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SingleStoreDB v7.3

Securely Connect to Kafka from SingleStoreDB

Overview

When you run a CREATE PIPELINE ... KAFKA ... or SELECT ... INTO KAFKA ..., statement you may wish to or be required to securely connect to Kafka.

You can connect via SSL and optionally authenticate through SASL. The following SASL authentication mechanisms are supported:

  • GSSAPI (Kerberos)

  • PLAIN

  • SCRAM-SHA-256

  • SCRAM-SHA-512

You can also optionally authenticate through Kerberos.

This topic assumes you have already have set up, configured, and enabled SSL and/or Kerberos on your Kafka brokers. For information on how to enable this functionality, see the SSL and SASL sections in the Kafka documentation.

Convert Java Keystore (JKS) to Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) Key

To use SSL encryption for SingleStoreDB pipelines, JKS keys need to be converted to PEM keys.

Note

In the steps below, the < > symbols indicate a variable and any information provided between these symbols is an example.

  1. Create the key and keystore. You will be prompted to enter details such as name, organizational unit, city, state, etc.

    keytool -genkey -keyalg RSA -keystore <keystore-name>.jks -storepass <password> -alias "<keystore-alias-name>"

****
What is your first and last name?
 [Unknown]:- 
What is the name of your organizational unit?
 [Unknown]:-
What is the name of your organization?
 [Unknown]:-

  2. Export the client certificate from the keystore using the same password as in step 1.

    keytool -exportcert -rfc -file <pem-name>.pem -alias <pem-name-alias> -keystore <keystore-name>.jks

****
Enter keystore password:  <password>
Certificate stored in file <pem-name>.pem

  3. Import the client certificate to the truststore located on your Apache Server. Enter a new password for the keystore.

    keytool -keystore <truststore-name>.jks -alias <truststore-name-alias> -import -file <pem-name>.pem

****
Enter keystore password:  
Re-enter new password: 

Trust this certificate? [no]:  yes
Certificate was added to keystore

  4. Convert the client keystore to Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS12) format. The <key name>.jks and password are the same as in step 1.

    keytool -v -importkeystore -srckeystore <keystore-name>.jks -srcalias <keystore alias> -destkeystore <new-keystore-name>.p12 -deststoretype PKCS12

****
Importing keystore <keyname>.jks to <new-keyname>.p12...
Enter destination keystore password:  
Re-enter new password: 
Enter source keystore password:  
[Storing new-keystore-name.p12]

  5. Extract the client certificate key into a .pem file. Use the import password created in step 4.

    openssl pkcs12 -in <new-keyname>.p12 -nocerts -nodes > <keyname>.pem

****
Enter Import Password:

Notice

Refer to Generating SSL Certificates for more information.

Steps for Creating a Secure Connection

To create a secure connection from SingleStoreDB to a Kafka cluster, follow these steps in order.

Copy Security Files to the SingleStoreDB Cluster

Securely copy the CA certificate, SSL certificate, and SSL key used for connections between the SingleStoreDB cluster and Kafka brokers from the Kafka cluster to each SingleStoreDB node. You should use a secure file transfer method, such as scp, to copy the files to your SingleStoreDB nodes. The file locations on your SingleStoreDB nodes should be consistent across the cluster.

Setup Your SingleStoreDB Cluster for Kerberos Authentication

To configure a Kafka pipeline to authenticate with Kerberos, you must configure all of your nodes in your SingleStoreDB cluster as clients for Kerberos authentication. To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Securely copy the keytab file containing the SingleStoreDB service principal (e.g. memsql/host.domain.com@REALM.NAME) from the Kerberos server to each node in your SingleStoreDB cluster. You should use a secure file transfer method, such as scp, to copy the keytab file to your SingleStoreDB nodes. The file location on your SingleStoreDB nodes should be consistent across the cluster.

  2. Make sure your SingleStoreDB nodes can connect to the KDC server using the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the KDC server. This might require configuring network settings or updating /etc/hosts on your nodes.

  3. Also ensure that the memsql service account on each node can access the copied keytab file. This can be accomplished by changing file ownership or permissions. If the memsql account cannot access the keytab file, you will not be able to complete the next step because your master aggregator will not be able to restart after applying configuration updates.

  4. When authenticating with Kerberos, SingleStoreDB needs to authenticate as a client, which means you must also install a Kerberos client onto each node in your cluster. The following installs the krb5-user package for Debian-based Linux distributions.

    $ sudo apt-get update && apt-get install krb5-user

    When setting up your Kerberos configuration settings, set your default realm, Kerberos admin server, and other options to those defined by your KDC server. In the examples used in this topic, the default realm is EXAMPLE.COM, and the Kerberos server settings are set to the FQDN of the KDC server host.example.com.

Build a String with the Connection Settings

Using the following settings, create a string containing the CONFIG clause and optionally the CREDENTIALS clause of the CREATE PIPELINE ... KAFKA ... or SELECT ... INTO KAFKA ... statement that you will be running.

SSL Connection Settings

  1. In your CONFIG JSON, if you want to enable SSL encryption only, set "security.protocol": "ssl". If you want to enable Kerberos with SSL, or otherwise want to use SASL, set "security.protocol": "sasl_ssl".

  2. Set the remaining SSL configuration in the CONFIG JSON:

    • ssl.ca.location: Path to the CA certificate on the SingleStoreDB node.

    • ssl.certificate.location: Path to the SSL certificate on the SingleStoreDB node.

    • ssl.key.location: Path to the SSL certificate key on the SingleStoreDB node.

  3. If your SSL certificate key is using a password, set it in your CREDENTIALS JSON.

    • ssl.key.password: Password for the SSL certificate key.

SASL Connection Settings

  1. In your CONFIG JSON, set "security.protocol": "sasl_ssl" for SSL connections, or "security.protocol": "sasl_plaintext" if you want to authenticate with Kafka without SSL encryption.

  2. If your Kafka brokers do not use SCRAM for authentication, set "sasl.mechanism": "PLAIN" in your CONFIG JSON. Otherwise, set "sasl.mechanism": "SCRAM-SHA-256" or "sasl.mechanism": "SCRAM-SHA-512".

  3. In your CONFIG JSON, provide the username, "sasl.username": "<kafka_credential_username>".

  4. In your CREDENTIALS JSON, provide the password, "sasl.password": "<kafka_credential_password>".

Note

SASL_PLAINTEXT/PLAIN authentication mode with Kafka sends your credentials unencrypted over the network. It is therefore not secure and susceptible to being sniffed.

SASL_PLAINTEXT/SCRAM authentication mode with Kafka will encrypt the credentials information sent over the network, but transport of Kafka messages themselves is not secure.

Kerberos Connection Settings

  1. In your CONFIG JSON, set "sasl.mechanism": "GSSAPI".

  2. Set "security.protocol": "sasl_ssl" for Kerberos and SSL connections, or "security.protocol": "sasl_plaintext" if you want to authenticate with Kerberos without SSL encryption.

  3. Set the remaining Kerberos configuration in CONFIG JSON:

    • sasl.kerberos.service.name: The Kerberos principal name that Kafka runs as. For example, "kafka".

    • sasl.kerberos.keytab: The local file path on the SingleStoreDB node to the authenticating keytab.

    • sasl.kerberos.principal: The service principal name for the SingleStoreDB cluster. For example, "memsql/host.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM".

Kafka Version Setting

Warning

Using SSL and SASL with Kafka requires Kafka protocol version 0.9 or later; therefore, CREATE PIPELINE ... KAFKA ... and SELECT ... INTO KAFKA ... statements using SSL and SASL with Kafka also need to adhere to that version requirement. The Kafka protocol version can be passed in through JSON through the CONFIG clause, similar to this CONFIG '{"kafka_version":"0.10.0.0"}'. Alternatively, the pipelines_kafka_version engine variable controls this parameter for any pipeline without using a Kafka version configuration value in a CREATE PIPELINE ... KAFKA ... statement.

Final Step: Use the Connection String in a SQL Statement

Create your CREATE PIPELINE ... KAFKA ... or SELECT ... INTO KAFKA ... statement, using the string containing the connection settings that you created in the previous steps.

Examples

The following examples make the following assumptions:

  • Port 9092 is a plaintext endpoint

  • Port 9093 is an SSL endpoint

  • Port 9094 is a plaintext SASL endpoint

  • Port 9095 is an SSL SASL endpoint

Note

The examples use CREATE PIPELINE, but the CONFIG and CREDENTIALS clauses shown can be used with SELECT ... INTO ... KAFKA also.

Plaintext

The following CREATE PIPELINE statements are equivalent:

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_plaintext`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9092/test'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "plaintext"}'
INTO table t;

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_no_creds`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9092/test'
INTO table t;

SSL

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_ssl`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9093/test'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "ssl",
"ssl.certificate.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.pem",
"ssl.key.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.key",
"ssl.ca.location": "/var/private/ssl/ca-cert.pem"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"ssl.key.password": "abcdefgh"}'
INTO table t;

Kerberos with no SSL

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_kerberos_no_ssl`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9094/test'
CONFIG '{""security.protocol": "sasl_plaintext",
"sasl.mechanism": "GSSAPI",
"sasl.kerberos.service.name": "kafka",
"sasl.kerberos.principal": "memsql/host.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM",
"sasl.kerberos.keytab": "/etc/krb5.keytab"}'
INTO table t;

Kerberos with SSL

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_kerberos_ssl`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9095/test'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "sasl_ssl",
"sasl.mechanism": "GSSAPI",
"ssl.certificate.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.pem",
"ssl.key.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.key",
"ssl.ca.location": "/var/private/ssl/ca-cert.pem",
"sasl.kerberos.service.name": "kafka",
"sasl.kerberos.principal": "memsql/host.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM",
"sasl.kerberos.keytab": "/etc/krb5.keytab"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"ssl.key.password": "abcdefgh"}'
INTO table t;

SASL/PLAIN with SSL

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_sasl_ssl_plain`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9095/test'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "sasl_ssl",
"sasl.mechanism": "PLAIN",
"ssl.certificate.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.pem",
"ssl.key.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.key",
"ssl.ca.location": "/var/private/ssl/ca-cert.pem",
"sasl.username": "kafka"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"ssl.key.password": "abcdefgh", "sasl.password": "metamorphosis"}'
INTO table t;

SASL/PLAIN without SSL

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_sasl_plaintext_plain`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9094/test'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "sasl_plaintext",
"sasl.mechanism": "PLAIN",
"sasl.username": "kafka"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"sasl.password": "metamorphosis"}'
INTO table t;

SASL/SCRAM with SSL

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_sasl_ssl_scram`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9095/test'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "sasl_ssl",
"sasl.mechanism": "SCRAM-SHA-512",
"ssl.certificate.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.pem",
"ssl.key.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.key",
"ssl.ca.location": "/var/private/ssl/ca-cert.pem",
"sasl.username": "kafka"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"ssl.key.password": "abcdefgh", "sasl.password": "metamorphosis"}'
INTO table t;

SASL/SCRAM without SSL

CREATE PIPELINE `kafka_sasl_plaintext_plain`
AS LOAD DATA KAFKA 'host.example.com:9094/test'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "sasl_plaintext",
"sasl.mechanism": "SCRAM-SHA-512",
"sasl.username": "kafka"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"sasl.password": "metamorphosis"}'
INTO table t;

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