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Version: 19.x (unreleased)

Database Access with Oracle Exadata

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

In this guide, you will:

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

How it works​

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

Prerequisites​

  • A running Teleport Enterprise cluster. If you do not have one, read Getting Started.

  • The tctl and tsh clients.

    Installing tctl and tsh clients

    1. Determine the version of your Teleport cluster. The tctl and tsh clients must be at most one major version behind your Teleport cluster version. Send a GET request to the Proxy Service at /v1/webapi/find and use a JSON query tool to obtain your cluster version. Replace teleport.example.com:443 with the web address of your Teleport Proxy Service:

      TELEPORT_DOMAIN=teleport.example.com:443
      TELEPORT_VERSION="$(curl -s https://$TELEPORT_DOMAIN/v1/webapi/find | jq -r '.server_version')"

    2. Follow the instructions for your platform to install tctl and tsh clients:

      Download the signed macOS .pkg installer for Teleport, which includes the tctl and tsh clients:

      curl -O https://cdn.teleport.dev/teleport-${TELEPORT_VERSION?}.pkg

      In Finder double-click the pkg file to begin installation.

      danger

      Using Homebrew to install Teleport is not supported. The Teleport package in Homebrew is not maintained by Teleport and we can't guarantee its reliability or security.

  • Oracle Exadata server instance 19c or later.
  • The sqlcl Oracle client installed and added to your system's PATH environment variable or any GUI client that supports JDBC Oracle thin client.
  • To check that you can connect to your Teleport cluster, sign in with tsh login, then verify that you can run tctl commands using your current credentials. For example, run the following command, assigning teleport.example.com to the domain name of the Teleport Proxy Service in your cluster and [email protected] to your Teleport username: 
    tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=[email protected]
    tctl status
    Cluster  teleport.example.com
    Version  19.0.0-dev
    CA pin   sha256:abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678abdc1245efgh5678
    If you can connect to the cluster and run the tctl status command, you can use your current credentials to run subsequent tctl commands from your workstation. If you host your own Teleport cluster, you can also run tctl commands on the computer that hosts the Teleport Auth Service for full permissions.

Step 1/6. Configure Oracle Exadata​

note

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

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

Adjust the commands to match your configuration.

Update per-database configuration​

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

ssh opc@demodb-vm
sudo su - oracle

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

SSL_CLIENT_AUTHENTICATION = TRUE
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (ALL)

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

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

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

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

Configure Oracle user account​

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

Create new user:

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

Trust Teleport Database Client CA​

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

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

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

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

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

Enable TLS auth for grid listener​

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

SSL_CLIENT_AUTHENTICATION = TRUE

Restart the listener​

Once finished, restart the listener.

lsnrctl stop
lsnrctl start

Step 2/6. Collect database configuration data​

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

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

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

Check the TCPS address of the local listener. This address will be used by Teleport for the connection. In the example below, the address is 10.20.30.40:2484.

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

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

Create Teleport join token​

The Database Service requires a valid join token to join your Teleport cluster. Run the following tctl command and save the token output in /tmp/token on the server that will run the Database Service:

tctl tokens add --type=db --format=text
abcd123-insecure-do-not-use-this

Teleport Database Service​

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

To install a Teleport Agent on your Linux server:

The recommended installation method is the cluster install script. It will select the correct version, edition, and installation mode for your cluster.

  1. Assign teleport.example.com:443 to your Teleport cluster hostname and port, but not the scheme (https://).

  2. Run your cluster's install script:

    curl "https://teleport.example.com:443/scripts/install.sh" | sudo bash

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

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

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

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

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

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

The final entry for the oracle database will look similar to this:

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

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

On the host where you will run the Teleport Database Service, enable and start Teleport:

sudo systemctl enable teleport
sudo systemctl start teleport

You can check the status of the Teleport Database Service with systemctl status teleport and view its logs with journalctl -fu teleport.

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

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

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

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

Enable the table in Oracle Audit Trail:

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

Restart your Oracle instance to propagate audit trail changes.

Enable Oracle auditing for the alice user:

AUDIT ALL STATEMENTS by alice BY access;

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

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

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

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

Step 5/6. Create a Teleport user​

tip

To modify an existing user to provide access to the Database Service, see Database Access Controls

Create a local Teleport user with the built-in access role:

tctl users add \  --roles=access \  --db-users="*" \  --db-names="*" \  alice
FlagDescription
--rolesList of roles to assign to the user. The builtin access role allows them to connect to any database server registered with Teleport.
--db-usersList of database usernames the user will be allowed to use when connecting to the databases. A wildcard allows any user.
--db-namesList of logical databases (aka schemas) the user will be allowed to connect to within a database server. A wildcard allows any database.
warning

Database names are only enforced for PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Cloud Spanner databases.

For more detailed information about database access controls and how to restrict access see RBAC documentation.

Step 6/6. Connect​

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

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

Connect to the "oracle" database. Pass the correct service name as the --db-name parameter.

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

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

To log out of the database and remove credentials:

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

Troubleshooting​

Connection hangs or is refused​

A common issue when connecting to an Oracle database is a connection timeout or refusal. This typically indicates a networking problem where the Teleport Database Service cannot reach the Oracle database endpoint. Verify that network routing and access controls, such as firewalls and VPC security groups, allow traffic to flow from the Database Service host to the database endpoint.

You can validate connectivity using a native Oracle client, which helps confirm whether the issue is with Teleport or the underlying network configuration. For example, using Oracle SQLcl:

# Example: Oracle SQLcl
sql -L myuser/[email protected]:2484

Network connectivity issues are often detected by automated health checks.

