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Configure TLS/SSL in MariaDB
KubeDB supports providing TLS/SSL encryption (via, requireSSL mode) for MariaDB. This tutorial will show you how to use KubeDB to deploy a MariaDB 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
KubeDBin 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/mariadb/tls/configure/examples folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.
Deploy MariaDB 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 MariaDB 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=mariadb/O=kubedb"
Generating a RSA private key
...........................................................................+++++
........................................................................................................+++++
writing new private key to './ca.key'
- create a secret using the certificate files we have just generated,
kubectl create secret tls md-ca \
--cert=ca.crt \
--key=ca.key \
--namespace=demo
secret/md-ca created
Now, we are going to create an Issuer using the md-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: md-issuer
namespace: demo
spec:
ca:
secretName: md-ca
Let’s create the Issuer cr we have shown above,
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.11.18/docs/guides/mariadb/tls/configure/examples/issuer.yaml
issuer.cert-manager.io/md-issuer created
Deploy MariaDB Standalone with TLS/SSL configuration
Here, our issuer md-issuer is ready to deploy a MariaDB standalone with TLS/SSL configuration. Below is the YAML for MariaDB Standalone that we are going to create,
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
name: md-standalone-tls
namespace: demo
spec:
version: "10.5.23"
storageType: Durable
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
requireSSL: true
tls:
issuerRef:
apiGroup: cert-manager.io
kind: Issuer
name: md-issuer
certificates:
- alias: server
subject:
organizations:
- kubedb:server
dnsNames:
- localhost
ipAddresses:
- "127.0.0.1"
deletionPolicy: WipeOut
Here,
spec.requireSSLspecifies the SSL/TLS client connection to the server is required.spec.tls.issuerRefrefers to themd-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 MariaDB Standalone:
Let’s create the MariaDB cr we have shown above,
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.11.18/docs/guides/mariadb/tls/configure/examples/tls-standalone.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/md-standalone-tls created
Wait for the database to be ready:
Now, wait for MariaDB going on Running state and also wait for PetSet and its pod to be created and going to Running state,
$ kubectl get mariadb -n demo md-standalone-tls
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
md-standalone-tls 10.5.23 Ready 5m48s
$ kubectl get sts -n demo md-standalone-tls
NAME READY AGE
md-standalone-tls 1/1 7m5s
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 Ops Manager. Default tls-secret name formed as {mariadb-object-name}-{cert-alias}-cert.
Let’s check the tls-secrets have created,
$ kubectl get secrets -n demo | grep md-standalone-tls
md-standalone-tls-archiver-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 7m53s
md-standalone-tls-auth kubernetes.io/basic-auth 2 7m54s
md-standalone-tls-metrics-exporter-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 7m53s
md-standalone-tls-metrics-exporter-config Opaque 1 7m54s
md-standalone-tls-server-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 7m53s
md-standalone-tls-token-7hhg2
Verify MariaDB Standalone configured with TLS/SSL:
Now, we are going to connect to the database for verifying the MariaDB server has configured with TLS/SSL encryption.
Let’s exec into the pod to verify TLS/SSL configuration,
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-standalone-tls-0 -- bash
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/client
ca.crt tls.crt tls.key
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/server
ca.crt tls.crt tls.key
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mysql -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 64
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%ssl%';
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| have_openssl | YES |
| have_ssl | YES |
| ssl_ca | /etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt |
| ssl_capath | /etc/mysql/certs/server |
| ssl_cert | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt |
| ssl_cipher | |
| ssl_crl | |
| ssl_crlpath | |
| ssl_key | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020 |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.002 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> quit;
Bye
The above output shows that the MariaDB server is configured to TLS/SSL. You can also see that the .crt and .key files are stored in /etc/mysql/certs/client/ and /etc/mysql/certs/server/ directory for client and server respectively.
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,
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-standalone-tls-0 -- bash
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mysql -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 92
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'new_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '1234' REQUIRE SSL;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.028 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> exit
Bye
# accessing the database server with newly created user
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mysql -unew_user -p1234
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'new_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
# accessing the database server newly created user with certificates
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mysql -unew_user -p1234 --ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt --ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt --ssl-key=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 116
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> 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/client/ directory.
