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This is an Enterprise-only feature. Please install KubeDB Enterprise Edition to try this feature.
Configure TLS/SSL in MySQL
KubeDB supports providing TLS/SSL encryption (via, requireSSL mode) for MySQL. This tutorial will show you how to use KubeDB to deploy a MySQL database with TLS/SSL configuration.
Before You Begin
At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.
Install
cert-mangerv1.0.0 or later to your cluster to manage your SSL/TLS certificates.Install
KubeDBcommunity and enterprise operator in your cluster following the steps here.To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a separate namespace called
demothroughout this tutorial.$ kubectl create ns demo namespace/demo created
Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/guides/mysql/tls/configure/yamls folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.
Deploy MySQL database with TLS/SSL configuration
As pre-requisite, at first, we are going to create an Issuer/ClusterIssuer. This Issuer/ClusterIssuer is used to create certificates. Then we are going to deploy a MySQL standalone and a group replication that will be configured with these certificates by KubeDB operator.
Create Issuer/ClusterIssuer
Now, we are going to create an example Issuer that will be used throughout the duration of this tutorial. Alternatively, you can follow this cert-manager tutorial to create your own Issuer. By following the below steps, we are going to create our desired issuer,
- Start off by generating our ca-certificates using openssl,
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout ./ca.key -out ./ca.crt -subj "/CN=mysql/O=kubedb"
- create a secret using the certificate files we have just generated,
kubectl create secret tls my-ca \
--cert=ca.crt \
--key=ca.key \
--namespace=demo
secret/my-ca created
Now, we are going to create an Issuer using the my-ca secret that hols the ca-certificate we have just created. Below is the YAML of the Issuer cr that we are going to create,
apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: Issuer
metadata:
name: mysql-issuer
namespace: demo
spec:
ca:
secretName: my-ca
Let’s create the Issuer cr we have shown above,
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2022.10.18/docs/guides/mysql/tls/configure/yamls/issuer.yaml
issuer.cert-manager.io/mysql-issuer created
Deploy MySQL Standalone with TLS/SSL configuration
Here, our issuer mysql-issuer is ready to deploy a MySQL standalone with TLS/SSL configuration. Below is the YAML for MySQL Standalone that we are going to create,
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: MySQL
metadata:
name: my-standalone-tls
namespace: demo
spec:
version: "8.0.27"
storageType: Durable
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
requireSSL: true
tls:
issuerRef:
apiGroup: cert-manager.io
kind: Issuer
name: mysql-issuer
certificates:
- alias: server
subject:
organizations:
- kubedb:server
dnsNames:
- localhost
ipAddresses:
- "127.0.0.1"
terminationPolicy: WipeOut
Here,
spec.requireSSLspecifies the SSL/TLS client connection to the server is required.spec.tls.issuerRefrefers to themysql-issuerissuer.spec.tls.certificatesgives you a lot of options to configure so that the certificate will be renewed and kept up to date. You can found more details from here
Deploy MySQL Standalone:
Let’s create the MySQL cr we have shown above,
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2022.10.18/docs/guides/mysql/tls/configure/yamls/tls-standalone.yaml
mysql.kubedb.com/my-standalone-tls created
Wait for the database to be ready:
Now, watch MySQL is going to Running state and also watch StatefulSet and its pod is created and going to Running state,
$ watch -n 3 kubectl get my -n demo my-standalone-tls
Every 3.0s: kubectl get my -n demo my-standalone-tls suaas-appscode: Thu Aug 13 18:12:39 2020
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
my-standalone-tls 8.0.27 Running 7m5s
$ watch -n 3 kubectl get sts -n demo my-standalone-tls
Every 3.0s: kubectl get sts -n demo my-standalone-tls suaas-appscode: Thu Aug 13 18:12:59 2020
NAME READY AGE
my-standalone-tls 1/1 7m15s
$ watch -n 3 kubectl get pod -n demo -l app.kubernetes.io/name=mysqls.kubedb.com,app.kubernetes.io/instance=my-standalone-tls
Every 3.0s: kubectl get pod -n demo -l app.kubernetes.io/name=mysqls.kubedb.com... suaas-appscode: Thu Aug 13 18:13:19 2020
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
my-standalone-tls-0 1/1 Running 0 7m35s
Verify tls-secrets created successfully:
If everything goes well, you can see that our tls-secrets will be created which contains server, client, exporter certificate. Server tls-secret will be used for server configuration and client tls-secret will be used for a secure connection.
All tls-secret are created by KubeDB enterprise operator. Default tls-secret name formed as {mysql-object-name}-{cert-alias}-cert.
Let’s check the tls-secrets have created,
$ kubectl get secrets -n demo | grep "my-standalone-tls"
my-standalone-tls-auth kubernetes.io/basic-auth 2 96s
my-standalone-tls-client-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 95s
my-standalone-tls-metrics-exporter-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 95s
my-standalone-tls-metrics-exporter-config Opaque 1 96s
my-standalone-tls-server-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 95s
my-standalone-tls-token-s4l94 kubernetes.io/service-account-token 3 96s
Verify MySQL Standalone configured with TLS/SSL:
Now, we are going to connect to the database for verifying the MySQL server has configured with TLS/SSL encryption.
Let’s exec into the pod to verify TLS/SSL configuration,
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo my-standalone-tls-0 -- bash
# ls /etc/mysql/certs/
ca.crt client.crt client.key server.crt server.key
# mysql -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 356
Server version: 5.7.29 MySQL Community Server (GPL)
Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%ssl%';
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
| admin_ssl_ca | |
| admin_ssl_capath | |
| admin_ssl_cert | |
| admin_ssl_cipher | |
| admin_ssl_crl | |
| admin_ssl_crlpath | |
| admin_ssl_key | |
| have_openssl | YES |
| have_ssl | YES |
| mysqlx_ssl_ca | |
| mysqlx_ssl_capath | |
| mysqlx_ssl_cert | |
| mysqlx_ssl_cipher | |
| mysqlx_ssl_crl | |
| mysqlx_ssl_crlpath | |
| mysqlx_ssl_key | |
| ssl_ca | /etc/mysql/certs/ca.crt |
| ssl_capath | /etc/mysql/certs |
| ssl_cert | /etc/mysql/certs/server.crt |
| ssl_cipher | |
| ssl_crl | |
| ssl_crlpath | |
| ssl_fips_mode | OFF |
| ssl_key | /etc/mysql/certs/server.key |
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
24 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
mysql> exit
Bye
The above output shows that the MySQL server is configured to TLS/SSL. You can also see that the .crt and .key files are stored in the /etc/ mysql/certs/ directory for client and server.
Verify secure connection for SSL required user:
Now, you can create an SSL required user that will be used to connect to the database with a secure connection.
Let’s connect to the database server with a secure connection,
# creating SSL required user
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo my-standalone-tls-0 -- bash
root@mysql-tls-0:/# mysql -uroot -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 27
Server version: 8.0.23 MySQL Community Server - GPL
Copyright (c) 2000, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql> CREATE USER 'mysql_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'pass' REQUIRE SSL;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> exit
Bye
# accessing the database server with newly created user
root@mysql-tls-0:/# mysql -umysql_user -ppass
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'mysql_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
# accessing the database server newly created user with ssl-mode=disable
root@mysql-tls-0:/# mysql -umysql_user -ppass --ssl-mode=disabled
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'mysql_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
# accessing the database server newly created user with certificates
root@mysql-tls-0:/# mysql -umysql_user -ppass --ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/certs/ca.crt --ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/certs/client.crt --ssl-key=/etc/mysql/certs/client.key
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 47
Server version: 5.7.29 MySQL Community Server (GPL)
Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
You are enforcing ssl conection via unix socket. Please consider
switching ssl off as it does not make connection via unix socket
any more secure.
mysql> exit
Bye
From the above output, you can see that only using client certificate we can access the database securely, otherwise, it shows “Access denied”. Our client certificate is stored in /etc/mysql/certs/ directory.
Deploy MySQL Group Replication with TLS/SSL configuration
Now, we are going to deploy a MySQL group replication with TLS/SSL configuration. Below is the YAML for MySQL group replication that we are going to create,
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: MySQL
metadata:
name: my-group-tls
namespace: demo
spec:
version: "8.0.27"
replicas: 3
topology:
mode: GroupReplication
group:
name: "dc002fc3-c412-4d18-b1d4-66c1fbfbbc9b"
storageType: Durable
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
requireSSL: true
tls:
issuerRef:
apiGroup: cert-manager.io
kind: Issuer
name: mysql-issuer
certificates:
- alias: server
subject:
organizations:
- kubedb:server
dnsNames:
- localhost
ipAddresses:
- "127.0.0.1"
terminationPolicy: WipeOut
Deploy MySQL group replication:
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2022.10.18/docs/guides/mysql/tls/configure/yamls/tls-group.yaml
mysql.kubedb.com/my-group-tls created
Wait for the database to be ready :
Now, watch MySQL is going to Running state and also watch StatefulSet and its pod is created and going to Running state,
$ watch -n 3 kubectl get my -n demo my-group-tls
Every 3.0s: kubectl get my -n demo my-group-tls suaas-appscode: Thu Aug 13 19:02:15 2020
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
my-group-tls 8.0.27 Running 9m41s
$ watch -n 3 kubectl get sts -n demo my-group-tls
Every 3.0s: kubectl get sts -n demo my-group-tls suaas-appscode: Thu Aug 13 19:02:42 2020
NAME READY AGE
my-group-tls 3/3 9m51s
$ watch -n 3 kubectl get pod -n demo -l app.kubernetes.io/name=mysqls.kubedb.com,app.kubernetes.io/instance=my-group-tls
Every 3.0s: kubectl get pod -n demo -l app.kubernetes.io/name=mysqls.kubedb.com suaas-appscode: Thu Aug 13 19:03:02 2020
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
my-group-tls-0 2/2 Running 0 10m
my-group-tls-1 2/2 Running 0 4m4s
my-group-tls-2 2/2 Running 0 2m3s
Verify tls-secrets created successfully :
If everything goes well, you can see that our tls-secrets will be created which contains server, client, exporter certificate. Server tls-secret will be used for server configuration and client tls-secret will be used for a secure connection.
