Configure HTTPS over TLS
Enabling HTTPS over TLS encrypts the communication between clients and the InfluxDB Enterprise server, and between nodes in the cluster. When configured with a signed certificate, HTTPS over TLS can also verify the authenticity of the InfluxDB Enterprise server to connecting clients.
This pages outlines how to set up HTTPS with InfluxDB Enterprise using either a signed or self-signed certificate.
InfluxData strongly recommends enabling HTTPS, especially if you plan on sending requests to InfluxDB Enterprise over a network.
These steps have been tested on Debian-based Linux distributions. Specific steps may vary on other operating systems.
Requirements
To enable HTTPS with InfluxDB Enterprise, you need a Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate, also known as a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. InfluxDB supports three types of TLS certificates:
Single domain certificates signed by a Certificate Authority
Single domain certificates provide cryptographic security to HTTPS requests and allow clients to verify the identity of the InfluxDB server. These certificates are signed and issued by a trusted, third-party Certificate Authority (CA). With this certificate option, every InfluxDB instance requires a unique single domain certificate.
Wildcard certificates signed by a Certificate Authority
These certificates provide cryptographic security to HTTPS requests and allow clients to verify the identity of the InfluxDB server. Wildcard certificates can be used across multiple InfluxDB Enterprise instances on different servers.
Self-signed certificates
Self-signed certificates are not signed by a trusted, third-party CA. Unlike CA-signed certificates, self-signed certificates only provide cryptographic security to HTTPS requests. They do not allow clients to verify the identity of the InfluxDB server. With this certificate option, every InfluxDB Enterprise instance requires a unique self-signed certificate. You can generate a self-signed certificate on your own machine.
Regardless of your certificate’s type, InfluxDB Enterprise supports certificates composed of
a private key file (.key
) and a signed certificate file (.crt
) file pair, as well as certificates
that combine the private key file and the signed certificate file into a single bundled file (.pem
).
In general, each node node should have its own certificate, whether signed or unsigned.
Set up HTTPS in an InfluxDB Enterprise cluster
Download or generate certificate files.
If using a certificate provided by a CA, follow their instructions to download the certificate files.
If using one or more self-signed certificates, use the
openssl
utility to create a certificate. The following command generates a private key file (.key
) and a self-signed certificate file (.crt
) which remain valid for the specifiedNUMBER_OF_DAYS
.sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 \ -keyout influxdb-selfsigned.key \ -out influxdb-selfsigned.crt \ -days <NUMBER_OF_DAYS>
The command will prompt you for more information. You can choose to fill out these fields or leave them blank; both actions generate valid certificate files.
In subsequent steps, you will need to copy the certificate and key (or
.pem
file) to each node in the cluster.Install the SSL/TLS certificate in each node.
Place the private key file (
.key
) and the signed certificate file (.crt
) or the single bundled file (.pem
) in the/etc/ssl/
directory of each meta node and data node.Some Certificate Authorities provide certificate files with other extensions. Consult your CA if you are unsure about how to use these files.
Ensure file permissions for each node.
Certificate files require read and write access by the
influxdb
user. Ensure that you have the correct file permissions in each meta node and data node by running the following commands:sudo chown influxdb:influxdb /etc/ssl/ sudo chmod 644 /etc/ssl/<CA-certificate-file> sudo chmod 600 /etc/ssl/<private-key-file>
Enable HTTPS within the configuration file for each meta node.
Enable HTTPS for each meta node within the
[meta]
section of the meta node configuration file (influxdb-meta.conf
) by setting:[meta] [...] # Determines whether HTTPS is enabled. https-enabled = true # The SSL certificate to use when HTTPS is enabled. https-certificate = "influxdb-meta.crt" # Use a separate private key location. https-private-key = "influxdb-meta.key" # If using a self-signed certificate: https-insecure-tls = true # Use TLS when communicating with data notes data-use-tls = true data-insecure-tls = true
Enable HTTPS within the configuration file for each data node.