Deploy MariaDB Cluster with TLS/SSL configuration
Now, we are going to deploy a MariaDB Cluster with TLS/SSL configuration. Below is the YAML for MariaDB cluster that we are going to create,
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
name: md-cluster-tls
namespace: demo
spec:
version: "10.5.23"
replicas: 3
storageType: Durable
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
requireSSL: true
tls:
issuerRef:
apiGroup: cert-manager.io
kind: Issuer
name: md-issuer
certificates:
- alias: server
subject:
organizations:
- kubedb:server
dnsNames:
- localhost
ipAddresses:
- "127.0.0.1"
deletionPolicy: WipeOut
Deploy MariaDB Cluster:
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.11.18/docs/guides/mariadb/tls/configure/examples/tls-cluster.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/md-cluster-tls created
Wait for the database to be ready :
Now, wait for MariaDB going on Running state and also wait for PetSet and its pods to be created and going to Running state,
$ kubectl get mariadb -n demo md-cluster-tls
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
md-cluster-tls 10.5.23 Ready 2m49s
$ kubectl get pod -n demo | grep md-cluster-tls
md-cluster-tls-0 1/1 Running 0 3m29s
md-cluster-tls-1 1/1 Running 0 3m9s
md-cluster-tls-2 1/1 Running 0 2m49s
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 Ops Manager. Default tls-secret name formed as {mariadb-object-name}-{cert-alias}-cert.
Let’s check the tls-secrets have created,
$ kubectl get secrets -n demo | grep md-cluster-tls
md-cluster-tls-archiver-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 6m20s
md-cluster-tls-auth kubernetes.io/basic-auth 2 6m22s
md-cluster-tls-metrics-exporter-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 6m20s
md-cluster-tls-metrics-exporter-config Opaque 1 6m21s
md-cluster-tls-server-cert kubernetes.io/tls 3 6m21s
md-cluster-tls-token-nrs75
Verify MariaDB Cluster configured with TLS/SSL:
Now, we are going to connect to the database for verifying the MariaDB server has configured with TLS/SSL encryption.
Let’s exec into the first pod to verify TLS/SSL configuration,
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-cluster-tls-0 -- bash
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/client
ca.crt tls.crt tls.key
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/server
ca.crt tls.crt tls.key
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mysql -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 64
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%ssl%';
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| have_openssl | YES |
| have_ssl | YES |
| ssl_ca | /etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt |
| ssl_capath | /etc/mysql/certs/server |
| ssl_cert | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt |
| ssl_cipher | |
| ssl_crl | |
| ssl_crlpath | |
| ssl_key | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020 |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.002 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> quit;
Bye
Now let’s check for the second database server,
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-cluster-tls-1 -- bash
root@md-cluster-tls-1:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/client
ca.crt tls.crt tls.key
root@md-cluster-tls-1:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/server
ca.crt tls.crt tls.key
root@md-cluster-tls-1:/ mysql -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 34
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%ssl%';
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| have_openssl | YES |
| have_ssl | YES |
| ssl_ca | /etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt |
| ssl_capath | /etc/mysql/certs/server |
| ssl_cert | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt |
| ssl_cipher | |
| ssl_crl | |
| ssl_crlpath | |
| ssl_key | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020 |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.001 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> quit;
Bye
The above output shows that the MariaDB server is configured to TLS/SSL. You can also see that the .crt and .key files are stored in /etc/mysql/certs/client/ and /etc/mysql/certs/server/ directory for client and server respectively.
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,
$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-cluster-tls-0 -- bash
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mysql -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 92
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'new_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '1234' REQUIRE SSL;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.028 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)
MariaDB [(none)]> exit
Bye
# accessing the database server with newly created user
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mysql -unew_user -p1234
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'new_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
# accessing the database server newly created user with certificates
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mysql -unew_user -p1234 --ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt --ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt --ssl-key=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 116
Server version: 10.5.23-MariaDB-1:10.5.23+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]> 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/client/ directory.
Cleaning up
To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:
$ kubectl delete mariadb demo md-standalone-tls
mariadb.kubedb.com "md-standalone-tls" deleted
$ kubectl delete mariadb demo md-cluster-tls
mariadb.kubedb.com "md-cluster-tls" deleted
$ kubectl delete ns demo
namespace "demo" deleted