Database Access GUI Clients

This guide describes how to configure popular graphical database clients to work with Teleport.

Setting up your Teleport environment

Prerequisites

• A running Teleport cluster version 16.4.7 or above. If you want to get started with Teleport, sign up for a free trial or set up a demo environment.

• The tctl admin tool and tsh client tool.

  Visit Installation for instructions on downloading tctl and tsh.

• 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:

  $ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com [email protected]
  $ tctl status
  # Cluster  teleport.example.com
  # Version  16.4.7
  # 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.
• The Teleport Database Service configured to access a database. See one of our guides for how to set up the Teleport Database Service for your database.

Get connection information

Get information about the host and port where your database is available so you can configure your GUI client to access the database.

Using a local proxy server

Use the tsh proxy db command to start a local TLS proxy your GUI database client will be connecting to. This command requires that you use Teleport Enterprise (Cloud) or, if self-hosting Teleport, have enabled TLS routing mode.

Run a command similar to the following::

$ tsh proxy db <database-name>
Started DB proxy on 127.0.0.1:61740

Use following credentials to connect to the <database-name> proxy:
  ca_file=/Users/r0mant/.tsh/keys/root.gravitational.io/certs.pem
  cert_file=/Users/r0mant/.tsh/keys/root.gravitational.io/alice-db/root/<database-name>-x509.pem
  key_file=/Users/r0mant/.tsh/keys/root.gravitational.io/alice

Use the displayed local proxy host/port and credentials paths when configuring your GUI client below. When entering the hostname, use localhost rather than 127.0.0.1.

Starting the local database proxy with the --tunnel flag will create an authenticated tunnel that you can use to connect to your database instances. You won't need to configure any credentials when connecting to this tunnel.

Here is an example on how to start the proxy:

# Start the local proxy.
$ tsh proxy db --tunnel <database-name>
Started authenticated tunnel for the <engine> database "<database-name>" in cluster "<cluster-name>" on 127.0.0.1:62652.

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

$ tsh proxy db --db-user=my-database-user --db-name=my-schema --tunnel <database-name>

Now, you can connect to the address the proxy command returns. In our example it is 127.0.0.1:62652.

Using a remote host and port

If you are self-hosting Teleport and not using TLS routing, run the following command to see the database connection information:

# View configuration for the database you're logged in to.
$ tsh db config
# View configuration for the specific database when you're logged into multiple.
$ tsh db config example

It will display the path to your locally cached certificate and key files:

Name:      example
Host:      teleport.example.com
Port:      3080
User:      postgres
Database:  postgres
CA:        /Users/alice/.tsh/keys/teleport.example.com/certs.pem
Cert:      /Users/alice/.tsh/keys/teleport.example.com/alice-db/root/example-x509.pem
Key:       /Users/alice/.tsh/keys/teleport.example.com/alice

The displayed CA, Cert, and Key files are used to connect through pgAdmin 4, MySQL Workbench, and other graphical database clients that support mutual TLS authentication.

MongoDB Compass

Compass is the official MongoDB graphical client.

On the "New Connection" panel, click on "Fill in connection fields individually".

On the "Hostname" tab, enter the hostname and port of the proxy you will use to access the database (see Get connection information). Leave "Authentication" as None.

On the "More Options" tab, set SSL to "Client and Server Validation" and set the CA as well as the client key and certificate. Note that a CA path must be provided and be able to validate the certificate presented by your Teleport Proxy Service's web endpoint.

The following fields in the More Options tab must correspond to paths printed by the tsh proxy db command you ran earlier:

Field	Path
Certificate Authority	ca_file
Client Certificate	cert_file
Client Private Key	key_file

Click on the "Connect" button.

MySQL DBeaver

Right-click in the "Database Navigator" menu in the main view and select Create > Connection:

In the search bar of the "Connect to a database" window that opens up, type "mysql", select the MySQL driver, and click "Next":

In the newly-opened "Connection Settings" tab, use the Host as localhost and Port as the one returned by the proxy command (62652 in the example above):

In that same tab, set the username to match the one that you are connecting to using Teleport and uncheck the "Save password locally" box:

Click the "Edit Driver Settings" button on the "Main" tab, check the "No Authentication" box, and click "Ok" to save:

Once you are back in the "Connection Settings" window, click "Ok" to finish and DBeaver should connect to the remote MySQL server automatically.

MySQL Workbench

MySQL Workbench is a GUI application that provides comprehensive MySQL administration and SQL development tools.

In the MySQL Workbench "Setup New Connection" dialog, fill out "Connection Name", "Hostname", "Port", and "Username":

In the "SSL" tab, set "Use SSL" to Require and Verify Identity and enter the paths to your CA, certificate, and private key files (see Get connection information):

The following fields in the SSL tab must correspond to paths printed by the tsh proxy db command you ran earlier:

Field	Path
SSL Key File	key_file
SSL CERT File	cert_file
SSL CA File	ca_file

Optionally, click "Test Connection" to verify connectivity:

Save the connection and connect to the database.

NoSQL Workbench

From the NoSQL Workbench launch screen, click Launch next to Amazon DynamoDB. From the left-side menu select Operation builder, then + Add connection. Choose the DynamoDB local tab, and point to your proxy's endpoint. This is localhost:62652 in the example above. (See Get connection information for more information.)

SQL Server with Azure Data Studio

In Azure Data Studio create a connection using your proxy's endpoint. This is localhost,62652 in the example above. On a Windows machine, using an address in the format 127.0.0.1,62652 could be required instead of localhost. (See Get connection information for more information.)

Create a connection with Microsoft SQL Server with these settings:

Connection Detail	Value
Server	host,port of proxy endpoint
Authentication Type	SQL Login
Password	empty
Encrypt	False

Example:

Click Connect to connect.

PostgreSQL DBeaver

To connect to your PostgreSQL instance, use the authenticated proxy address. This is 127.0.0.1:62652 in the example above (see the “Authenticated Proxy” section on Get connection information for more information).

Use the "Database native" authentication with an empty password:

Clicking on "Test connection" should return a connection success message. Then, click on "Finish" to save the configuration.

PostgreSQL pgAdmin 4

pgAdmin 4 is a popular graphical client for PostgreSQL servers.

To configure a new connection, right-click on "Servers" in the main browser view and create a new server:

In the "General" tab of the new server dialog, enter the server connection name:

In the "Connection" tab, fill in the hostname, port, user and database name from the configuration above:

In the "SSL" tab, set "SSL Mode" to Verify-Full and fill in paths for client certificate, key and root certificate from the configuration above:

The following fields in the SSL tab must correspond to paths printed by the tsh proxy db command you ran earlier:

Field	Path
Client certificate	cert_file
Client certificate key	key_file
Root certificate	ca_file

Click "Save", and pgAdmin should immediately connect. If pgAdmin prompts you for password, leave the password field empty and click OK.

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

In Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio connect to a database engine using your proxy's endpoint. This is localhost,62652 in the example above. Using the IP 127.0.0.1,62652 connection could be required on a Windows machine instead of localhost. (See Get connection information for more information.)

Create a connection with Microsoft SQL Server with these settings:

Connection Detail	Value
Server type	Database Engine
Server name	host,port of proxy endpoint
Authentication	SQL Server Authentication
Password	empty
Encryption	do not enable

Example:

Click Connect to connect.

Redis Insight

note

Teleport's Redis Insight integration only supports Redis standalone instances.

After opening Redis Insight click ADD REDIS DATABASE.

Now start a local proxy to your Redis instance:

tsh proxy db --db-user=alice redis-db-name.

Click Add Database Manually. Use 127.0.0.1 as the Host. Use the port printed by the tsh command you ran in Get connection information.

Provide your Redis username as Username and password as Password.

Next, check the Use TLS and Verify TLS Certificates boxes. Copy the contents of the files at the paths returned by the tsh proxy db command you ran earlier and paste them into their corresponding fields. See the table below for the Redis Insight fields that correspond to each path:

Field	Path
CA Certificate	ca_file
Client Certificate	cert_file
Private Key	key_file

Click Add Redis Database.

Congratulations! You have just connected to your Redis instance.

Snowflake: DBeaver

The Snowflake integration works only in the authenticated proxy mode. Start a local proxy for connections to your Snowflake database by using the command below:

tsh proxy db --tunnel --port 2000 snowflake

Add a new database by clicking the "add" icon in the top-left corner:

In the search bar of the "Connect to a database" window that opens up, type "snowflake", select the Snowflake driver, and click "Next":

Set "Host" to localhost and "Port" to the port returned by the tsh proxy db command you ran earlier (2000 in the example above). In the "Authentication" section set the "Username" to match the database username passed to Teleport with --db-user and enter any value (e.g., "teleport") in the "Password" field (the value of "Password" will be ignored when establishing a connection but is required by DBeaver to register your database):

Next, click the "Driver properties" tab and set "account" to any value (e.g., "teleport"; as with "Password", the value of "account" will be ignored when establishing a connection but is required by DBeaver to register your database). In "User properties", set "ssl" to off:

Teleport ignores the provided password and the account name as internally it uses values from the Database Agent configuration. SSL set to off disables only encryption on local machine. Connection to Snowflake is encrypted by Teleport.

Now you can click on "Test Connection..." in the bottom-left corner:

Congratulations! You have just connected to your Snowflake instance.

Snowflake: JetBrains (IntelliJ, Goland, DataGrip, PyCharm, etc.)

The Snowflake integration works only in the authenticated proxy mode. Start a local proxy for connections to your Snowflake database by using the command below:

tsh proxy db --tunnel --port 2000 snowflake

In "Database Explorer" click the "add" button, pick "Data Source", and then pick "Snowflake":

Next, set "Host" to localhost and "Port" to the port returned by the tsh proxy db command you ran earlier (2000 in the example above). Set the "Username" to match the one that you are assuming when you connect to Snowflake via Teleport and enter any value (e.g., "teleport") in the "Password" field (the value of "Password" will be ignored but is required to create a data source in your IDE):

Switch to the "Advanced" tab, set any value (e.g., "teleport") for "account", and add a new record named ssl with value off (as with "Password", "account" is ignored while establishing the connection but required by your IDE):

Teleport ignores the provided password and the account name as internally it uses values from the Database Agent configuration. Setting "SSL" to off only disables encryption on your local machine. The connection to Snowflake is encrypted by Teleport.

Now you can click "Test Connection" to check your configuration.

Congratulations! You have just connected to your Snowflake instance.

SQL Server DataGrip

In the DataGrip connection configuration menu, use your proxy's endpoint. This is localhost:4242 in the example below. (See Get connection information for more information.)

Select the "User & Password" authentication option and keep the "Password" field empty:

Click "OK" to connect.

SQL Server DBeaver

In the DBeaver connection configuration menu, use your proxy's endpoint. This is localhost:62652 in the example above. (See Get connection information for more information.)

Use the SQL Server Authentication option and keep the Password field empty:

Click OK to connect.

Cloud Spanner DataGrip

The Cloud Spanner integration works only in the local proxy tunnel mode. Start a local proxy tunnel for connections to your Spanner database by using the command below:

$ tsh proxy db --tunnel --port 1443 spanner --db-user=<service-account-name> --db-name=<spanner database name>

The database user specified in --db-user should be the name of a GCP service account that can access the Spanner database. The name of the service account should be everything before the "@" of the service account email address, e.g. the name for [email protected] is just "llama".

tip

This command uses the local port 1443, but you can choose any port, or let tsh pick a local port at random if you omit the --port flag. You should specify a port to avoid the need to reconfigure your GUI client again later.

From the DataGrip menu, click "File > New > Data Source from URL", then copy and paste the JDBC URL that was output by tsh proxy db:

The "Google Cloud Spanner" driver should be automatically selected. Click "Ok".

DataGrip does not need GCP credentials - those are already provided by Teleport. On the "General" tab of the new data source, select the "Authentication" dropdown setting and choose "No auth":

Click "Test connection" to ensure the connection is configured correctly, then click "Ok" to create the data source.

note

If you want to re-use this data source later, you must either use the same tsh local port (1443 in this example), or you must edit the driver URL to match the port that the tsh local proxy is listening on.

Cloud Spanner DBeaver

The Cloud Spanner integration works only in the local proxy tunnel mode. Start a local proxy tunnel for connections to your Spanner database by using the command below:

$ tsh proxy db --tunnel --port 1443 spanner --db-user=<service-account-name> --db-name=<spanner database name>

The database user specified in --db-user should be the name of a GCP service account that can access the Spanner database. The name of the service account should be everything before the "@" of the service account email address, e.g. the name for [email protected] is just "llama".

tip

This command uses the local port 1443, but you can choose any port, or let tsh pick a local port at random if you omit the --port flag. You should specify a port to avoid the need to reconfigure your GUI client again later.

From the menu, click "Database > Driver Manager":

Search for the "Google Cloud Spanner" driver, select it, and click the "Copy" button to make a custom driver configuration:

Give the custom driver a name, e.g. "Teleport Spanner", then set "URL Template" to this pattern string:

jdbc:cloudspanner://127.0.0.1:{port}/projects/{server}/instances/{host}/databases/{database};usePlainText=true

Click "Ok", then click "Close"

From the menu, click "Database > New Connection from JDBC URL":

Now copy the JDBC URL that was output by tsh proxy db and paste it:

Click "Proceed", then click "Finish".

note

If you want to re-use this data source later, you must either use the same tsh local port (1443 in this example), or you must edit the driver URL to match the port that the tsh local proxy is listening on.

Oracle SQL Developer

The Oracle integration works only in the authenticated proxy mode. Start a local proxy for connections to your Oracle database by using the command below:

tsh proxy db --tunnel --port 1521 --db-user=<user> --db-name=<db-name> oracle

tip

This command uses the local port 1521, but you can choose any port, or let tsh pick a local port at random if you omit the --port flag. You should specify a port to avoid the need to reconfigure your GUI client again later.

In "Connections" click the "+" button for a new database connection:

Next, set the name and username from the --db-user parameter. Set connection type to "Custom JDBC" and set the "Custom JDBC URL" from the tsh proxy db command.

Now you can click "Test" to check your configuration.

Congratulations! You have just connected to your Oracle instance.