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• Configure the MongoDB Agent for X.509 Authentication

Configure the MongoDB Agent for X.509 Authentication

Cloud Manager enables you to configure the Authentication Mechanisms that all clients, including the Cloud Manager Agents, use to connect to your MongoDB deployments. You can enable multiple authentication mechanisms for each of your projects, but you must choose only one mechanism for the Agents.

MongoDB supports X.509 certificate authentication for use with a secure TLS connection. X.509 client authentication allows clients to authenticate to servers with certificates rather than with a username and password.

Note

With Automation, Cloud Manager manages MongoDB Agent authentication for you. To learn more about authentication, see Enable x.509 Authentication for your Cloud Manager Project.

Considerations

A full description of Transport Layer Security, public key infrastructure, X.509 certificates, and Certificate Authorities exceeds the scope of this tutorial. This tutorial assumes prior knowledge of TLS and access to valid X.509 certificates.

Prerequisites

To enable X.509 Authentication for Cloud Manager, you must obtain valid TLS certificates that a single certificate authority (CA) generated and signed. To learn more about the certificate requirements, see Client x.509 Certificate in the MongoDB Manual.

X.509 Client Certificate Authentication requires you to enable and configure TLS for the deployment.

Procedures

This tutorial assumes that you have already configured your MongoDB deployment to use X.509 certificate authentication and TLS. If you have not done so, refer to the Use X.509 Certificates to Authenticate Clients and Configure mongod and mongos for TLS tutorials.

Create MongoDB User from the X.509 subject

• Deployments Managed by Automation
• Deployments Not Managed by Automation

When Automation is activated, Cloud Manager manages MongoDB Agent authentication.

To configure X.509 for MongoDB Agent authentication, see Enable x.509 Client Certificate Authentication for your Cloud Manager Project.

For the MongoDB Agent to connect to your MongoDB deployment, you must create a MongoDB user on your deployment that corresponds to the subject value of your client certificate.

Where you create the MongoDB user depends upon whether or not you are using LDAP authorization.

• LDAP Authorization
• No LDAP Authorization

If you are using LDAP authorization in your MongoDB deployment, you must create an LDAP user and LDAP group for the MongoDB Agent on the LDAP server. After creating the LDAP user and group, map the LDAP group to a MongoDB role in your deployment’s admin database.

Warning

When using LDAP Authorization, do not create any MongoDB users in the $external database. MongoDB 3.4 and later does not start if a MongoDB user exists in the $external database and LDAP authorization is enabled.

For the MongoDB user representing the MongoDB Agent:

1. Create a new LDAP user on your LDAP server named that uses the subject value of your client certificate as the username.

2. Create an LDAP group whose name matches the MongoDB Agent’s role.

3. Create the MongoDB Agent’s role in your admin database with the appropriate permissions.

   Note

   When Automation is activated, Automation automatically creates a role for for the MongoDB Agent user for LDAP authentication.

4. Assign the LDAP user to the LDAP group.

See also

To learn how to:	See
Create an LDAP user	Documentation for your LDAP implementation.
Create an LDAP group	Documentation for your LDAP implementation.
Assign the appropriate roles for the MongoDB Agent	Required Access for MongoDB Agent.
Map an LDAP group and MongoDB role	LDAP Roles section of the LDAP authorization page in the MongoDB manual.
Configure LDAP authorization without Cloud Manager automation	LDAP Authorization page in the MongoDB manual.

If you are not using LDAP authorization, you must add the subject value of your client certificate as the username of the MongoDB Agent in the $external database of your MongoDB deployment. Without LDAP authorization, MongoDB uses the $external database to authenticate a user against X.509.

Note

To discover the appropriate roles for the MongoDB Agent, see Required Access for MongoDB Agent.

Use the following commands to create the users from mongosh:

copy

   db.getSiblingDB("$external").createUser(
     {
       user : "<x.509 subject>",
       roles : [ 
         { role : "clusterAdmin", db : "admin" },
         { role : "readWriteAnyDatabase", db : "admin" },
         { role : "userAdminAnyDatabase", db : "admin" },
         { role : "dbAdminAnyDatabase", db : "admin" },
         { role : "backup", db : "admin" },
         { role : "restore", db : "admin" }
       ]
     }
   )

To learn what access is required, see Required Access for MongoDB Agent.

Each MongoDB user must have its own X.509 certificate.

Edit MongoDB Agent Configuration File

To use X.509 authentication, you must configure the MongoDB Agent for TLS:

1

Specify the absolute file path to your trusted CA certificate in the MongoDB Agent config file.

If you enabled TLS for your Cloud Manager deployment, then you must configure the MongoDB Agent to use TLS. To configure the MongoDB Agent to use TLS, you must have the trusted Certificate Authority certificate that signed the MongoDB instance’s certificate.

In the MongoDB Agent’s install directory, edit the configuration file to set httpsCAFile field to the path of a file containing one or more certificates in PEM format.

• Windows
• macOS
• Ubuntu/Debian
• RHEL/CentOS/SLES/AMZ
• Linux

The location of the MongoDB Agent configuration file is C:\MMSData\Automation\automation-agent.config.

Note

The MongoDB Agent configuration file is named automation-agent.config as a way to enable easier upgrades for those using legacy agents.

The location of the MongoDB Agent configuration file is /path/to/install/local.config.

The location of the MongoDB Agent configuration file is /etc/mongodb-mms/automation-agent.config.

Note

The MongoDB Agent configuration file is named automation-agent.config as a way to enable easier upgrades for those using legacy agents.

The location of the MongoDB Agent configuration file is /etc/mongodb-mms/automation-agent.config.

Note

The MongoDB Agent configuration file is named automation-agent.config as a way to enable easier upgrades for those using legacy agents.

The location of the MongoDB Agent configuration file is /path/to/install/local.config.

Example

Use the following command to connect through mongosh:

copy

mongosh --tls --tlsCAFile /etc/ssl/ca.pem example.net:27017

Then, modify the configuration file and set the following key/value pair:

copy

httpsCAFile=/etc/ssl/ca.pem

Save the configuration file.

To learn more about these settings, see Cloud Manager TLS Settings.

2

Restart the MongoDB Agent.

Configure MongoDB Agent to Use TLS provides more details about configuring the MongoDB Agent for TLS.

After you configure the MongoDB Agent, configure the X.509 Authentication mechanism in the Cloud Manager interface, as described in Enable x.509 Authentication for your Cloud Manager Project.

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