Make the following sets of changes in the configuration file (
influxdb.conf
) on each data node:- Enable HTTPS for each data node within the
[http]
section of the configuration file by setting:[http] [...] # Determines whether HTTPS is enabled. https-enabled = true [...] # The SSL certificate to use when HTTPS is enabled. https-certificate = "influxdb-data.crt" # Use a separate private key location. https-private-key = "influxdb-data.key"
- Configure the data nodes to use HTTPS when communicating with other data nodes.
In the
[cluster]
section of the configuration file, set the following:[cluster] [...] # Determines whether data nodes use HTTPS to communicate with each other. https-enabled = true # The SSL certificate to use when HTTPS is enabled. https-certificate = "influxdb-data.crt" # Use a separate private key location. https-private-key = "influxdb-data.key" # If using a self-signed certificate: https-insecure-tls = true
- Configure the data nodes to use HTTPS when communicating with the meta nodes.
In the
[meta]
section of the configuration file, set the following:[meta] [...] meta-tls-enabled = true # If using a self-signed certificate: meta-insecure-tls = true
- Enable HTTPS for each data node within the
Restart InfluxDB Enterprise.
Restart the InfluxDB Enterprise processes for the configuration changes to take effect:
sudo systemctl restart influxdb-meta
Restart the InfluxDB Enterprise data node processes for the configuration changes to take effect:
sudo systemctl restart influxdb
Verify the HTTPS setup.
Verify that HTTPS is working on the meta nodes by using
influxd-ctl
.influxd-ctl -bind-tls show
If using a self-signed certificate, use:
influxd-ctl -bind-tls -k show
Once you have enabled HTTPS, you must use
-bind-tls
in order forinfluxd-ctl
to connect to the meta node. With a self-signed certificate, you must also use the-k
option to skip certificate verification.A successful connection returns output which should resemble the following:
Data Nodes ========== ID TCP Address Version 4 enterprise-data-01:8088 1.x.y-c1.x.y 5 enterprise-data-02:8088 1.x.y-c1.x.y Meta Nodes ========== TCP Address Version enterprise-meta-01:8091 1.x.y-c1.x.z enterprise-meta-02:8091 1.x.y-c1.x.z enterprise-meta-03:8091 1.x.y-c1.x.z
Next, verify that HTTPS is working by connecting to InfluxDB Enterprise with the
influx
command line interface:influx -ssl -host <domain_name>.com
If using a self-signed certificate, use
influx -ssl -unsafeSsl -host <domain_name>.com
A successful connection returns the following:
Connected to https://<domain_name>.com:8086 version 1.x.y InfluxDB shell version: 1.x.y >
That’s it! You’ve successfully set up HTTPS with InfluxDB Enterprise.
Connect Telegraf to a secured InfluxDB Enterprise instance
Connecting Telegraf to an HTTPS-enabled InfluxDB Enterprise instance requires some additional steps.
In Telegraf’s configuration file (/etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf
), under the OUTPUT PLUGINS section,
edit the urls
setting to indicate https
instead of http
.
Also change localhost
to the relevant domain name.
The best practice in terms of security is to transfer the certificate to the client and make it trusted
(either by putting in the operating system’s trusted certificate system or using the ssl_ca
option).
The alternative is to sign the certificate using an internal CA and then trust the CA certificate.
Provide the file paths of your key and certificate to the InfluxDB output plugin as shown below.
If you’re using a self-signed certificate,
uncomment the insecure_skip_verify
setting and set it to true
.
###############################################################################
# OUTPUT PLUGINS #
###############################################################################
# Configuration for influxdb server to send metrics to
[[outputs.influxdb]]
## The full HTTP or UDP endpoint URL for your InfluxDB Enterprise instance.
## Multiple urls can be specified as part of the same cluster,
## this means that only ONE of the urls will be written to each interval.
# urls = ["udp://localhost:8089"] # UDP endpoint example
urls = ["https://<domain_name>.com:8086"]
[...]
## Optional SSL Config
tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
insecure_skip_verify = true # <-- Update only if you're using a self-signed certificate
Next, restart Telegraf and you’re all set!
sudo systemctl restart telegraf
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