This manual covers installation and configuration of Teleport and the ongoing management of a Teleport cluster. It assumes that the reader has good understanding of Linux administration.
!!! danger "IMPORTANT": At this time Teleport is NOT recommended for production use, but the code is open and available for your security team to inspect. Currently Teleport is undergoing an independent security review. We will be more comfortable recommending it for production use once the review will have completed.
Gravitational Teleport is written in Go language. It requires Golang v1.5 or newer. If you have Go already installed, type:
> git clone https://github.com/gravitational/teleport
> cd teleport
> make
If you do not have Go but you have Docker installed and running, you can build Teleport this way:
> git clone https://github.com/gravitational/teleport
> cd teleport/build.assets
> make
You can download binaries from Github releases.
Teleport supports only a handful of commands
Command | Description |
---|---|
start | Starts the Teleport daemon. |
configure | Dumps a sample configuration file in YAML format into standard output. |
version | Shows the Teleport version. |
status | Shows the status of a Teleport connection. This command is only available from inside of an active SSH seession. |
help | Shows help. |
When experimenting you can quickly start teleport
with verbose logging by typing
teleport start -d
.
When running teleport
with a proxy role you have to make sure the assets
for the Web UI can be found. The web assets are composedof index.html
file and app
directory. Teleport process checks the following locations for its web assets:
- The same directory it's in
/usr/local/share/teleport
/usr/share/teleport
/opt/teleport
!!! tip "IMPORTANT":
Teleport stores data in /var/lib/teleport
. Make sure that regular users do not
have access to this folder of the Auth server, otherwise anyone can gain admin access to Teleport's API.
In production, we recommend starting teleport daemon via an
init system like systemd
. Here's the example of a systemd unit file:
[Unit]
Description=Teleport SSH Service
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
ExecStart=/usr/bin/teleport --config=/etc/teleport.yaml start
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Teleport services listen on several ports. This table shows the default port numbers.
Port | Service | Description |
---|---|---|
3022 | Node | SSH port. This is Teleport's equivalent of port #22 for SSH. |
3023 | Proxy | SSH port clients connect to. A proxy will forward this connection to port #3022 on the destination node. |
3024 | Auth | SSH port used by the Auth Service to serve its API to other nodes in a cluster. |
3080 | Proxy | HTTPS connection to authenticate tsh users and web users into the cluster. The same connection is used to serve a Web UI. |
You should use a configuration file to configure the teleport
daemon.
But for simpler experimentation you can use command line flags to
teleport start
command. To see the list of flags:
> teleport start --help
Output:
usage: teleport start [<flags>]
Flags:
-d, --debug Enable verbose logging to stderr
-r, --roles Comma-separated list of roles to start with [proxy,node,auth]
--advertise-ip IP to advertise to clients if running behind NAT
-l, --listen-ip IP address to bind to [0.0.0.0]
--auth-server Address of the auth server [127.0.0.1:3025]
--token One-time token to register with an auth server [none]
--nodename Name of this node, defaults to hostname
-c, --config Path to a configuration file [/etc/teleport.yaml]
--labels List of labels for this node
Lets cover some of these flags in more detail:
-
--roles
flag tells Teleport which services to start. It is a comma-separated list of roles. The possible values areauth
,node
andproxy
. The default value isauth,node,proxy
. These roles are explained in the Teleport Architecture document. -
--advertise-ip
flag can be used when Teleport nodes are running behind NAT and their externally routable IP cannot be automatically determined. -
--nodename
flag lets you assign an alternative name the node which can be used by clients to login. By default it's equal to the value returned byhostname
command. -
--listen-ip
shoud be used to tellteleport
daemon to bind to a specific network interface. By default it listens on all. -
--labels
flag allows to assign a set of labels to a node. See the explanation of labeling mechanism in "Labeling Nodes" section below.
Teleport uses YAML file format for configuration. A sample configuration file is shown
below. By default it is stored in /etc/teleport.yaml
!!! note "IMPORTANT": When editing YAML configuration, please pay attention to how your editor handles white space. YAML requires consistent handling of tab characters.
# By default, this file should be stored in /etc/teleport.yaml
# This section of the configuration file applies to all teleport
# services.
teleport:
# nodename allows to assign an alternative name this node can be reached by.
# by default it's equal to hostname
nodename: graviton
# one-time invitation token used to join a cluster. it is not used on
# subsequent starts
auth_token: xxxx-token-xxxx
# list of auth servers in a cluster. you will have more than one auth server
# if you configure teleport auth to run in HA configuration
auth_servers:
- 10.1.0.5:3025
- 10.1.0.6:3025
# Teleport throttles all connections to avoid abuse. These settings allow
# you to adjust the default limits
connection_limits:
max_connections: 1000
max_users: 250
# Logging configuration. Possible output values are 'stdout', 'stderr' and
# 'syslog'. Possible severity values are INFO, WARN and ERROR (default).
log:
output: stderr
severity: ERROR
# Type of storage used for keys. You need to configure this to use etcd
# backend if you want to run Teleport in HA configuration.
storage:
type: bolt
data_dir: /var/lib/teleport
# This section configures the 'auth service':
auth_service:
enabled: yes
listen_addr: 127.0.0.1:3025
# This section configures the 'node service':
ssh_service:
enabled: yes
listen_addr: 127.0.0.1:3022
# See explanation of labels in "Labeling Nodes" section below
labels:
role: master
type: postgres
# See explanation of commands in "Labeling Nodes" section below
commands:
- name: hostname
command: [/usr/bin/hostname]
period: 1m0s
- name: arch
command: [/usr/bin/uname, -p]
period: 1h0m0s
# This section configures the 'proxy servie'
proxy_service:
enabled: yes
listen_addr: 127.0.0.1:3023
web_listen_addr: 127.0.0.1:3080
# TLS certificate for the server-side HTTPS connection.
# Configuring these properly is critical for Teleport security.
https_key_file: /etc/teleport/teleport.key
https_cert_file: /etc/teleport/teleport.crt
A user identity in Teleport exists in the scope of a cluster. The member nodes of a cluster have multiple OS users on them. A Teleport administrator assigns allowed logins to every Teleport account, allowing it to login as one of the specified OS users.
Lets look at this table:
Teleport Username | Allowed Logins | Description |
---|---|---|
joe | joe,root | Teleport user 'joe' can login into member nodes as OS user 'joe' or 'root' |
bob | bob | Teleport user 'bob' can login into member nodes only as OS user 'bob' |
ross | If no login is specified, it defaults to the same name as the Teleport user. |
To add a new user to Teleport you have to use tctl
tool on the same node where
the auth server is running, i.e. teleport
was started with --roles=auth
.
> tctl users add joe joe,root
Teleport generates an auto-expiring token (with a TTL of 1 hour) and prints the token URL which must be shared with a user beforeo the TTL expires.
Signup token has been created. Share this URL with the user:
https://<proxy>:3080/web/newuser/xxxxxxxxxxxx
NOTE: make sure the <proxy> host is accessible.
The user will complete registration by visiting this URL, picking a password and
configuring the 2nd factor authentication. If the credentials are correct, the auth
server generates and signs a new certificate and the client stores this key and will use
it for subsequent logins. The key will automatically expire after 12 hours by default after which
the user will need to log back in with her credentials. This TTL can be configured to a maximum
of 30 hours and a minimum of 1 minute. Once authenticated, the account will become visible via tctl
:
> tctl users ls
User Allowed to Login as
---- -------------------
admin admin,root
ross ross
joe joe,root
Joe would need to use the tsh
client tool to login into member node "luna" via
bastion "work" as root:
> tsh --proxy=work --user=joe root@luna
To delete this user:
> tctl users del joe
At the moment teleport
does not have a command for modifying an existing user record.
The only way to update allowed logins or reset the user password is to remove the account
and re-create it.
The user will have to re-initialize Google Authenticator on their phone.