To check the health status of all registered databases:

# All databases
tctl db ls --format=json | jq -r '.[] | [.metadata.name, .status.target_health]'

An unhealthy database will have output similar to the following:

...
  "oracle",
  {
    "address": "11.22.33.44:2484",
    "protocol": "TCP",
    "status": "unhealthy",
    "transition_timestamp": "2025-09-25T09:47:39.435973Z",
    "transition_reason": "threshold_reached",
    "transition_error": "dial tcp 11.22.33.44:2484: i/o timeout",
    "message": "1 health check failed"
  }
...

TLS negotiation fails​

Properly configuring TLS on an Oracle database can be challenging. Different underlying issues can result in the same error message, such as the following from Teleport:

Original Error: *tls.permanentError remote error: tls: handshake failure

Or you might see the following in the Oracle logs:

ORA-00609: could not attach to incoming connection
ORA-28860: Fatal SSL error

To identify the root cause, follow the debugging steps in the sections below. The output of the following openssl command can help diagnose many common TLS issues. Capture the output and use it as you follow the debugging steps.

> openssl s_client -connect oracle.example.com:2484 -showcerts

Wrong server certificate​

Teleport rejects connections to databases with untrusted server certificates. If you are using Teleport to issue certificates, ensure that the server certificate was issued by the Teleport Database CA. An invalid server certificate will prevent Teleport from establishing a secure connection.

You can view the Teleport Database CA certificate with the following command:

tctl auth export --type=db | openssl x509 -issuer -noout
...
issuer=O=teleport.example.com, CN=teleport.example.com, serialNumber=200129862304303044762346177566738813560

Compare the issuer in the server certificate with the issuer of the Teleport Database CA certificate. The openssl s_client command from the previous section will show you the server certificate:

# openssl s_client output:
...
Server certificate
subject=CN=oracle.example.com
issuer=O=teleport.example.com, CN=teleport.example.com, serialNumber=200129862304303044762346177566738813560
...

You can also inspect the Oracle wallet directly using the orapki utility to verify the server certificate.

# Prompt for wallet password
orapki wallet display -complete -wallet /path/to/wallet

The "User Certificates" section of the output should contain the server's certificate. Its Issuer should match the Subject of the Teleport Database CA.

User Certificates:
Subject:        CN=oracle.example.com
Issuer:         SERIALNUMBER=200129862304303044762346177566738813560,CN=teleport.example.com,O=teleport.example.com
Serial Number:  ...

Wrong client certificate​

If the Oracle server rejects client certificates presented by the Teleport Database Service, you should verify that the Oracle database trusts the Teleport Database User CA.

You can view the Teleport Database User CA with this command:

tctl auth export --type=db-client | openssl x509 -issuer -noout
issuer=O=teleport.example.com, CN=teleport.example.com, serialNumber=183359545647055551607366887578713393931

Compare the Teleport Database User CA with the list of CAs trusted by the Oracle database. The openssl s_client command from earlier will show the list of CAs the Oracle database trusts:

# openssl s_client output:
...
---
Acceptable client certificate CA names
O=teleport.example.com, CN=teleport.example.com, serialNumber=183359545647055551607366887578713393931

Ensure that the Teleport Database User CA certificate has been added to the correct wallet and that the Oracle server configuration references this wallet.

You can also inspect the Oracle wallet directly using the orapki utility to verify that the Teleport Database User CA is trusted.

# Prompt for wallet password
orapki wallet display -complete -wallet /path/to/wallet

The "Trusted Certificates" section of the output should contain the Teleport Database User CA. Its Issuer should match the issuer of the Teleport Database User CA.

Trusted Certificates:
Subject:        SERIALNUMBER=183359545647055551607366887578713393931,CN=teleport.example.com,O=teleport.example.com
Issuer:         SERIALNUMBER=183359545647055551607366887578713393931,CN=teleport.example.com,O=teleport.example.com
Serial Number:  ...

Wrong TLS version​

Teleport rejects connections that use TLS 1.0 or 1.1 due to known weaknesses. Ensure that the SSL_VERSION parameter in your Oracle configuration is set to 1.2 or higher to enable TLS 1.2 or a newer version.

No common cipher suites​

Ensure that the SQLNET.CIPHER_SUITE parameter in your Oracle configuration contains modern TLS cipher suites that match the configured TLS version. The following cipher suites are secure and widely supported across different Oracle versions.

For TLS 1.2:

  • TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  • TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

For TLS 1.3:

  • TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  • TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

Must be logged on to the server error​

The following error indicates that the login procedure has failed:

ORA-17430: Must be logged on to the server.

This is most commonly caused by the Oracle database enforcing native encryption or data-integrity checksums on a TCPS endpoint. Teleport uses TLS for transport security, and does not support native Oracle encryption.

To disable the redundant encryption requirement for the TCPS endpoint, add the following line to your sqlnet.ora file:

SQLNET.IGNORE_ANO_ENCRYPTION_FOR_TCPS=TRUE

Make sure to use an up-to-date version of the Oracle database. In older versions, this setting may not disable data-integrity checksums, which will lead to continued failures.

Invalid username​

An incorrectly specified username will result in the following error:

ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

When using TLS-based authentication, Oracle maps the Common Name (CN) from the client certificate to an external user in the database. Verify the EXTERNAL_NAME for your user in the dba_users table. It should be in the format cn=<name>, where <name> matches the value of the --db-user flag used in the tsh db login command.

You can query the dba_users table to check the EXTERNAL_NAME of your users:

SQL> SELECT username, authentication_type, external_name
  2  FROM   dba_users
  3  WHERE  authentication_type = 'EXTERNAL'
  4  ORDER  BY 1;

USERNAME      AUTHENTICATION_TYPE    EXTERNAL_NAME
_____________ ______________________ ________________
ALICE         EXTERNAL               cn=alice

Next steps​

  • Take a look at the YAML configuration reference.

Read the documentation about: