Infrastructure as Code

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This section explains how to manage Teleport using infrastructure as code (IaC) tools.

Teleport provides three methods for managing Teleport with infrastructure as code tools:

• Teleport Terraform provider
• Teleport Kubernetes operator
• tctl client tool

For instructions on managing users, roles, trusted clusters, and other resources with IaC tools, see Managing Resources with Infrastructure as Code.

How IaC works with Teleport

There are two ways to configure a Teleport cluster:

• Static configuration file: At startup, a Teleport process reads a configuration file from the local filesystem (the default path is /etc/teleport.yaml). Static configuration settings control aspects of a cluster that are not expected to change frequently, like the ports that services listen on. (See the Configuration Reference for all static configuration options.)
• Dynamic resources: Dynamic resources control aspects of your cluster that are likely to change over time, such as roles, local users, and Teleport-protected infrastructure resources.

The Teleport Auth Service stores dynamic resources on its cluster state backend, and clients can authenticate to the Auth Service to read or write dynamic resources, depending on their permissions. Infrastructure as code tools can authenticate to a Teleport cluster to manage dynamic resources.

Reconciling static and dynamic configurations

Some dynamic resources assign the same settings as fields within Teleport's static configuration file. For these fields, the Teleport Auth Service reconciles static and dynamic configurations on startup and when you create or remove a Teleport resource.

While Teleport Enterprise Cloud does not expose the static configuration file to operators, they do use a static configuration file for certain settings.

Configuration resources that apply to static configuration fields

There are four dynamic resources that share fields with the static configuration file:

• session_recording_config
• cluster_auth_preference
• cluster_networking_config
• ui_config

session_recording_config

Dynamic resource field	Static configuration field
spec.mode	auth_service.session_recording
spec.proxy_checks_host_keys	auth_service.proxy_checks_host_keys

cluster_auth_preference

Dynamic resource field	Static configuration field
spec.type	auth_service.authentication.type
spec.second_factor	auth_service.authentication.second_factor
spec.second_factors	auth_service.authentication.second_factors
spec.connector_name	auth_service.authentication.connector_name
spec.u2f	auth_service.authentication.u2f
spec.disconnect_expired_cert	auth_service.disconnect_expired_cert
spec.allow_local_auth	auth_service.authentication.local_auth
spec.message_of_the_day	auth_service.message_of_the_day
spec.locking_mode	auth_service.authentication.locking_mode
spec.webauthn	auth_service.authentication.webauthn
spec.require_session_mfa	auth_service.authentication.require_session_mfa
spec.allow_passwordless	auth_service.authentication.passwordless
spec.device_trust	auth_service.authentication.device_trust
spec.idp	proxy_service.idp
spec.allow_headless	auth_service.authentication.headless

cluster_networking_config

Dynamic resource field	Static configuration field
spec.client_idle_timeout	auth_service.client_idle_timeout
spec.keep_alive_interval	auth_service.keep_alive_interval
spec.keep_alive_count_max	auth_service.keep_alive_count_max
spec.session_control_timeout	auth_service.session_control_timeout
spec.idle_timeout_message	auth_service.client_idle_timeout_message
spec.web_idle_timeout	auth_service.web_idle_timeout
spec.proxy_listener_mode	auth_service.proxy_listener_mode
spec.routing_strategy	auth_service.routing_strategy
spec.tunnel_strategy	auth_service.tunnel_strategy
spec.proxy_ping_interval	auth_service.proxy_ping_interval
spec.case_insensitive_routing	auth_service.case_insensitive_routing

ui_config

Dynamic resource field	Static configuration field
spec.scrollback_lines	proxy_service.ui.scrollback_lines
spec.show_resources	proxy_service.ui.show_resources

Origin labels

The Teleport Auth Service applies the teleport.dev/origin label to configuration resources to indicate whether they originated from the static configuration file, a dynamic configuration resource, or the default value.

Here are possible values of the teleport.dev/origin label:

• defaults
• config-file
• dynamic
• terraform
• kubernetes

When the Auth Service starts up, it looks up the values of static configuration fields that correspond to fields in dynamic configuration resources. If any of these have values, it creates the corresponding dynamic configuration resources and stores them in its backend.

For any static configuration fields without a value, the Auth Service checks whether the backend contains the corresponding dynamic configuration resource. If not, it creates one with default values and the teleport.dev/origin=defaults label.

If you attempt to create a dynamic configuration resource after the Auth Service has already loaded the configuration from a static configuration file, the Auth Service will return an error.

If you remove a dynamic configuration resource, the Auth Service will restore its configuration fields to the default values and add the teleport.dev/origin=defaults label.

tip

Cloud-hosted Teleport deployments use configuration files, but these are not available for operators to modify. Users of Teleport Enterprise Cloud may see configuration resources with the teleport.dev/origin=config-file label.

Dynamic resource references

Read the following reference guides for comprehensive lists of supported fields in Teleport dynamic resources:

tctl resources

For reference guides to dynamic configuration resources available to apply using tctl, read the Configuration Resource Reference. There are also dedicated configuration resource references for applications and databases.

Terraform resources and data sources

For comprehensive reference guides for resources and data sources you can manage with the Teleport Terraform provider, see Teleport Terraform Provider References.

Kubernetes operator resources

For comprehensive reference guides for resources you can manage with the Teleport Terraform provider, see Teleport Terraform Provider References.

Other ways to use the dynamic resource API

The Teleport Kubernetes Operator, Terraform provider, and tctl are all clients of the Teleport Auth Service's gRPC API. To build your own API client to extend Teleport for your organization's needs, read our API guides.