username.

    2. Authenticate to your Teleport cluster. This depends on whether your shell is interactive or not.

      In an interactive shell: Run the following command. By default, this triggers a multi-factor authentication prompt:

      tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=[email protected]
      tctl status
      Cluster  teleport.example.com
      Version  19.0.0-dev
      CA pin   sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678

      On non-interactive environments: If you are running tsh and tctl as an AI agent, in a CI/CD environment, or similar, make sure the TELEPORT_IDENTITY_FILE environment variable is assigned to a valid file path with credentials for your cluster. tsh and tctl read the file path from the environment variable and do not require a separate authentication step. If there is no identity file available, we recommend that you set up Machine ID to provision one automatically.

      When executing tctl commands with an identity file, you must pass the --auth-server flag to provide the Teleport Auth Service address, which is not included in the identity file. If you provide the Proxy Service address, tctl connects to the Proxy Service, which forwards traffic to and from the Teleport Auth Service. Update 443 to 3025 if you are contacting the Auth Service directly with tctl:

      tctl status --auth-server=teleport.example.com:443

      For tsh commands that read an identity file, you must pass the --proxy flag, which points tsh to the address of the Teleport Proxy Service:

      tsh status --proxy=teleport.example.com

      Ensure client commands can access your identity file. Replace path/to/identity/file with the path to your identity file:

      export TELEPORT_IDENTITY_FILE="${TELEPORT_IDENTITY_FILE:-path/to/identity/file}"

      Add the --auth-server or --proxy flags to all subsequent tctl and tsh commands.

    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 1/4. Configure IAM and create a database user​

In this step, you will create two required service accounts.

  • teleport-db-service: used by the Teleport Database Service to access AlloyDB metadata and generate tokens.
  • alloydb-user: used by end-users to authenticate to the database.

Create a service account for the Teleport Database Service​

Go to Service Accounts and create a service account named teleport-db-service. Assign the predefined roles/alloydb.client role.

Create the database user account​

note

If you already have a GCP service account for database access with the required roles, you can use it instead.

Go to Service Accounts and create a service account named alloydb-user. Assign these roles:

Then, on the alloydb-user overview page, go to the "Principals with Access" tab, click "Grant Access", and add teleport-db-service with the Service Account Token Creator role.

Add the IAM database user to AlloyDB​

note

Skip this if your AlloyDB instance already has an IAM user for this service account.

Ensure IAM authentication is enabled on your instance (the alloydb.iam_authentication flag must be set) before adding the User.

Instance Restart Required

Enabling the static alloydb.iam_authentication flag triggers a mandatory restart of the AlloyDB instance. This will cause a brief period of downtime (typically 60 - 120 seconds) as the instance performs a maintenance update. We recommend performing this during a scheduled maintenance window.

  1. Go to the AlloyDB Clusters page.
  2. Click Edit on your primary-instance, scroll to Advanced configuration options, and under Flags ensure alloydb.iam_authentication is present and set to on.
  3. Go to the Users page of your AlloyDB instance.
  4. Click Add User Account.
  5. Choose Cloud IAM authentication.
  6. In the Principal field, enter alloydb-user@project-id.iam.

Step 2/4. Create a Teleport Database Service host​

The Teleport Database Service must run on a host that can reach the AlloyDB instance and authenticate with GCP.

note

If you already have a host running the Teleport Database Service with the teleport-db-service credentials, skip to Step 3.

Create a GCE instance and attach the teleport-db-service service account in the "Identity and API access" section.

Attaching the service account to an existing GCE instance
  1. Navigate to VM instances and open your instance.
  2. Stop the instance.
  3. Edit the instance, find Service account under Identity and API access, and select teleport-db-service.
  4. Save and restart.

If the Database Service is running outside of GCE, use workload identity federation to provide credentials.

Using service account keys (not recommended for production)

Create a JSON key for the teleport-db-service account. If you use systemd to start Teleport, add the environment variable to the service's EnvironmentFile:

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

Service account keys are a security risk. Use workload identity or attached service accounts in production. See Google Cloud authentication docs for details.

Step 3/4. Configure Teleport​

In this step, you will configure the Teleport Database Service to connect to AlloyDB and handle authentication and access on behalf of users.

Install the Teleport Database Service​

To install Teleport binaries on your Linux server, the recommended installation method is the cluster install script. This script is served by your Teleport cluster's Proxy Service and automatically selects the correct version, edition, and installation mode to match your cluster.

  1. Remove any existing Teleport binaries on your system:

    sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/{tsh,teleport,tctl,tbot,fdpass-teleport,teleport-update}

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

  3. Run your cluster's install script:

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

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-ID/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

By default, Teleport uses the private AlloyDB endpoint. To use a public or Private Service Connect (PSC) endpoint instead, set endpoint_type in the config:

db_service:
  databases:
    - name: alloydb
      protocol: postgres
      uri: alloydb://projects/PROJECT-ID/locations/REGION/clusters/CLUSTER/instances/INSTANCE
      gcp:
        alloydb:
          endpoint_type: public  # private | public | psc

Create alloydb.yaml:

kind: db
version: v3
metadata:
  name: alloydb-dynamic
  labels:
    env: dev
spec:
  protocol: "postgres"
  uri: "alloydb://connection-uri"
  gcp:
    alloydb:
      endpoint_type: private

Apply it:

tctl create -f alloydb.yaml

Start the Database Service:

Start the Teleport Database Service. The instructions depend on how you installed the Teleport Database Service and whether your system supports systemd:

Configure the Teleport Database Service to start automatically when the host boots up by creating a systemd service for it. 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 4/4. Connect to your database​

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

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.

Log in and list databases:

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

The database user name is shown on the Users page of your AlloyDB instance. Connect using the service account name (minus .gserviceaccount.com):

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

To connect to the database using a tool of your choice, like a graphical database client, you can create a local tunnel and point it to your software:

tsh proxy db alloydb --tunnel --db-user=alloydb-user@project-id.iam --db-name=postgres

See Database GUI Clients guide for more information on specific tools.

tip

From version 17.1, you can also connect via the Web UI.

To log out:

tsh db logout alloydb
Or 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​

Checkpoint: Unable to connect to the database

Confirm that you can access the database without errors.

Here are some common errors and troubleshooting tips:

  • 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.

You can reach out to our Slack community or customer support for help.

Next steps​