New to KubeDB? Please start here.

Reconfigure MariaDB TLS/SSL (Transport Encryption)

KubeDB supports reconfigure i.e. add, remove, update and rotation of TLS/SSL certificates for existing MariaDB database via a MariaDBOpsRequest. This tutorial will show you how to use KubeDB to reconfigure TLS/SSL encryption.

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-manger v1.6.0 or later to your cluster to manage your SSL/TLS certificates.
Now, install KubeDB cli on your workstation and KubeDB operator in your cluster following the steps here.
To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.
```
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
```

Add TLS to a MariaDB Cluster

Here, We are going to create a MariaDB database without TLS and then reconfigure the database to use TLS.

Note: Steps for reconfiguring TLS of MariaDB Standalone is same as MariaDB Cluster.

Deploy MariaDB without TLS

In this section, we are going to deploy a MariaDB Cluster database without TLS. In the next few sections we will reconfigure TLS using MariaDBOpsRequest CRD. Below is the YAML of the MariaDB CR that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
  name: sample-mariadb
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "10.5.23"
  replicas: 3
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Let’s create the MariaDB CR we have shown above,

$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/mariadb/reconfigure-tls/cluster/examples/sample-mariadb.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/sample-mariadb created

Now, wait until sample-mariadb has status Ready. i.e,

$ kubectl get mariadb -n demo
NAME             VERSION   STATUS   AGE
sample-mariadb   10.5.23    Ready    9m17s

$ kubectl get secrets -n demo sample-mariadb-auth -o jsonpath='{.data.\username}' | base64 -d
root

$ kubectl get secrets -n demo sample-mariadb-auth -o jsonpath='{.data.\password}' | base64 -d
U6(h_pYrekLZ2OOd

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo sample-mariadb-0 -c mariadb  -- bash
root@sample-mariadb-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 108
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            | DISABLED                    |
| ssl_ca              |                             |
| ssl_capath          |                             |
| ssl_cert            |                             |
| ssl_cipher          |                             |
| ssl_crl             |                             |
| ssl_crlpath         |                             |
| ssl_key             |                             |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020 |
+---------------------+-----------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.001 sec)

We can verify from the above output that TLS is disabled for this database.

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/v2024.9.30//docs/guides/mariadb/reconfigure-tls/cluster/examples/issuer.yaml
issuer.cert-manager.io/md-issuer created

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

In order to add TLS to the database, we have to create a MariaDBOpsRequest CRO with our created issuer. Below is the YAML of the MariaDBOpsRequest CRO that we are going to create,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MariaDBOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: mdops-add-tls
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: ReconfigureTLS
  databaseRef:
    name: sample-mariadb
  tls:
    requireSSL: true
    issuerRef:
      apiGroup: cert-manager.io
      kind: Issuer
      name: md-issuer
    certificates:
    - alias: server
      subject:
        organizations:
        - kubedb:server
      dnsNames:
      - localhost
      ipAddresses:
      - "127.0.0.1"

Here,

spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing reconfigure TLS operation on sample-mariadb database.
spec.type specifies that we are performing ReconfigureTLS on our database.
spec.tls.issuerRef specifies the issuer name, kind and api group.
requireSSL specifies that the clients connecting to the server are required to use secured connection.
spec.tls.certificates specifies the certificates. You can learn more about this field from here.

Let’s create the MariaDBOpsRequest CR we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/mariadb/reconfigure-tls/cluster/examples/mdops-add-tls.yaml
mariadbopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/mdops-add-tls created

Verify TLS Enabled Successfully

Let’s wait for MariaDBOpsRequest to be Successful. Run the following command to watch MariaDBOpsRequest CRO,

$ kubectl get mariadbopsrequest --all-namespaces
NAMESPACE   NAME            TYPE             STATUS       AGE
demo        mdops-add-tls   ReconfigureTLS   Successful   6m6s

We can see from the above output that the MariaDBOpsRequest has succeeded.

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 sample-mariadb-0 -c mariadb -- bash
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/client
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/server
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key
root@sample-mariadb-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 58
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 (0.005 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name            | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON    |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.005 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> quit;
Bye

We can see from the above output that, have_ssl is set to ture. So, database TLS is enabled successfully to this database.

Note: Add or Update reconfigure TLS with with RequireSSL=true will create downtime of the database while MariaDBOpsRequest is in Progressing status.

Rotate Certificate

Now we are going to rotate the certificate of this database. First let’s check the current expiration date of the certificate.

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo sample-mariadb-0 -c mariadb -- bash
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ apt update
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ apt install openssl
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ openssl x509 -in /etc/mysql/certs/client/tls.crt -inform  PEM -enddate -nameopt RFC2253 -noout
notAfter=Apr 13 05:18:43 2022 GMT

So, the certificate will expire on this time Apr 13 05:18:43 2022 GMT.

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

Now we are going to increase it using a MariaDBOpsRequest. Below is the yaml of the ops request that we are going to create,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MariaDBOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: mdops-rotate-tls
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: ReconfigureTLS
  databaseRef:
    name: sample-mariadb
  tls:
    rotateCertificates: true

Here,

spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing reconfigure TLS operation on sample-mariadb database.
spec.type specifies that we are performing ReconfigureTLS on our database.
spec.tls.rotateCertificates specifies that we want to rotate the certificate of this database.

Let’s create the MariaDBOpsRequest CR we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/mariadb/reconfigure-tls/cluster/examples/mdops-rotate-tls.yaml
mariadbopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/mdops-rotate-tls created

Verify Certificate Rotated Successfully

Let’s wait for MariaDBOpsRequest to be Successful. Run the following command to watch MariaDBOpsRequest CRO,

$ kubectl get mariadbopsrequest --all-namespaces
NAMESPACE   NAME               TYPE             STATUS       AGE
demo        mdops-rotate-tls   ReconfigureTLS   Successful    3m

We can see from the above output that the MariaDBOpsRequest has succeeded. Now, let’s check the expiration date of the certificate.

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo sample-mariadb-0 -c mariadb -- bash
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ apt update
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ apt install openssl
root@sample-mariadb-0:/# openssl x509 -in /etc/mysql/certs/client/tls.crt -inform  PEM -enddate -nameopt RFC2253 -noout
notAfter=Apr 13 06:04:50 2022 GMT

As we can see from the above output, the certificate has been rotated successfully.

Update Certificate

Now, we are going to update the server certificate.

Let’s describe the server certificate sample-mariadb-server-cert

$ kubectl describe certificate -n demo sample-mariadb-server-cert
Name:         sample-mariadb-server-cert
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       app.kubernetes.io/component=database
              app.kubernetes.io/instance=sample-mariadb
              app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=kubedb.com
              app.kubernetes.io/name=mariadbs.kubedb.com
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  cert-manager.io/v1
Kind:         Certificate
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2022-01-13T05:18:42Z
  Generation:          1
  ...
  Owner References:
    API Version:           kubedb.com/v1
    Block Owner Deletion:  true
    Controller:            true
    Kind:                  MariaDB
    Name:                  sample-mariadb
    UID:                   ed8f45c7-7caf-4890-8a9c-b8437b6ca48b
  Resource Version:        241340
  UID:                     3343e971-395d-46df-9536-47194eb96dcc
Spec:
  Common Name:  sample-mariadb.demo.svc
  Dns Names:
    *.sample-mariadb-pods.demo.svc
    *.sample-mariadb-pods.demo.svc.cluster.local
    *.sample-mariadb.demo.svc
    localhost
    sample-mariadb
    sample-mariadb.demo.svc
  Ip Addresses:
    127.0.0.1
  Issuer Ref:
    Group:      cert-manager.io
    Kind:       Issuer
    Name:       md-issuer
  Secret Name:  sample-mariadb-server-cert
  Subject:
    Organizations:
      kubedb:server
  Usages:
    digital signature
    key encipherment
    server auth
    client auth
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2022-01-13T05:18:43Z
    Message:               Certificate is up to date and has not expired
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                Ready
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Ready
  Not After:               2022-04-13T06:04:50Z
  Not Before:              2022-01-13T06:04:50Z
  Renewal Time:            2022-03-14T06:04:50Z
  Revision:                6
Events:
  Type    Reason     Age                From          Message
  ----    ------     ----               ----          -------
  Normal  Requested  22m                cert-manager  Created new CertificateRequest resource "sample-mariadb-server-cert-8tnj5"
  Normal  Requested  22m                cert-manager  Created new CertificateRequest resource "sample-mariadb-server-cert-fw6sk"
  Normal  Requested  22m                cert-manager  Created new CertificateRequest resource "sample-mariadb-server-cert-cvphm"
  Normal  Requested  20m                cert-manager  Created new CertificateRequest resource "sample-mariadb-server-cert-nvhp6"
  Normal  Requested  19m                cert-manager  Created new CertificateRequest resource "sample-mariadb-server-cert-p5287"
  Normal  Reused     19m (x5 over 22m)  cert-manager  Reusing private key stored in existing Secret resource "sample-mariadb-server-cert"
  Normal  Issuing    19m (x6 over 65m)  cert-manager  The certificate has been successfully issued

We want to add subject and emailAddresses in the spec of server sertificate.

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

Below is the YAML of the MariaDBOpsRequest CRO that we are going to create ton update the server certificate,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MariaDBOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: mdops-update-tls
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: ReconfigureTLS
  databaseRef:
    name: sample-mariadb
  tls:
    certificates:
    - alias: server
      subject:
        organizations:
        - kubedb:server
      emailAddresses:
      - "[email protected]"

Here,

spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing reconfigure TLS operation on sample-mariadb database.
spec.type specifies that we are performing ReconfigureTLS on our database.
spec.tls.issuerRef specifies the issuer name, kind and api group.
spec.tls.certificates specifies the changes that we want in certificate objects.
spec.tls.certificates[].alias specifies the certificate type which is one of these: server, client, metrics-exporter.

Let’s create the MariaDBOpsRequest CR we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/mariadb/reconfigure-tls/cluster/examples/mdops-update-tls.yaml
mariadbopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/mdops-update-tls created

Verify certificate is updated successfully

Let’s wait for MariaDBOpsRequest to be Successful. Run the following command to watch MariaDBOpsRequest CRO,

$ kubectl get mariadbopsrequest -n demo
Every 2.0s: kubectl get mariadbopsrequest -n demo
NAME                  TYPE             STATUS        AGE
mdops-update-tls   ReconfigureTLS     Successful      7m

We can see from the above output that the MariaDBOpsRequest has succeeded.

Now, Let’s exec into a database node and find out the ca subject to see if it matches the one we have provided.

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo sample-mariadb-0  -c mariadb -- bash
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ apt update
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ apt install openssl
root@sample-mariadb-0:/ openssl x509 -in /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt -inform PEM  -subject -email -nameopt RFC2253 -noout
subject=CN=sample-mariadb.demo.svc,O=kubedb:server
[email protected]

We can see from the above output that, the subject name and email address match with the new ca certificate that we have created. So, the issuer is changed successfully.

Remove TLS from the Database

Now, we are going to remove TLS from this database using a MariaDBOpsRequest.

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

Below is the YAML of the MariaDBOpsRequest CRO that we are going to create,

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MariaDBOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: mdops-remove-tls
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: ReconfigureTLS
  databaseRef:
    name: sample-mariadb
  tls:
    remove: true

Here,

spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing reconfigure TLS operation on sample-mariadb database.
spec.type specifies that we are performing ReconfigureTLS on our database.
spec.tls.remove specifies that we want to remove tls from this database.

Let’s create the MariaDBOpsRequest CR we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/mariadb/reconfigure-tls/cluster/examples/mdops-remove-tls.yaml
mariadbopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/mdops-remove-tls created

Verify TLS Removed Successfully

Let’s wait for MariaDBOpsRequest to be Successful. Run the following command to watch MariaDBOpsRequest CRO,

$ kubectl get mariadbopsrequest --all-namespaces
NAMESPACE   NAME               TYPE             STATUS       AGE
demo        mdops-remove-tls   ReconfigureTLS   Successful   6m27s

We can see from the above output that the MariaDBOpsRequest has succeeded. If we describe the MariaDBOpsRequest we will get an overview of the steps that were followed.

Now, Let’s exec into the database and find out that TLS is disabled or not.

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo sample-mariadb-0 -c mariadb  -- bash
root@sample-mariadb-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 108
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            | DISABLED                    |
| ssl_ca              |                             |
| ssl_capath          |                             |
| ssl_cert            |                             |
| ssl_cipher          |                             |
| ssl_crl             |                             |
| ssl_crlpath         |                             |
| ssl_key             |                             |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020 |
+---------------------+-----------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.001 sec)

So, we can see from the above that, output that tls is disabled successfully.

Cleaning up

To cleanup the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:

$ kubectl delete mariadb -n demo --all
$ kubectl delete issuer -n demo --all
$ kubectl delete mariadbopsrequest -n demo --all
$ kubectl delete ns demo

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Reconfigure MariaDB TLS/SSL (Transport Encryption)

Before You Begin

Add TLS to a MariaDB Cluster

Deploy MariaDB without TLS

Create Issuer/ ClusterIssuer

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

Verify TLS Enabled Successfully

Rotate Certificate

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

Verify Certificate Rotated Successfully

Update Certificate

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

Verify certificate is updated successfully

Remove TLS from the Database

Create MariaDBOpsRequest

Verify TLS Removed Successfully

Cleaning up

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