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DatabaseAccessRequest

What is DatabaseAccessRequest

A DatabaseAccessRequest is a Kubernetes CustomResourceDefinition (CRD) which allows a user to request a Vault server for database credentials in a Kubernetes native way. If DatabaseAccessRequest is approved, then the KubeVault operator will issue credentials and create Kubernetes secret containing credentials. The secret name will be specified in status.secret.name field.

KubeVault operator performs the following operations when a DatabaseAccessRequest CRD is created:

• Checks whether status.conditions[].type is Approved or not
• If Approved, requests the Vault server for credentials
• Creates a Kubernetes Secret which contains the credentials
• Sets the name of the k8s secret to GCPAccessKeyRequest’s status.secret.name
• Assigns read permissions on that Kubernetes secret to specified subjects or user identities

AWSAccessKeyRequest CRD Specification

Like any official Kubernetes resource, a DatabaseAccessRequest object has TypeMeta, ObjectMeta, Spec and Status sections.

A sample DatabaseAccessRequest object is shown below:

apiVersion: engine.kubevault.com/v1alpha1
kind: DatabaseAccessRequest
metadata:
  name: db-cred
  namespace: demo
spec:
  roleRef:
    name: database-role
    namespace: demo
  subjects:
    - kind: ServiceAccount
      name: sa
      namespace: demo
status:
  conditions:
  - lastUpdateTime: "2019-11-18T06:41:57Z"
    message: This was approved by kubectl vault approve databaseaccessrequest
    reason: KubectlApprove
    type: Approved
  lease:
    duration: 1h0m0s
    id: database/creds/k8s.-.demo.mdb-role/ni3TCo2HkSwCUb8kmQuvIDdx
    renewable: true
  secret:
    name: mdb-cred-rqst-gy66wq

Here, we are going to describe the various sections of the DatabaseAccessRequest crd.

DatabaseAccessRequest Spec

DatabaseAccessRequest spec contains information about database role and subject.

spec:
  roleRef:
    apiGroup: <role-apiGroup>
    kind: <role-kind>
    name: <role-name>
    namespace: <role-namespace>
  subjects:
    - kind: <subject-kind>
      apiGroup: <subject-apiGroup>
      name: <subject-name>
      namespace: <subject-namespace>
  ttl: <ttl-for-leases>

DatabaseAccessRequest spec has the following fields:

spec.roleRef

spec.roleRef is a required field that specifies the reference to a database Role CR (i.e.MongoDBRole, PostgresRole, MySQLRole) against which credentials will be issued.

It has the following fields:

• roleRef.apiGroup : Optional. Specifies the APIGroup of the resource being referenced.

• roleRef.kind : Optional. Specifies the kind of the resource being referenced.

• roleRef.name : Required. Specifies the name of the object being referenced.

• roleRef.namespace : Required. Specifies the namespace of the referenced object.

spec:
  roleRef:
    name: database-role
    namespace: demo

spec.subjects

spec.subjects is a required field that contains a list of references to the object or user identities on whose behalf this request is requested. These object or user identities will have read access to the k8s credential secret. This can either hold a direct API object reference or a value for non-objects such as user and group names.

It has the following fields:

• kind : Required. Specifies the kind of object being referenced. Values defined by this API group are “User”, “Group”, and “ServiceAccount”. If the Authorizer does not recognize the kind value, the Authorizer will report an error.

• apiGroup : Optional. Specifies the APIGroup that holds the API group of the referenced subject. Defaults to "" for ServiceAccount subjects.

• name : Required. Specifies the name of the object being referenced.

• namespace: Required. Specifies the namespace of the object being referenced.

spec:
  subjects:
    - kind: ServiceAccount
      name: sa
      namespace: demo

spec.ttl

spec.ttl is an optional field that specifies the TTL for the leases associated with this role. Accepts time suffixed strings (“1h”) or an integer number of seconds. Defaults to roles default TTL time.

spec:
  ttl: "1h"

DatabaseAccessRequest Status

status shows the status of the DatabaseAccessRequest. It is managed by the KubeVault operator. It contains the following fields:

• secret: Specifies the name of the secret containing database credential.

• lease: Contains lease information of the issued credential.

• conditions : Represent observations of a DatabaseAccessRequest.

  status:
    conditions:
      - type: Approved
  

  It has following field:

  • conditions[].type : Required. Specifies request approval state. Supported type: Approved and Denied.

  • conditions[].reason : Optional. Specifies brief reason for the request state.

  • conditions[].message : Optional. Specifies human readable message with details about the request state.

Note: Database credential will be issued if conditions[].type is Approved. Otherwise, the KubeVault operator will not issue any credentials.