Skip to main content

Database Access with Oracle Exadata

Teleport can provide secure access to Oracle Exadata via the Teleport Database Service. This allows for fine-grained access control through Teleport's RBAC.

In this guide, you will:

  1. Configure your Oracle Exadata database with mTLS authentication.
  2. Add the database to your Teleport cluster.
  3. Connect to the database via Teleport.

How it works​

The Teleport Database Service authenticates to your self-hosted Oracle database using mutual TLS. Oracle trusts the Teleport certificate authority for database clients, and presents a certificate signed by either the Teleport database CA or a custom CA. When a user initiates a database session, the Teleport Database Service presents a certificate signed by Teleport. The authenticated connection then proxies client traffic from the user.

Teleport Database Access Self-hosted Oracle

Prerequisites​

  • Oracle Exadata server instance 19c or later.
  • The sqlcl Oracle client installed and added to your system's PATH environment variable or any GUI client that supports JDBC Oracle thin client.
  • 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. tctl is supported on macOS and Linux machines. For example: 
    $ tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=email@example.com
    $ tctl status
    # Cluster  teleport.example.com
    # Version  15.4.22
    # 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.

Step 1/6. Configure Oracle Exadata​

note

This guide assumes default configuration of the Oracle Exadata system. In particular:

  • Preconfigured TCPS listener.
  • An existing database certificate in the grid wallet.
  • A single Oracle Exadata VM is accessible to the opc user through SSH with a hostname <Var name="demodb-vm" />. Repeat the steps to configure additional VMs.
  • The SCAN DNS name is <Var name="demodb-vm-scan.exadatadomain.oke.oraclevcn.com" />.

Adjust the commands to match your configuration.

Update per-database configuration​

Connect to the Oracle Exadata VM by logging in as the opc user and then switch to the oracle user:

$ ssh opc@demodb-vm
$ sudo su - oracle

For each database-specific Oracle home, update the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/sqlnet.ora file with the following entries:

SSL_CLIENT_AUTHENTICATION = TRUE
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (ALL)

For example, if there is a database named spark, the oracle user should have access to the automatically generated /home/oracle/spark.env file, which contains database-specific environment variables. After sourcing this file, the path $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/sqlnet.ora will point to the sqlnet.ora file for the spark database and its associated Oracle home.

# Load environment variables for the 'spark' database
$ . spark.env 

# Edit the configuration file at $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/sqlnet.ora
...

Repeat these steps for each additional database or database home as required.

Configure Oracle user account​

Your Oracle user accounts must be configured to require a valid client certificate.

Create new user:

CREATE USER alice IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY AS 'CN=alice';
GRANT CREATE SESSION TO alice;

Trust Teleport Database Client CA​

Teleport uses mutual TLS authentication with Oracle Exadata. It must be configured with Teleport's certificate authority to be able to verify client certificates.

Export the Teleport Database Client CA on your local machine and copy it to target Oracle Exadata VM.

# Export Teleport's database client certificate authority
$ tctl auth export --type=db-client > teleport-db-client-ca.crt
# Copy the CA to the Oracle Exadata VM
$ scp teleport-db-client-ca.crt opc@demodb-vm:/tmp/teleport-db-client-ca.crt

As the grid user, update the grid TCPS wallet to trust the Teleport User Database CA.

# Read the wallet password
$ mkstore -wrl /u01/app/oracle/admin/cprops/cprops_wallet -nologo -viewEntry grid_tcps_wallet_passwd
grid_tcps_wallet_passwd = <wallet password>
# Update the grid TCPS wallet; provide the password when prompted
$ orapki wallet add -wallet "/var/opt/oracle/dbaas_acfs/grid/tcps_wallets" -trusted_cert -cert /tmp/teleport-db-client-ca.crt

Enable TLS auth for grid listener​

Adjust your grid listener configuration at $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora to enable TLS auth with the following entry:

SSL_CLIENT_AUTHENTICATION = TRUE

Restart the listener​

Once finished, restart the listener.

$ lsnrctl stop
$ lsnrctl start

Step 2/6. Collect database configuration data​

Export the built-in database certificate from Oracle. Teleport will use this certificate to verify the database connection.

# Export the database certificate. Update the "-dn" parameter to match your actual setup.
$ orapki wallet export -wallet "/var/opt/oracle/dbaas_acfs/grid/tcps_wallets" -dn "CN=demodb-vm-scan.exadatadomain.oke.oraclevcn.com" -cert /tmp/oracle-server-certificate.crt

Save the /tmp/oracle-server-certificate.crt file to a temporary location. The final location depends on the Teleport installation method, which will be detailed in the next step.

Check the TCPS address of the local listener. This address will be used by Teleport for the connection. In the example below, the address is <Var name="10.20.30.40:2484" />.