All tls-secret are created by KubeDB enterprise operator. Default tls-secret name formed as {mysql-object-name}-{cert-alias}-cert.
Let’s check the tls-secrets have created,
$ kubectl get secrets -n demo | grep "my-group-tls"
my-group-tls-client-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 13m
my-group-tls-auth Opaque 2 13m
my-group-tls-metrics-exporter-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 13m
my-group-tls-metrics-exporter-config Opaque 1 13m
my-group-tls-server-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 13m
my-group-tls-token-49sjm kubernetes.io/service-account-token 3 13m
Verify MySQL Standalone configured to TLS/SSL:
Now, we are going to connect to the database for verifying the MySQL group replication has configured with TLS/SSL encryption.
Let’s exec into the pod to verify TLS/SSL configuration,
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo my-group-tls-0 -c mysql -- bash
root@my-group-0:/# ls /etc/mysql/certs/
ca.crt client.crt client.key server.crt server.key
root@my-group-0:/# mysql -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p{MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 27
Server version: 8.0.23 MySQL Community Server - GPL
Copyright (c) 2000, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%ssl%';
+---------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+
| admin_ssl_ca | |
| admin_ssl_capath | |
| admin_ssl_cert | |
| admin_ssl_cipher | |
| admin_ssl_crl | |
| admin_ssl_crlpath | |
| admin_ssl_key | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_ca | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_capath | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_cert | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_cipher | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_crl | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_crlpath | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_key | |
| group_replication_recovery_ssl_verify_server_cert | OFF |
| group_replication_recovery_use_ssl | ON |
| group_replication_ssl_mode | REQUIRED |
| have_openssl | YES |
| have_ssl | YES |
| mysqlx_ssl_ca | |
| mysqlx_ssl_capath | |
| mysqlx_ssl_cert | |
| mysqlx_ssl_cipher | |
| mysqlx_ssl_crl | |
| mysqlx_ssl_crlpath | |
| mysqlx_ssl_key | |
| ssl_ca | /etc/mysql/certs/ca.crt |
| ssl_capath | /etc/mysql/certs |
| ssl_cert | /etc/mysql/certs/server.crt |
| ssl_cipher | |
| ssl_crl | |
| ssl_crlpath | |
| ssl_fips_mode | OFF |
| ssl_key | /etc/mysql/certs/server.key |
+---------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+
34 rows in set (0.02 sec)
mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> exit
Bye
The above output shows that the MySQL server is configured to TLS/SSL. You can also see that the .crt and .key files are stored in the /etc/ mysql/certs/ directory for client and server.
Verify secure connection for SSL required user:
Now, you can create an SSL required user that will be used to connect to the database with a secure connection.
Let’s connect to the database server with a secure connection,
# creating SSL required user
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo my-group-tls-0 -c mysql -- bash
root@my-group-0:/# mysql -uroot -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 27
Server version: 8.0.23 MySQL Community Server - GPL
Copyright (c) 2000, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql> CREATE USER 'mysql_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'pass' REQUIRE SSL;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> exit
Bye
# accessing database server with newly created user
root@my-group-0:/# mysql -umysql_user -ppass
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'mysql_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
# accessing the database server newly created user with ssl-mode=disable
root@my-group-0:/# mysql -umysql_user -ppass --ssl-mode=disabled
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'mysql_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
# accessing the database server newly created user with certificates
root@my-group-0:/# mysql -umysql_user -ppass --ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/certs/ca.crt --ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/certs/client.crt --ssl-key=/etc/mysql/certs/client.key
mysql: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 384
Server version: 5.7.29-log MySQL Community Server (GPL)
Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
You are enforcing ssl connection via unix socket. Please consider
switching ssl off as it does not make connection via unix socket
any more secure.
mysql> exit
Bye
From the above output, you can see that only using client certificate we can access the database securely, otherwise, it shows “Access denied”. Our client certificate is stored in /etc/mysql/certs/ directory.
Cleaning up
To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:
kubectl delete my -n demo my-standalone-tls
kubectl delete my -n demo my-group-tls
kubectl delete ns demo
Next Steps
- Detail concepts of MySQL object.