Gravitational Teleport is a cluster SSH manager. It only allows SSH access to nodes who had been previously granted cluster membership.
Use tctl
tool to "invite" a new node to the Teleport cluster:
tctl nodes add
Just like with adding users above, Teleport generates a single-use auto-expiring token with a TTL of 15 minutes and prints the following:
The invite token: n7305ee47a3829e118a7466ac7a0d78ad
Run this on the new node to join the cluster:
> teleport start --roles=node --token=n7305ee47a3829e118a7466ac7a0d78ad --auth-server=<Address>
tctl
shows you the exact command you would need to use on the
new member node to start a teleport
node service on it.
When a new node comes online, it will start sending ping requests every few seconds to the auth server. This allows everyone to see which nodes are up:
> tctl nodes ls
Node Name Node ID Address Labels
--------- ------- ------- ------
turing d52527f9-b260-41d0-bb5a-e23b0cfe0f8f 10.1.0.5:3022 distro:ubuntu
dijkstra c9s93fd9-3333-91d3-9999-c9s93fd98f43 10.1.0.6:3022 distro:debian
In addition to specifying a custom nodename, Teleport also allows to apply arbitrary key:value pairs to each node. They are called labels. There are two kinds of labels:
-
static labels
never change while theteleport
process is running. You may want to label nodes with their physical location, the Linux distribution, etc. -
label commands
or "dynamic labels". Label commands allow you to execute an external command on a node at a configurable frequency. The output of that command becomes the value of such label. Examples include reporting a kernel version, load averages, time after reboot, etc.
Labels can be configured in a configuration file or via --labels
flag as shown below:
> teleport start --labels uptime=[1m:"uptime -p"],kernel=[1h:"uname -r"]
Obvioiusly the kernel version is not going to change often, so this example runs
uname
once an hour. When this node starts and reports its labels into the cluster,
users will see:
> tctl nodes ls
Node Name Node ID Address Labels
--------- ------- ------- ------
turing d52527f9-b260 10.1.0.5:3022 kernel=3.19.0-56,uptime=up 1 hour, 15 minutes
Teleport is a fully standards-compliant SSH proxy and it can work in environments with existing SSH implementations, such as OpenSSH. This section will cover:
- Configuring OpenSSH client
ssh
to login into nodes inside a Teleport cluster. - Configuring OpenSSH server
sshd
to join a Teleport cluster.
It is possible to use OpenSSH client ssh
to connect to Teleport clusters. A Teleport
proxy works by using the standard SSH proxy subsystem. This section will explain how
to configure OpenSSH client to use it.
First, you need to export the public keys of cluster members. This has to be done on a node which runs Teleport auth server and probably must be done by a Teleport administrator:
> tctl authorities --type=host export > cluster_node_keys
On your client machine, you need to import these keys. It will allow your OpenSSH client to verify that host's certificates are signed by the trusted CA key:
> cat cluster_node_keys >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
Configure OpenSSH client to use the Teleport proxy when connecting to nodes with matching
names. Edit /etc/ssh/ssh_config
:
# Tell OpenSSH client to use work.example.com as a jumphost (proxy) when logging
# to any remote node whose name matches the pattern *.work.example.com
# Beware of recurison here (when proxy name matches your pattern)
Host *.work.example.com
ProxyCommand ssh -p 3023 %[email protected] -s proxy:%h:%p
Launch tsh
in the SSH agent mode:
> tsh --proxy=work.example.com agent
tsh agent
will print environment variables into the console. Configure your system
to evaluate these variables: they tell ssh
to use tsh
to authenticate you against
work.example.com
cluster.
When everything is configured properly, you can use ssh to connect to any node
behind work.example.com
:
> ssh [email protected]
Existing sshd
servers can be added to a Teleport cluster.
- First, you have to export the CA certificate into a file:
> tctl authorities --type=user export > cluster-ca.pub
-
Then you should copy this file to every node running
sshd
, for exampleinto /etc/ssh/teleport-ca.pub
-
Update
sshd
configuration, usually/etc/ssh/sshd_config
:
TrustedUserCAKeys /etc/ssh/user-ca.pub
Ansible is using OpenSSH client by default, this makes it compatible with Teleport without any extra work except configuring OpenSSH client to work with Teleport Proxy:
- config your OpenSSH to connect to Teleport proxy and user
tsh agent
socket - enable scp mode in the Ansible config file (default is
/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
):
scp_if_ssh = True
Teleport supports OpenID Connect (also known as OIDC
) to
provide external authentication using OpenID providers like Google Apps.
First, you must configure OpenID Connect credentials via Google's Developers Center. Please refer to this guide to configure an OIDC integration with applications like Teleport.
- Create Teleport Project that will identify your installation:
- Set up consent screen:
- Create "Web application" client ID:
- Get OAuth 2.0 client credentials:
- Add OIDC connector to teleport config:
auth_service:
enabled: true
domain_name: localhost
oidc_connectors:
- id: google
redirect_url: https://localhost:3080/v1/webapi/oidc/callback
client_id: id-from-google.apps.googleusercontent.com
client_secret: secret-key-from-google
issuer_url: https://accounts.google.com
Now you should be able to create Teleport users whose identity is managed by Google.
Assuming your company domain is example.com
and it's hosted on Google Apps, lets
create a new Teleport user "sasha" with an email address [email protected]
and allow
him to login as root
to Teleport nodes:
tctl users add sasha root,sasha --identity google:[email protected]
Web UI
Now, if everything is set up correctly, you will see "Login with Google" button on the login screen:
CLI
You have to tell tsh
to authenticate via Google by providing an --auth
flag:
tsh --proxy <proxy-addr> ssh --auth=google <server-addr>
... you should get a browser open a login window for you, where you will have to enter your Google credentials. Teleport will keep you logged in for the next 23 hours.
!!! tip "Other Providers?": We have already received the requests to add support for other OpenID/OAuth2 providers like Github. Teleport is an open source project and adding proivders is not hard, your contributions are welcome, just search the code for OIDC! :-)
Teleport uses etcd backend to achieve highly available deployments.
-
Install etcd and configure peer and client TLS authentication using etcd security guide.
**Security note:** Only Auth servers should have client certificates allowing etcd access, otherwise anyone can write and overwrite keys in the backend!
-
Set up Auth server to use etcd in
storage
section of Auth server's config file:
teleport:
storage:
type: etcd
# still need data dir for local storage purposes
data_dir: /var/lib/teleport
# list of etcd peers to connect to
peers:
- https://172.17.0.1:4001
# required path to TLS client certificate file to connect to etcd
tls_cert_file: /var/lib/teleport/etcd-cert.pem
# required path to TLS private key file to connect to etc
tls_key_file: /var/lib/teleport/etcd-key.pem
# optioinal file with trusted CA authority
# file to authenticate etcd nodes
tls_ca_file: /var/lib/teleport/etcd-ca.pem
- Deploy several Auth servers connected to etcd backend
- Deploy several Proxy nodes that have
auth_servers
pointed to list of Auth servers to connect
NOTE As new Auth servers will be added to the cluster and old servers will be decommisioned,
node's and proxies will refresh the list of available auth servers refresh the cluster info and
store the updated list locally in /var/lib/teleport/authservers.json
. The values from this
file, if present, will take precendence over configuration file's values.
You can simply remove the file so that the configuration file's values can take effect again.
To diagnose problems you can configure teleport
to run with verbose logging enabled.
!!! note "IMPORTANT": It is not recommended to run Teleport in production with verbose logging as it generates substantial amount of data.
Sometimes you may want to reset teleport
to a clean state. This can be accomplished
by erasing everything under "data_dir"
directory. Assuming the default location,
rm -rf /var/lib/teleport/*
will do.
Please open an issue on Github. Alternatively, you can reach through the contact form on our website.
For commercial support, custom features or to try our multi-cluster edition of Teleport,
please reach out to us: [email protected]
.