$ sqlplus / as sysdba
# ...
# SQL> SHOW PARAMETER local_listener;
# 
# . NAME           TYPE   VALUE
# . -------------- ------ ------------------------------
# . local_listener string (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=10.20.30.40)(PORT=1521)),
# .                       (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCPS)(HOST=10.20.30.40)(PORT=2484))

Step 3/6. Configure and Start the Database Service​

Create Teleport 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

Teleport Database Service​

Install and configure Teleport where you will run the Teleport Database Service:

Use the appropriate commands for your environment to install your package:

# Download Teleport's PGP public key
$ sudo curl https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/gpg \
-o /usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc
# Source variables about OS version
$ source /etc/os-release
# Add the Teleport APT repository for v15. You'll need to update this
# file for each major release of Teleport.
$ echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teleport-archive-keyring.asc] \
https://apt.releases.teleport.dev/${ID?} ${VERSION_CODENAME?} stable/v15" \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teleport.list > /dev/null

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install teleport-ent

For FedRAMP/FIPS-compliant installations, install the teleport-ent-fips package instead:

$ sudo apt-get install teleport-ent-fips

On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, start Teleport with the appropriate configuration.

Note that a single Teleport process can run multiple different services, for example multiple Database Service agents as well as the SSH Service or Application Service. The step below will overwrite an existing configuration file, so if you're running multiple services add --output=stdout to print the config in your terminal, and manually adjust /etc/teleport.yaml.

Copy the Oracle Database certificate and make it available at /var/lib/teleport/oracle-server-certificate.crt on the Teleport Database Service host.

Run the following command to generate a configuration file at /etc/teleport.yaml for the Database Service. Update example.teleport.sh to use the host and port of the Teleport Proxy Service:

$ sudo teleport db configure create \
   -o file \
   --token=/tmp/token \
   --proxy=example.teleport.sh:443 \
   --name="oracle" \
   --protocol=oracle \
   --uri="10.20.30.40:2484" \
   --ca-cert-file="/var/lib/teleport/oracle-server-certificate.crt" \
   --labels=env=dev

Manually edit the generated config file to include tls.mode: verify-ca.

The final entry for the <Var name="oracle" /> database will look similar to this:

db_service:
  enabled: true
  databases:
  - name: oracle
    uri: "10.20.30.40:2484"
    protocol: oracle
    tls:
      mode: verify-ca
      ca_cert_file: /var/lib/teleport/oracle-server-certificate.crt

Configure the Teleport Database Service to start automatically when the host boots up by creating a systemd service for it. The instructions depend on how you installed the Teleport Database Service.

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 4/6. (Optional) Configure Teleport to pull audit logs from Oracle Audit Trail​

Teleport can pull audit logs from Oracle Audit Trail. In order to enable this feature, you will need to configure Oracle Audit Trail and create a dedicated Teleport user that will be used to fetch audit events from Oracle Audit Trail.

Create an internal Oracle teleport user that will fetch audit events from Oracle Audit Trail:

CREATE USER teleport IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY AS 'CN=teleport';
GRANT CREATE SESSION TO teleport;
GRANT SELECT ON dba_audit_trail TO teleport;
GRANT SELECT ON V_$SESSION TO teleport;

Enable the table in Oracle Audit Trail:

ALTER system SET audit_trail=db,extended scope=spfile;

Restart your Oracle instance to propagate audit trail changes.

Enable Oracle auditing for the alice user:

AUDIT ALL STATEMENTS by alice BY access;

You must enable auditing for each Teleport user that will be used to connect to Oracle. Additionally you can create a different audit policy for each user.

Configure the Teleport Database Service to pull audit logs from Oracle Audit Trail:

db_service:
  enabled: "yes"
  databases:
  - name: oracle
    protocol: "oracle"
    uri: "10.20.30.40:2484"
    oracle:
      audit_user: "teleport"
    tls:
      mode: verify-ca
      ca_cert_file: /var/lib/teleport/oracle-server-certificate.crt

Teleport doesn't clean up audit trail events from Oracle Audit Trail. Make sure to configure an Oracle Audit Trail cleanup policy to avoid running out of disk space.

Step 5/6. Create a Teleport user​

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.

Step 6/6. Connect​

Once the Database Service has joined the cluster, log in to see the available databases:

$ tsh login --proxy=example.teleport.sh --user=alice
$ tsh db ls
# Name   Description    Allowed Users Labels  Connect
# ------ -------------- ------------- ------- -------
oracle         [*]                   env=dev

Connect to the "<Var name="oracle" />" database. Pass the correct service name as the --db-name parameter.

You can check the service names by inspecting the database configuration on the Oracle Exadata VM.

> lsnrctl services | grep paas
Service "spark_PDB1.paas.oracle.com" has 1 instance(s).
$ tsh db connect --db-user alice --db-name spark_PDB1.paas.oracle.com oracle
# SQLcl: Release 24.2 Production on Fri Aug 09 15:29:41 2024
# 
# Copyright (c) 1982, 2024, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
# 
# Connected to:
# Oracle Database 19c EE Extreme Perf Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production
# Version 19.24.0.0.0
# 
# SQL> select user from dual;
# 
# USER     
# ________ 
# ALICE    
# 
# SQL>

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

# Remove credentials for a particular database instance.
$ tsh db logout oracle
# Remove credentials for all database instances.
$ tsh db logout

Next steps​

  • Take a look at the YAML configuration reference.

Read the documentation about: