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Boundary
Host management

Secure access to Azure SQL database

  • 1hr 40min
  • |
  • Terraform
  • Vault
  • Boundary

This tutorial demonstrates configuring HashiCorp Boundary with Azure Active Directory (AD) and HashiCorp Vault credentials brokering to secure database access from local development environments to Azure SQL Database.

Note

This tutorial deploys resources to Azure with community Terraform modules that are not supported by HashiCorp. Furthermore, the tutorial uses HCP Terraform remote operations because deployment will take about 30 minutes. You are responsible for any costs incurred by following the steps in this tutorial.

Overview

Prerequisites

  • A Boundary binary greater than 0.7.1 in your PATH

  • A Terraform binary greater than 1.0.0 in your PATH.

  • A Vault binary greater than 1.9.3 in your PATH.

  • An HCP Terraform test account. This tutorial requires the creation of new cloud resources that will take over 30 minutes. Use HCP Terraform to deploy resources and avoid errors.

  • A Microsoft Azure test account. This tutorial requires the creation of new cloud resources and will incur costs associated with the deployment and management of these resources.

  • Install the Azure CLI. The executable must be available within your PATH.

  • For Linux or Mac, install the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server.

  • A sqlcmd utility in your PATH.

  • A jq binary greater than 1.6 in your PATH.

Tutorial Scenario

As a database administrator or data engineer, you will need write access to manage and configure databases. Similarly, developers may also need access to a development database for testing. As a simple solution, everyone could use the same username and password.

For example, imagine you want to add users with different access control to Azure SQL Database. For a more secure solution, you could add database administrators using Azure AD usernames. However, non-administrative database access requires additional configuration by creating SQL logins in the database. Separate logins introduces a separate configuration workflow.

Instead, you could use HashiCorp Boundary to provide a single workflow that allows engineers and developers to access a database from their local development environment. Boundary enables engineering teams to simulate least-privilege access of their services connecting to databases and avoid the statement, “It works on my machine!”

This tutorial provides an example of allowing a database admin to authenticate to Boundary and connect to a private Azure SQL Database with their Azure AD credentials. Then, you will re-authenticate to Boundary as a developer and connect to the database with a username and password from Vault. The username and password grant temporary read-only access to developers.

Why use Vault credentials brokering for developer access to the database? It allows you to do the following:

  • Limit developer access control policy to tables and database.
  • Define a short time window for database access.
  • Simulate access control of applications to the database.
  • Eliminate separate configuration of Azure SQL Database non-administrator users.

A developer can use similar credentials to their application for local testing without using the application’s actual credentials. This approach minimizes the risk of compromising a secret due to user access.

Get setup

In this tutorial, you will use Terraform to create the following cloud resources:

  • HCP Terraform organization and workspaces
  • Azure Virtual Network
  • Azure Active Directory users and groups
  • Azure SQL Database and Private Endpoint Connection
  • Boundary cluster
  • Vault cluster

Open a terminal and navigate to a working directory, such as the home directory. Clone down the sample repository containing configuration files.

$ git clone https://github.com/hashicorp-education/learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Navigate into the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database directory and list its contents. You will use the repository as your working directory for the rest of the tutorial.

$ ls -R1

README.md
bootstrap
database
run
terraform

./bootstrap:
main.tf
outputs.tf
secrets.auto.tfvars
tf-ad.sh
variables.tf
workspaces.tf

./database:
setup.sql

./terraform:
boundary
infrastructure
vault

./terraform/boundary:
auth.tf
database.tf
main.tf
outputs.tf
principals.tf
roles.tf
scopes.tf
variables.tf

./terraform/infrastructure:
azuread_dba.tf
azuread_dev.tf
backend.tf
database.tf
globals.auto.tfvars
main.tf
oidc.tf
outputs.tf
variables.tf
vnet.tf

./terraform/vault:
boundary.tf
database.tf
main.tf
outputs.tf
policy.tf
variables.tf

Get Azure credentials

Log into Azure with your credentials. Make sure you have administrative access to create service principals.

$ az login --scope https://graph.windows.net//.default

Identify your Azure subscription and copy its ID. Set it as the AZURERM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID environment variable.

$ export AZURERM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=<your Azure subscription ID>

Create an Azure service principal for Terraform to create resources and configure Azure RBAC. Use the Azure CLI to configure a service principal with the following:

  • Role of Owner
  • Scoped access to the Azure subscription
  • Name of HCP Terraform (learn-boundary-azure-sql-database) for identification purposes

The command includes a file redirect to save the service principal's credentials in the azure.json file.

$ az ad sp create-for-rbac --role="Owner" \
  --scopes="/subscriptions/${AZURERM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID}" \
  --name "HCP Terraform (learn-boundary-azure-sql-database)" > azure.json

Source the credentials from the azure.json file to environment variables for ease of access.

Set the tenant ID to an environment variable, AZURERM_TENANT_ID.

$ export AZURERM_TENANT_ID=$(cat azure.json | jq -r '.tenant')

Set the application ID to an environment variable, AZURERM_CLIENT_ID.

$ export AZURERM_CLIENT_ID=$(cat azure.json | jq -r '.appId')

Set the password to an environment variable, AZURERM_CLIENT_SECRET.

$ export AZURERM_CLIENT_SECRET=$(cat azure.json | jq -r '.password')

Add API permissions to the Azure application using the bootstrap/tf-ad.sh script. The Azure application for Terraform needs administrative consent to create users and groups.

$ bash bootstrap/tf-ad.sh

Get HCP Terraform credentials

In your terminal, generate an HCP Terraform API token. Type yes to generate a new token and open a browser window for HCP Terraform.

$ terraform login

Terraform will request an API token for app.terraform.io using your browser.

If login is successful, Terraform will store the token in plain text in
the following file for use by subsequent commands:
    ./.terraform.d/credentials.tfrc.json

Do you want to proceed?
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to confirm.

  Enter a value:

Copy the API token from the browser and paste it into the terminal prompt for a token.

...
... Truncated Output ...
...


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Terraform must now open a web browser to the tokens page for app.terraform.io.

If a browser does not open this automatically, open the following URL to proceed:
    https://app.terraform.io/app/settings/tokens?source=terraform-login


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Generate a token using your browser, and copy-paste it into this prompt.

Terraform will store the token in plain text in the following file
for use by subsequent commands:
    /Users/rosemarywang/.terraform.d/credentials.tfrc.json

Token for app.terraform.io:
  Enter a value:

Set up HCP Terraform

Navigate to the bootstrap/ folder.

$ cd bootstrap

Open the terraform.auto.tfvars file in the bootstrap/ folder. Replace the values in the file with the following:

  • Azure credentials in the azure_credentials.

    • Copy the value from the AZURERM_CLIENT_ID environment variable and add it to the value of arm_client_id.
    • Copy the value from the AZURERM_CLIENT_SECRET environment variable and add it to the value of arm_client_secret.
    • Copy the value from the AZURERM_TENANT_ID environment variable and add it to the value of arm_tenant_id.
    • Copy the value from the AZURERM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID environment variable and add it to the value of arm_subscription_id.

  • Your associated HCP Terraform email address in email.

  • Azure Active Directory domain for user creation in azure_ad_domain.

The attributes in this file get passed as sensitive variables to the HCP Terraform workspaces.

bootstrap/terraform.auto.tfvars

## Azure credentials for Terraform to create resources
azure_credentials = {
  arm_client_id       = ""
  arm_client_secret   = ""
  arm_subscription_id = ""
  arm_tenant_id       = ""
}

## Email for HCP Terraform organization
email = ""

## Azure Active Directory domain to create users
azure_ad_domain = ""

Initialize Terraform to set the local backend for initial creation of workspaces.

$ terraform init

Apply Terraform to create an organization and three workspaces. Type yes after reviewing your plan.

$ terraform apply

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Plan: 23 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Apply complete! Resources: 23 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

The Terraform configuration uses the random_pet resource to generate a unique prefix for your HCP Terraform organization and Azure resources. Your new HCP Terraform organization will take the format of ${PET_NAME}-learn-boundary-azure-sql.

Note

The tutorial will use ${PET_NAME} in place of the prefix randomly generated for your resources.

For example, navigating to the HCP Terraform UI shows that this run of the tutorial generated the pet name starling and the organization starling-learn-boundary-azure-sql.

HashiCorp Boundary controller uses Azure Active Directory to authenticate, worker uses HashiCorp Vault creates database credentials for Boundary worker

This organization contains three workspaces for running this tutorial.

  • infrastructure: Creates Boundary cluster, Vault cluster, database, users, and groups.
  • boundary: Configures Boundary projects and roles.
  • vault: Configures Vault and Vault credentials brokering in Boundary.

Navigate to the top-level working directory.

$ cd ..

When you set up the HCP Terraform workspaces, the configuration created new Terraform variable files in the terraform/infrastructure/, terraform/boundary/ and terraform/vault folders.

Verify that you have three backend.tf files in the terraform/ directories. It sets up a remote backend to your HCP Terraform organization and infrastructure workspace.

$ find . -name "backend.tf"

./terraform/boundary/backend.tf
./terraform/infrastructure/backend.tf
./terraform/vault/backend.tf

Verify that you have three globals.auto.tfvars files in the terraform/ directories. This passes the ${PET_NAME} prefix for resource groups.

$ find . -name "globals.auto.tfvars"

./terraform/boundary/globals.auto.tfvars
./terraform/infrastructure/globals.auto.tfvars
./terraform/vault/globals.auto.tfvars

Review infrastructure

You can now create infrastructure in Azure, including a Boundary cluster, Vault cluster, Azure SQL Database, Azure AD users, groups, and applications. Vault and Boundary access the Azure SQL Database over a private IP address.

HashiCorp Boundary controller uses Azure Active Directory to authenticate, worker uses HashiCorp Vault creates database credentials for Boundary worker.

Infrastructure Diagram

Check your working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Navigate to the terraform/infrastructure/ folder.

$ cd terraform/infrastructure

Review the Terraform configuration for Azure AD users and groups in azuread_dba.tf. It defines a user named ${PET_NAME}-dba belonging to the database group.

terraform/infrastructure/azuread_dba.tf

locals {
  database_group  = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-database"
}

resource "random_password" "database_admin" {
  length           = 16
  special          = true
  override_special = "_%@"
}

resource "azuread_user" "database" {
  user_principal_name = local.database_username.user_principal_name
  display_name        = local.database_username.display_name
  mail_nickname       = local.database_username.mail_nickname
  password            = random_password.database_admin.result
}

resource "azuread_group" "database" {
  display_name     = local.database_group
  security_enabled = true
  owners           = [data.azuread_client_config.current.object_id]
  members          = [azuread_user.database.object_id]
}

The azuread_dev.tf file also defines a user named ${PET_NAME}-dev belonging to the development group.

terraform/infrastructure/azuread_dev.tf

locals {
  developer_group = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-development"
}

resource "random_password" "developer" {
  length           = 16
  special          = true
  override_special = "_%@"
}

resource "azuread_user" "developer" {
  user_principal_name = local.developer_username.user_principal_name
  display_name        = local.developer_username.display_name
  mail_nickname       = local.developer_username.mail_nickname
  password            = random_password.developer.result
}

resource "azuread_group" "developer" {
  display_name     = local.developer_group
  security_enabled = true
  owners           = [data.azuread_client_config.current.object_id]
  members          = [azuread_user.developer.object_id]
}

The configuration creates two Azure Private Endpoints. The endpoints allow Boundary and Vault to access the database over a private network. You cannot publicly access the database.

terraform/infrastructure/database.tf

resource "azurerm_private_endpoint" "boundary" {
  depends_on          = [azurerm_mssql_server.database]
  name                = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-boundary"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.resources.name
  location            = var.location
  subnet_id           = local.worker_subnet_id

  private_service_connection {
    name                           = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-boundary"
    is_manual_connection           = false
    private_connection_resource_id = azurerm_mssql_server.database.id
    subresource_names              = ["sqlServer"]
  }
}

resource "azurerm_private_endpoint" "vault" {
  depends_on          = [azurerm_mssql_server.database]
  name                = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-vault"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.resources.name
  location            = var.location
  subnet_id           = local.vault_subnet_id

  private_service_connection {
    name                           = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-vault"
    is_manual_connection           = false
    private_connection_resource_id = azurerm_mssql_server.database.id
    subresource_names              = ["sqlServer"]
  }
}

Build infrastructure with Terraform

Initialize Terraform to set the remote backend to the infrastructure workspace.

$ terraform init

Apply Terraform to create your infrastructure using remote operations. Type yes after reviewing your plan.

Troubleshooting

This step will take 30 minutes. If you find it is taking longer than 30 minutes or results in an error, expand the corresponding accordion below to check your work.

On occasion, Azure will rate-limit or encounter a race conditions when creating resources with Terraform. This results in a run taking longer than 30 minutes.

Cancel Terraform Apply

In your terminal, enter Ctrl-C to cancel the terraform apply. Type yes to confirm the cancellation.

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

^C
Interrupt received.
Please wait for Terraform to exit or data loss may occur.
Gracefully shutting down...


Do you want to cancel the remote operation?
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to cancel.

  Enter a value: yes

Wait for a few minutes. If the run does not cancel, log into HCP Terraform and go to your organization. Select the infrastructure workspace and click the run that has the Applying state.

Select HCP Terraform workspace named infrastructure and select the run in applying state

Scroll down to the bottom of the run. A button to Force Cancel will appear at the bottom of the run. Click Force Cancel to stop the run.

Stuck on Azure Key Vault?

Examine the Terraform run. If you find it stuck creating module.install.azurerm_key_vault.boundary, you created an Azure Key Vault instance with the same name as another Key Vault instance. They must be globally unique in Azure.

To fix this, make sure you are in the terraform/infrastructure working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/terraform/infrastructure

Taint the random string used for generating the Azure Key Vault name. This tells Terraform to create a new name.

$ terraform taint module.install.random_string.vault

Stuck on Subnet Network Security Group Association?

Alternatively, Terraform may be stuck trying to creating the following resources:

module.install.azurerm_subnet_network_security_group_association.controller
module.install.azurerm_subnet_network_security_group_association.worker

You do not need to taint these resources. Azure may have difficulty creating these resources due to a race condition.

Re-Apply Terraform

Make sure you are in the terraform/infrastructure working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/terraform/infrastructure

Return to your terminal and re-apply Terraform to create your infrastructure using remote operations. Type yes after reviewing your plan.

$ terraform apply

If you have an error, verify the error message. Terraform auto-generates IDs for different Azure resources. Sometimes, the IDs do not comply with Azure's requirements. For example, this could be the name of the Azure Key Vault instance for Boundary's recovery keys.

To fix this, make sure you are in the terraform/infrastructure working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/terraform/infrastructure

Taint the random string used for generating the Azure Key Vault name. This tells Terraform to create a new name.

$ terraform taint module.install.random_string.vault

Re-apply Terraform to create your infrastructure using remote operations. Type yes after reviewing your plan.

$ terraform apply

$ terraform apply

Running apply in the remote backend. Output will stream here. Pressing Ctrl-C
will cancel the remote apply if it's still pending. If the apply started it
will stop streaming the logs, but will not stop the apply running remotely.

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Plan: 104 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Apply complete! Resources: 104 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

Outputs:

azuread_group_database = "c5b5aabb-55e1-445f-9d4e-0782e3f77bfa"
azuread_group_developer = "99097e12-5055-490e-bc0a-6e54f8fe3228"
azuread_user_database = <sensitive>
azuread_user_database_admin_password = <sensitive>
azuread_user_database_object_id = <sensitive>
azuread_user_database_username = <sensitive>
azuread_user_developer = <sensitive>
azuread_user_developer_object_id = <sensitive>
azuread_user_developer_password = <sensitive>
azuread_user_developer_username = <sensitive>
boundary_fqdn = "${PET_NAME}-learn.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com"
boundary_oidc_application_id = "b7b4375d-28d6-4fff-89ec-79d3248c79b7"
boundary_oidc_azure_ad = <sensitive>
boundary_recovery_service_principal_client_id = "3e75bbe3-3bc6-48ab-831f-da5f5759d10e"
boundary_recovery_service_principal_client_secret = <sensitive>
boundary_recovery_service_principal_tenant_id = "0e3e2e88-8caf-41ca-b4da-e3b33b6c52ec"
boundary_url = "https://${PET_NAME}-learn.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com:9200"
key_vault_name = "boundary-6SOTVGrJ2wk"
mssql_admin_username = <sensitive>
mssql_database_name = "DemoExpenses"
mssql_ip_address = "10.0.1.5"
mssql_password = <sensitive>
mssql_server_name = "${PET_NAME}-learn-database"
mssql_url = "${PET_NAME}-learn-database.database.windows.net"
private_key = <sensitive>
subscription_id = <sensitive>
vault_fqdn = "${PET_NAME}-learn-vault.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com"
vault_mssql_ip_address = "10.0.3.5"
vault_private_key = <sensitive>
vault_url = "http://${PET_NAME}-learn-vault.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com:8200"

This Terraform configuration outputs the IDs, URLs, and names of any infrastructure resources you need to configure Boundary and Vault. For example, the boundary_oidc_application_id outputs the client ID Boundary needs for the OIDC authentication method.

Initialize Vault

The Terraform configuration builds a Vault server. However, you need to initialize and unseal the Vault server. This ensures that you get the Vault unseal key and root token for additional configuration.

Check that you have the infrastructure/ working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/terraform/infrastructure

Set the Vault URL to the VAULT_ADDR environment variable.

$ export VAULT_ADDR=$(terraform output -raw vault_url)

Initialize Vault with one unseal key and save the output to unseal.json file.

$ vault operator init -key-shares=1 -key-threshold=1 -format=json > unseal.json

Unseal Vault with the key saved in the unseal.json file.

$ vault operator unseal $(cat unseal.json | jq -r '.unseal_keys_hex[0]')

Use the root token in unseal.json and set it to the VAULT_ADDR environment variable.

$ export VAULT_TOKEN=$(cat unseal.json | jq -r '.root_token')

You need to pass the VAULT_TOKEN to the HCP Terraform workspace for vault. This allows Terraform to configure secrets engines for Vault.

$ echo "vault_token = \"${VAULT_TOKEN}\"" > ../../bootstrap/vault.auto.tfvars

You need to re-run Terraform to add the VAULT_TOKEN variable to the vault workspace. Navigate to the bootstrap/ folder.

$ cd ../../bootstrap

Apply Terraform.

$ terraform apply -auto-approve

Navigate to the main working directory, the learn-azure-sql-database/ folder.

$ cd ..

Configure Boundary with Azure AD

If you already defined user access with Azure AD, you can use the same users and groups for HashiCorp Boundary. Enabling the OIDC authentication method allows you to use Azure AD’s single sign-on capabilities to authenticate to Boundary. A user will sign into Azure AD before receiving a Boundary token for target endpoint access.

When a user logs into Boundary, Boundary delegates authentication to Azure Active Directory before returning a token

Register Azure AD application

When you ran Terraform in the last step, you created an Azure AD application for Boundary's authentication method. Review the Terraform configuration in the terraform/infrastructure/oidc.tf file. The application needs access to Microsoft Graph API.

terraform/infrastructure/oidc.tf

resource "azuread_application" "oidc" {
  display_name = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-boundary-oidc-auth"
  owners       = [data.azuread_client_config.current.object_id]

  group_membership_claims = ["All"]

  required_resource_access {
    resource_app_id = "00000003-0000-0000-c000-000000000000" # Microsoft Graph

    resource_access {
      id   = "df021288-bdef-4463-88db-98f22de89214" # User.Read.All
      type = "Role"
    }

    resource_access {
      id   = "b4e74841-8e56-480b-be8b-910348b18b4c" # User.ReadWrite
      type = "Scope"
    }

    resource_access {
      id   = "98830695-27a2-44f7-8c18-0c3ebc9698f6" # GroupMember.Read.All
      type = "Role"
    }
  }

  web {
    redirect_uris = ["${module.install.url}/v1/auth-methods/oidc:authenticate:callback"]
  }
}

resource "azuread_application_password" "oidc" {
  application_object_id = azuread_application.oidc.object_id
  display_name          = "Boundary secret"
}

resource "azuread_service_principal" "oidc" {
  application_id = azuread_application.oidc.application_id
  owners         = [data.azuread_client_config.current.object_id]
}

Grant administrative consent for Azure AD application

Before you configure Boundary, the Azure AD application you registered with Terraform needs administrative consent. Check that you have the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/ working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Use the Terraform output in terraform/infrastructure/ to set the application's object ID to the BOUNDARY_OIDC_APP_ID environment variable.

$ export BOUNDARY_OIDC_APP_ID=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw boundary_oidc_application_id)

Enable administrative consent for the Azure AD application.

$ az ad app permission grant \
  --id ${BOUNDARY_OIDC_APP_ID} \
  --api 00000003-0000-0000-c000-000000000000

Configure Boundary OIDC authentication method

Navigate to the terraform/boundary/ folder.

$ cd terraform/boundary/

This folder configures Boundary with projects, scopes, and authentication methods. The configuration will create a Boundary organization named ${PET_NAME}-learn and two projects, db_infra for database administrators and application for developers.

terraform/boundary/scopes.tf

resource "boundary_scope" "global" {
  description  = "Global Scope"
  global_scope = true
  name         = "global"
  scope_id     = "global"
}

resource "boundary_scope" "org" {
  scope_id    = boundary_scope.global.id
  name        = local.boundary_organization
  description = "Organization scope for ${local.boundary_organization}"
}

resource "boundary_scope" "db_infra" {
  name                     = "db_infra"
  description              = "Database infrastructure project"
  scope_id                 = boundary_scope.org.id
  auto_create_admin_role   = true
  auto_create_default_role = true
}

resource "boundary_scope" "application" {
  name                     = "application"
  description              = "Application endpoints project"
  scope_id                 = boundary_scope.org.id
  auto_create_admin_role   = true
  auto_create_default_role = true
}

To configure the OIDC authentication method, get the outputs from the infrastructure workspace. The output includes the Azure AD application issuer, ID, and secret.

The terraform/boundary/auth.tf file sets a locals configuration for the url and oidc_service_principal. It passes these attributes to the boundary_auth_method_oidc Terraform resource. The configuration sets Azure AD as the primary authentication method for the Boundary organization. Anyone who wants to access to the ${PET_NAME}-learn organization must sign in with their Azure AD identity.

Review the terraform/boundary/auth.tf file with the locals configuration.

terraform/boundary/auth.tf

locals {
  url                    = data.terraform_remote_state.infrastructure.outputs.boundary_url
  oidc_service_principal = data.terraform_remote_state.infrastructure.outputs.boundary_oidc_azure_ad
}

resource "boundary_auth_method_oidc" "azuread" {
  name                 = "Azure AD"
  description          = "Azure AD auth method for ${local.boundary_organization}"
  scope_id             = boundary_scope.org.id
  issuer               = local.oidc_service_principal.issuer
  client_id            = local.oidc_service_principal.client_id
  client_secret        = local.oidc_service_principal.client_secret
  signing_algorithms   = ["RS256"]
  api_url_prefix       = local.url
  is_primary_for_scope = true
  state                = "active-public"
}

Add Boundary managed groups

Link the Azure AD group identity to a Boundary managed group. The managed group can have access to Boundary organization and project scopes, which groups target endpoints. Managed groups memberships are automatically maintained by evaluating a filter defined in the managed group's configuration against the information returned by an auth method's identity provider (IdP), in this case Azure Active Directory.

Database administrators access the db_infra project and operators access the application project based on their Azure AD group

Review the terraform/boundary/principals.tf file. It creates two managed groups in Boundary. One group matches on the database administrator Azure AD group and the other matches on the operator Azure AD group.

terraform/boundary/principals.tf

## Set up Azure AD groups for developers to log in
resource "boundary_managed_group" "developer" {
  auth_method_id = boundary_auth_method_oidc.azuread.id
  description    = "Developer team managed group linked to Azure AD"
  name           = "developers"
  filter         = "\"${local.azuread_group_dev}\" in \"/token/groups\""
}

## Set up Azure AD groups for database admins to log in
resource "boundary_managed_group" "database" {
  auth_method_id = boundary_auth_method_oidc.azuread.id
  description    = "Database administrators team managed group linked to Azure AD"
  name           = "db-admins"
  filter         = "\"${local.azuread_group_db}\" in \"/token/groups\""
}

The managed group filters on information in the JSON Web Token (JWT) returned by Azure AD. The metadata includes claim information on groups. The filter checks that the Azure AD group’s object ID exists in the groups claim. You can configure additional filters on OIDC managed groups.

Review the terraform/boundary/roles.tf file. The boundary_role resources add the managed groups to Boundary roles for each project. The database administrators have access to the db_infra project, while the developers have access to the application project.

terraform/boundary/roles.tf

resource "boundary_role" "db_admin" {
  name           = "${boundary_scope.db_infra.id}-admin"
  description    = "Administrator role for ${boundary_scope.db_infra.id}"
  scope_id       = boundary_scope.org.id
  grant_scope_id = boundary_scope.db_infra.id
  grant_strings = [
    "ids=*;type=*;actions=*"
  ]
  principal_ids = [
    boundary_managed_group.database.id
  ]
}

resource "boundary_role" "application" {
  name           = "${boundary_scope.application.id}-admin"
  description    = "Administrator role for ${boundary_scope.application.id}"
  scope_id       = boundary_scope.org.id
  grant_scope_id = boundary_scope.application.id
  grant_strings = [
    "ids=*;type=*;actions=*"
  ]
  principal_ids = [
    boundary_managed_group.developer.id
  ]
}

Configure Boundary with Terraform

Initialize Terraform to set the remote backend to the boundary workspace.

$ terraform init

Apply Terraform to configure Boundary using remote operations. Type yes after reviewing your plan.

$ terraform apply

Running apply in the remote backend. Output will stream here. Pressing Ctrl-C
will cancel the remote apply if it's still pending. If the apply started it
will stop streaming the logs, but will not stop the apply running remotely.

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Plan: 19 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Apply complete! Resources: 19 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

Outputs:

azuread_auth_method_id = "amoidc_OmmQjOiZgt"
database_admin_target_id = "ttcp_WZKLLzXOG2"
developer_database_host_set_id = "hsst_O7xXtFqnBW"
developer_scope_id = "p_7bY7KyfNKP"

This Terraform configuration outputs the Azure AD auth method and database target ID for database administrators to log into Boundary and the Azure SQL Database. Later in the tutorial, use the application project's scope and host set IDs for configuring Vault credentials brokering.

Navigate to the main working directory, the learn-azure-sql-database/ folder.

$ cd ../..

Verify Database Administrator Access

As a database administrator, you want to log into the database using your Azure AD credentials. However, you cannot access the database over a public connection. You must proxy through Boundary in order to connect to the database.

Azure SQL Database allows you to attach database administrators using their Azure AD object ID. Review the configuration for Azure SQL Database in database.tf. The database server adds the ${PET_NAME}-dba user as a database administrator and creates a new database named DemoExpenses.

terraform/infrastructure/database.tf

resource "azurerm_mssql_server" "database" {
  depends_on                    = [module.install]
  name                          = "${azurerm_resource_group.resources.name}-database"
  resource_group_name           = azurerm_resource_group.resources.name
  location                      = var.location
  version                       = "12.0"
  administrator_login           = "boundary"
  administrator_login_password  = random_password.database.result
  minimum_tls_version           = "1.2"
  public_network_access_enabled = false

  azuread_administrator {
    login_username = azuread_user.database.user_principal_name
    object_id      = azuread_user.database.object_id
  }

  tags = var.tags
}

resource "azurerm_mssql_database" "database" {
  name      = var.database_name
  server_id = azurerm_mssql_server.database.id
  sku_name  = "Basic"
  tags      = var.tags
}

The database's Terraform configuration requires a static username and password for the administrator_login. Define these attributes to access the database without an Azure AD login.

Check that you are in the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/ directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Configure DNS forwarding

Get the Azure SQL Database endpoint from the outputs of terraform/infrastructure/ and set it to the DATABASE_URL environment variable.

$ export DATABASE_URL=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw mssql_url)

Add a host entry to your local machine that forwards the Azure SQL Database endpoint to 127.0.0.1, which represents the Boundary proxy.

Note

To resolve to the database's private endpoint, add a host entry to your local machine for testing purposes only. For production environments, configure a private DNS zone to resolve to the database’s private endpoint. Review Azure documentation for recommendations.

$ sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "127.0.0.1 '${DATABASE_URL}'" >> /etc/hosts'

Authenticate to Boundary

After setting up DNS forwarding through a local host entry or private zone, access Azure SQL Database through Boundary.

Open a second terminal

Open a new terminal window. Ensure you are still located in the learn-boundary-azure-sql/ working directory by running pwd.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

In the new terminal, set the database administrator's Azure username in the SQLCMDUSER environment variable.

$ export SQLCMDUSER=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw azuread_user_database_username)

Check that you saved the username in the SQLCMDUSER environment variable.

$ echo $SQLCMDUSER

${PET_NAME}-dba@<Your Azure AD Domain>

In the second terminal, set the database administrator's Azure password in the SQLCMDPASSWORD environment variable.

$ export SQLCMDPASSWORD=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw azuread_user_database_admin_password)

Check that you saved the password in the SQLCMDPASSWORD environment variable.

$ echo $SQLCMDPASSWORD

REDACTED

Note

Be sure you can retrieve the username and password from the second terminal. Use them to log into Azure via the browser.

In the first terminal

Go back to the first terminal window. Ensure you are still located in the learn-boundary-azure-sql/ working directory by running pwd.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Set the Boundary endpoint to the BOUNDARY_ADDR environment variable.

$ export BOUNDARY_ADDR=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw boundary_url)

Set the BOUNDARY_TLS_INSECURE environment variable since the Boundary cluster does not have certificates configured.

$ export BOUNDARY_TLS_INSECURE=true

Set the authentication method ID from Boundary in the BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID environment variable.

$ export BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID=$(cd terraform/boundary && terraform output -raw azuread_auth_method_id)

Authenticate to Boundary as a database administrator in your terminal. This opens a browser window for you to log in using the database administrator's Azure AD credentials.

Note

Before performing the authentication, ensure you have signed out of the Azure portal in your default browser.

After the login page opens, enter the information as follows:

  • Log in using the email address contained in the SQLCMDUSER environment variable
  • Log in using the password in the SQLCMDPASSWORD environment variable.
  • Ignore any prompts from Azure to enable additional account security.
  • Proceed past any certificate warnings from the browser.

Boundary returns a token and stores it in the chosen keyring.

$ boundary authenticate oidc -auth-method-id=${BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID}

Opening returned authentication URL in your browser...

Authentication information:
  Account ID:      acctoidc_4xbvxa6aiU
  Auth Method ID:  amoidc_OmmQjOiZgt
  Expiration Time: Mon, 21 Mar 2022 14:26:33 EDT
  User ID:         u_Sv6r6c8d1J

The token was successfully stored in the chosen keyring and is not displayed here.

Connect to database

In the first terminal

Set the database target ID in the db_infra project in the BOUNDARY_DB_ADMIN_TARGET environment variable.

$ export BOUNDARY_DB_ADMIN_TARGET_ID=$(cd terraform/boundary && terraform output -raw database_admin_target_id)

Start a proxy session in Boundary to listen on port 1433.

$ boundary connect -target-id ${BOUNDARY_DB_ADMIN_TARGET_ID} -listen-port 1433

Proxy listening information:
  Address:             127.0.0.1
  Connection Limit:    1
  Expiration:          Mon, 14 Mar 2022 22:28:14 EDT
  Port:                1433
  Protocol:            tcp
  Session ID:          s_uhw0F2eHK6

In the second terminal

In the second terminal, set the Azure SQL Database endpoint in the SQLCMDSERVER environment variable.

$ export SQLCMDSERVER=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw mssql_url)

Set up a table in DemoExpenses database using the sqlcmd utility. The -G option means you use an Azure AD login.

$ sqlcmd -C -G -d DemoExpenses -i database/setup.sql

Changed database context to 'DemoExpenses'.

Use sqlcmd to connect to the database.

$ sqlcmd -C -G -d DemoExpenses

1>

Test that you set up into the ExpenseItems table.

1> SELECT * FROM ExpenseItems
2> GO
Id                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Name                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            TripId                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Cost                  Currency                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Date             Reimbursable
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- ------------

(0 rows affected)

As a database administrator, you have write access to add data using the sqlcmd utility.

1> INSERT INTO ExpenseItems (Id,Name) VALUES (0,'learn')
2> GO

(1 rows affected)

Exit from the Azure SQL Database. Boundary closes the session because no connections remain open.

1> exit

Note

Before continuing in the tutorial, go to the Azure portal and sign out of the database administrator username.

Alternatively, a security administrator could cancel the session through Boundary and require the database administrator to restart a new database connection.

Broker Database Credentials via Vault

While the database administrators have edit access to the Azure SQL Database, you do not want to grant developers the same level of access. This problem has a few requirements, including:

  1. You want to limit developer access to reading data from a specific database.
  2. Developers should only have access for an hour.
  3. Developers need to simulate the access control of their application. They need similar credentials to the application for local testing without using the application’s actual credentials.

To address all three requirements, you can set up Vault credentials brokering. Similar to the database administrator, a developer authenticates to Boundary and starts a connection with the database endpoint. However, they do not log into the database with their Azure AD credentials.

Instead, Boundary requests a short-lived database username and password from HashiCorp Vault on the developer's behalf. The developer can use the temporary username and password to log into Azure SQL Database. When the developer disconnects, Boundary requests that Vault revoke the username and password.

A developer logs into Boundary to access the database and gets a short-lived username and password from Vault

Configure database secrets engine in Vault

Return to the first terminal you opened for this tutorial. Before configuring Vault credentials brokering, set up the database secrets engine and a periodic token for Boundary.

Review the terraform/vault/database.tf file. Terraform enables the Microsoft SQL Server database engine at the expense/database/mssql path.

terraform/vault/database.tf

resource "vault_mount" "mssql" {
  path = "${var.application}/database/mssql"
  type = "database"
}

Use Terraform to set up the backend connection to the database. It connects to the DemoExpenses database with a static username and password you created as part of the Azure SQL Database.

Since you did not set up DNS forwarding and Azure SQL Database uses a private endpoint connection, the Terraform configuration adds the database instance name as part of the user login in the connection_url for the secrets engine and its private IP address as the server endpoint.

terraform/vault/database.tf

locals {
  vault_role = "app"
}

resource "vault_mount" "mssql" {
  path = "${var.application}/database/mssql"
  type = "database"
}

resource "vault_database_secret_backend_connection" "mssql" {
  backend       = vault_mount.mssql.path
  name          = "mssql"
  allowed_roles = [local.vault_role]
  mssql {
    connection_url = "sqlserver://{{username}}@${local.mssql_url}:{{password}}@${local.mssql_ip_address}:${var.mssql_port}?database=${local.mssql_database_name}"
    username       = var.mssql_username
    password       = local.mssql_password
  }
}

Add a Vault role that gives read-only access to the database. Vault will create
a user in the `DemoExpenses` database with `SELECT` access to tables and delete
the user when revoking the secret.

<CodeBlockConfig highlight="5-6" hideClipboard
filename="terraform/vault/database.tf">

```hcl
resource "vault_database_secret_backend_role" "application" {
  backend               = vault_mount.mssql.path
  name                  = local.vault_role
  db_name               = vault_database_secret_backend_connection.mssql.name
  creation_statements   = ["CREATE USER [{{name}}] WITH PASSWORD = '{{password}}';GRANT SELECT TO [{{name}}];"]
  revocation_statements = ["DROP USER [{{name}}];"]
}

Imagine you have an application that reads data from DemoExpenses. With this configuration, you can use the same secrets engine and role to locally test your application's access to the database. Using the same Vault role allows a developer to accurately test their application’s connection to the database on the local machine with consistent access control policies. Otherwise, you may run into drift between elevated local access privilege and limited production access privilege.

Next, review the Vault policies for Boundary to retrieve credentials. Boundary needs access to read credentials from the database secrets engine, renew its token, and look up its leases.

terraform/vault/policy.tf

locals {
  boundary_creds_path = "${vault_mount.mssql.path}/creds/${vault_database_secret_backend_role.application.name}"
}

data "vault_policy_document" "boundary_controller" {
  rule {
    path         = "auth/token/lookup-self"
    capabilities = ["read"]
  }

  rule {
    path         = "auth/token/renew-self"
    capabilities = ["update"]
  }

  rule {
    path         = "auth/token/revoke-self"
    capabilities = ["update"]
  }

  rule {
    path         = "sys/leases/renew"
    capabilities = ["update"]
  }

  rule {
    path         = "sys/leases/revoke"
    capabilities = ["update"]
  }

  rule {
    path         = "sys/capabilities-self"
    capabilities = ["update"]
  }
}

resource "vault_policy" "boundary_controller" {
  name   = "boundary-controller"
  policy = data.vault_policy_document.boundary_controller.hcl
}

data "vault_policy_document" "boundary_product" {
  rule {
    path         = local.boundary_creds_path
    capabilities = ["read"]
    description  = "read credentials for expense database"
  }
}

resource "vault_policy" "boundary_product" {
  name   = "boundary"
  policy = data.vault_policy_document.boundary_product.hcl
}

Attach the Vault policies to a periodic token. Boundary will use this token to retrieve the credentials from Vault. The token has a time-to-live of 24 hours. Boundary must use the token each day.

terraform/vault/policy.tf

resource "vault_token" "boundary" {
  role_name = vault_token_auth_backend_role.boundary.role_name
  policies = [
    vault_policy.boundary_product.name,
    vault_policy.boundary_controller.name
  ]
  period = "24h"
}

resource "vault_token_auth_backend_role" "boundary" {
  role_name = "boundary"
  allowed_policies = [
    vault_policy.boundary_product.name,
    vault_policy.boundary_controller.name
  ]
  disallowed_policies = ["default"]
  orphan              = true
  renewable           = true
}

Configure credentials store in Boundary

The terraform/vault/ folder includes additional Terraform to add a credentials store and database target ID to the application project.

Review the credentials store and library in terraform/vault/boundary.tf. The credentials store connects to Vault. The library allows Boundary to get the database credentials from the Vault API path, expense/database/mssql/creds/app.

terraform/vault/boundary.tf

resource "boundary_credential_store_vault" "vault" {
  name            = "vault"
  description     = "Vault credentials store"
  address         = local.vault_url
  tls_skip_verify = true
  token           = vault_token.boundary.client_token
  scope_id        = local.boundary_developer_scope
}

resource "boundary_credential_library_vault" "database" {
  name                = "database"
  description         = "Vault credential library for developer database access"
  credential_store_id = boundary_credential_store_vault.vault.id
  path                = local.boundary_creds_path
  http_method         = "GET"
}

The boundary_target resource adds a new target to Boundary in the application project. Similar to the database target in the db_infra project, the new target connects to the same database endpoint. However, the application project allows developers to retrieve a database username and password when they connect to the database through Boundary.

terraform/vault/boundary.tf

resource "boundary_target" "db_app" {
  type                     = "tcp"
  name                     = "database"
  description              = "MSSQL Database"
  scope_id                 = local.boundary_developer_scope
  session_connection_limit = 1
  default_port             = 1433
  host_source_ids = [
    local.boundary_database_host_set
  ]
  application_credential_source_ids = [
    boundary_credential_library_vault.database.id
  ]
}

Configure Vault and Boundary with Terraform

Check that you have the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/ working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Navigate to terraform/vault/ folder.

$ cd terraform/vault

Initialize Terraform to set the remote backend to the vault workspace.

$ terraform init

Apply Terraform to configure Boundary using remote operations. Type yes after reviewing your plan.

$ terraform apply

Running apply in the remote backend. Output will stream here. Pressing Ctrl-C
will cancel the remote apply if it's still pending. If the apply started it
will stop streaming the logs, but will not stop the apply running remotely.

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Plan: 10 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes

...
... Truncated Output ...
...

Apply complete! Resources: 10 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

Outputs:

developer_target_id = "ttcp_uroHwXREdD"

This Terraform configuration outputs the target ID for the developer to access the database.

Navigate to the main working directory, the learn-azure-sql-database/ folder.

$ cd ../..

Verify Developer Read-Only Access

As a developer, you want to test an application on your local machine. The application accesses data in the DemoExpenses database.

You log into Boundary by signing in to Azure AD. When you start the Boundary proxy to connect to the same database in the application project, you get a database username and password created by Vault.

Check that you have the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/ working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Authenticate to Boundary

In the second terminal

In your second terminal, set the developer's Azure username in the DEVELOPER_USERNAME environment variable.

$ export DEVELOPER_USERNAME=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw azuread_user_developer_username)

Check that you saved the username in the DEVELOPER_USERNAME environment variable.

$ echo $DEVELOPER_USERNAME

${PET_NAME}-dev@<Your Azure AD Domain>

In the second terminal, set the developer's Azure password in the DEVELOPER_PASSWORD environment variable.

$ export DEVELOPER_PASSWORD=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw azuread_user_developer_password)

Check that you saved the password in the DEVELOPER_PASSWORD environment variable.

$ echo $DEVELOPER_PASSWORD

REDACTED

Note

Be sure you can retrieve the username and password from the second terminal. Use them to log into Azure via the browser.

In the first terminal

Return to the first terminal. Set the Boundary endpoint to the BOUNDARY_ADDR environment variable.

$ export BOUNDARY_ADDR=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw boundary_url)

Set the BOUNDARY_TLS_INSECURE environment variable since the Boundary cluster does not have certificates configured.

$ export BOUNDARY_TLS_INSECURE=true

Set the authentication method ID from Boundary in the BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID environment variable.

$ export BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID=$(cd terraform/boundary && terraform output -raw azuread_auth_method_id)

Authenticate to Boundary as a developer in your terminal. This opens a browser window for you to log in using the developer's Azure AD credentials.

Note

Before performing the authentication, ensure you have signed out of the Azure portal in your default browser.

After the login page opens, enter the information as follows:

  • Log in using the email address contained in the DEVELOPER_USERNAME environment variable
  • Log in using the password in the DEVELOPER_PASSWORD environment variable.
  • Ignore any prompts from Azure to enable additional account security.
  • Proceed past any certificate warnings from the browser.

Boundary returns a token and stores it in the chosen keyring.

$ boundary authenticate oidc -auth-method-id=${BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID}

Opening returned authentication URL in your browser...

Authentication information:
  Account ID:      acctoidc_4xbvxa6aiU
  Auth Method ID:  amoidc_OmmQjOiZgt
  Expiration Time: Mon, 21 Mar 2022 14:26:33 EDT
  User ID:         u_Sv6r6c8d1J

The token was successfully stored in the chosen keyring and is not displayed here.

Connect to database

In the first terminal

In your first terminal, set the database target ID in the application project in the BOUNDARY_DB_DEV_TARGET_ID environment variable.

$ export BOUNDARY_DB_DEV_TARGET_ID=$(cd terraform/vault && terraform output -raw developer_target_id)

Start a proxy session in Boundary to listen on port 1433. Since you set up credentials brokering, Boundary will return a database username and password for you to connect to the database.

$ boundary connect -target-id ${BOUNDARY_DB_DEV_TARGET_ID} -listen-port 1433

Proxy listening information:
  Address:             127.0.0.1
  Connection Limit:    1
  Expiration:          Mon, 14 Mar 2022 23:49:02 EDT
  Port:                1433
  Protocol:            tcp
  Session ID:          s_i8qmgnFtBR

  Credentials:
    Credential Source Description: Vault credential library for developer database access
    Credential Source ID:          clvlt_J3SFwohTof
    Credential Source Name:        database
    Credential Store ID:           csvlt_yMDVvEvMDO
    Credential Store Type:         vault
    Secret:
        {
              "password": "REDACTED",
              "username": "v-token-token-app-9dnCqalLl8sgBaBQy23l-1647287343"
        }

In the second terminal

Open the second terminal. Set the Azure SQL Database endpoint in the SQLCMDSERVER environment variable.

$ export SQLCMDSERVER=$(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw mssql_url)

In the second terminal, copy the database username from the output of boundary connect and set it to the SQLCMDUSER environment variable.

$ export SQLCMDUSER=<Boundary's output for secret username>

In the second terminal, copy the database password from the output of boundary connect and set it to the SQLCMDPASSWORD environment variable.

$ export SQLCMDPASSWORD=<Boundary's output for secret password>

In the second terminal, access the database sqlcmd utility. You do not need the -G option with a username and password from Vault.

$ sqlcmd -C -d DemoExpenses

1>

Test that you select items from the ExpenseItems table.

1> SELECT * FROM ExpenseItems
2> GO
Id                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Name                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            TripId                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Cost                  Currency                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Date             Reimbursable
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- ------------
0                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               learn                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           NULL                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             NULL NULL                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        NULL         NULL

(1 rows affected)

However, as a developer, you cannot edit any tables in the database.

1> INSERT INTO ExpenseItems (Id,Name) VALUES (0,'learn')
2> GO

Msg 229, Level 14, State 5, Server ${PET_NAME}-learn-database, Line 1
The INSERT permission was denied on the object 'ExpenseItems', database 'DemoExpenses', schema 'dbo'.

Exit from the Azure SQL Database. Boundary closes the session because no connections remain open.

1> exit

When Boundary closes the session, it issues an asynchronous request to revoke the database username and password from Vault.

As a developer, you get temporary read access to the database for any local testing or troubleshooting. If you would like developers to have additional access to the database, you can add different credentials store to the same project with a different Vault role. The Vault role should create a user with elevated database privileges. If a developer wants additional access to edit data, they will have to use the credentials store with additional database access.

Using Vault, you define a SQL statement to generate short-lived usernames and passwords with limited access to a database. Any identity, application or user, using the Vault role confirms to the database access policy defined in the SQL statement. A single access policy helps developers debug and mimic the behavior of applications accessing the database. What works on the developer’s local environment matches the behavior and expected access control of an application to the database.

Cleanup and teardown

Note

Make sure you are in the first terminal when you issue the commands to destroy the resources.

Check that you have the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/ working directory.

$ pwd

./learn-boundary-azure-sql-database

Check you have VAULT_ADDR set in an environment variable. If not, ensure that you are in the first terminal window.

$ echo $VAULT_ADDR

Force revoke all Vault leases.

$ vault lease revoke -f -prefix expense/database/mssql

Navigate to the terraform/vault/ folder.

$ cd terraform/vault/

Delete all of the Vault configuration created by Terraform.

$ terraform destroy -auto-approve

Navigate to the terraform/boundary/ folder.

$ cd ../boundary

Delete all of the Boundary configuration created by Terraform.

$ terraform destroy -auto-approve

Navigate to the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/ working directory.

$ cd ../..

Delete the Azure AD users using your terminal. For security, you do not grant sufficient API access to the Azure AD service principal for HCP Terraform to delete users.

$ az ad user delete --id $(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw azuread_user_database_object_id) && \
  az ad user delete --id $(cd terraform/infrastructure && terraform output -raw azuread_user_developer_object_id)

Navigate to the terraform/infrastructure/ folder.

$ cd terraform/infrastructure/

Delete all of the infrastructure created by Terraform. This command will remove all resources except the Azure AD users, which must be deleted manually. The service principal does not have sufficient access to delete the Azure AD users.

Troubleshooting

This step will take 30 minutes. If you find it results in an error unrelated to deleting the Azure AD users, expand the accordion below to check your work.

Terraform may introduce a race condition in Azure when deleting the resources. If it results in an error, wait for a few minutes before running the destroy command again.

$ terraform destroy -auto-approve

$ terraform destroy -auto-approve

Navigate to the bootstrap/ folder.

$ cd ../../bootstrap

Delete the HCP Terraform workspaces and organization.

$ terraform destroy -auto-approve

Remove the local Terraform state file.

$ rm terraform.tfstate*

Navigate to the learn-boundary-azure-sql-database/ working directory.

$ cd ..

Remove local files with credentials.

$ rm -f terraform/infrastructure/unseal.json azure.json

Remove the Terraform metadata files.

$ rm -rf terraform/infrastructure/.terraform \
    terraform/boundary/.terraform \
    terraform/vault/.terraform \
    bootstrap/.terraform

Delete the Azure service principal you created for HCP Terraform.

$ az ad app delete --id ${AZURERM_CLIENT_ID}

Next steps

This tutorial demonstrated how to set up Boundary to control database access for database administrators and developers. You configured Boundary's OIDC authentication method and Vault credentials brokering with Terraform. Then, you logged in as the database administrator with Azure AD and the developer with Vault credentials for the database.

This workflow reduces the operational complexity of enabling and auditing developer and database administrator access to a database and consolidates the management of access control policies in Boundary. Boundary offers one point of access control across multiple platforms and tools. You can apply a similar approach to controlling access to other endpoints that have secrets engines in Vault, including caches, queues, and other databases.

To learn more, check out the OIDC Authentication, managed groups, and Vault credentials brokering tutorials.

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This tutorial also appears in:

  • 5 tutorials
    Self-managed deployment workflows
    Learn the standard operational tasks to deploy and configure your Boundary environment.
    • Boundary
  • 11 tutorials
    HashiCorp product integrations
    Vault can manage secrets associated with other HashiCorp products.
    • Vault