This is archived documentation for InfluxData product versions that are no longer maintained. For newer documentation, see the latest InfluxData documentation.
This guide describes how to enable HTTPS with InfluxDB Enterprise. Setting up HTTPS secures the communication between clients and the InfluxDB Enterprise server, and, in some cases, HTTPS verifies the authenticity of the InfluxDB Enterprise server to clients.
If you plan on sending requests to InfluxDB Enterprise over a network, we strongly recommend that you set up HTTPS.
Requirements
To set up HTTPS with InfluxDB Enterprise, you’ll need an existing or new InfluxDB Enterprise instance and a Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate (also known as a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate). InfluxDB Enterprise supports three types of TLS/SSL certificates:
Single domain certificates signed by a Certificate Authority
These certificates provide cryptographic security to HTTPS requests and allow clients to verify the identity of the InfluxDB Enterprise server. With this certificate option, every InfluxDB Enterprise 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 InfluxDBEnterprise instances on different servers.
Self-signed certificates
Self-signed certificates are not signed by a CA and you can generate them on your own machine. 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. We recommend using a self-signed certificate if you are unable to obtain a CA-signed certificate. With this certificate option, every InfluxDB Enterprise instance requires a unique self-signed certificate.
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).
The following two sections outline how to set up HTTPS with InfluxDB Enterprise using a CA-signed certificate and using a self-signed certificate on Ubuntu 16.04. Specific steps may be different for other operating systems.
Setup HTTPS with a CA-Signed certificate
Step 1: Install the SSL/TLS certificate in each Data 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 Data Node.
Step 2: Ensure file permissions for each data node
Certificate files require read and write access by the root user.
Ensure that you have the correct file permissions in each Data Node by running the following
commands:
sudo chown root:root /etc/ssl/<CA-certificate-file>
sudo chmod 644 /etc/ssl/<CA-certificate-file>
sudo chmod 600 /etc/ssl/<private-key-file>
Step 3: Enable HTTPS within the configuration file for each meta node
HTTPS is disabled by default.
Enable HTTPS for each Meta Node within the [meta] section of the configuration file (/etc/influxdb/influxdb-meta.conf) by setting:
https-enabledtotruehttp-certificateto/etc/ssl/<signed-certificate-file>.crt(or to/etc/ssl/<bundled-certificate-file>.pem)http-private-keyto/etc/ssl/<private-key-file>.key(or to/etc/ssl/<bundled-certificate-file>.pem)[http] [...] # Determines whether HTTPS is enabled. https-enabled = true [...] # The SSL certificate to use when HTTPS is enabled. https-certificate = "<bundled-certificate-file>.pem" # Use a separate private key location. https-private-key = "<bundled-certificate-file>.pem"
Step 4: Enable HTTPS within the configuration file for each data node
HTTPS is disabled by default. There are two sets of configuration changes required.
First, enable HTTPS for each Data Node within the [http] section of the configuration file (/etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf) by setting:
https-enabledtotruehttp-certificateto/etc/ssl/<signed-certificate-file>.crt(or to/etc/ssl/<bundled-certificate-file>.pem)http-private-keyto/etc/ssl/<private-key-file>.key(or to/etc/ssl/<bundled-certificate-file>.pem)[http] [...] # Determines whether HTTPS is enabled. https-enabled = true [...] # The SSL certificate to use when HTTPS is enabled. https-certificate = "<bundled-certificate-file>.pem" # Use a separate private key location. https-private-key = "<bundled-certificate-file>.pem"
Second, Configure the data nodes to use HTTPS when communicating with the Meta Nodes within the [meta] section of the configuration file (/etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf) by setting:
meta-tls-enabledtotrue[meta] [...] meta-tls-enabled = true
Step 5: Restart InfluxDB Enterprise
Restart the InfluxDB Enterprise meta node processes for the configuration changes to take effect:
sudo systemctl start influxdb-meta
Restart the InfluxDB Enterprise data node processes for the configuration changes to take effect:
sudo systemctl restart influxdb
Step 6: Verify the HTTPS Setup
Verify that HTTPS is working on the meta nodes by using influxd-ctl.
influxd-ctl -bind-tls show
Once you have enabled HTTPS, you MUST use -bind-tls in order for influxd-ctl to connect to the meta node.
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 CLI tool:
influx -ssl -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.
Setup HTTPS with a Self-Signed Certificate
Step 1: Generate a self-signed certificate
The following command generates a private key file (.key) and a self-signed
certificate file (.crt) which remain valid for the specified NUMBER_OF_DAYS.
It outputs those files to InfluxDB Enterprise’s default certificate file paths and gives them
the required permissions.
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.key -out /etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.crt -days <NUMBER_OF_DAYS>
When you execute the command, it will prompt you for more information. You can choose to fill out that information or leave it blank; both actions generate valid certificate files.
Step 2: Enable HTTPS within the configuration file for each Meta Node
HTTPS is disabled by default.
Enable HTTPS for each Meta Node within the [meta] section of the configuration file (/etc/influxdb/influxdb-meta.conf) by setting:
https-enabledtotruehttps-certificateto/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.crthttps-private-keyto/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.keyhttps-insecure-tlstotrueto indicate a self-signed key[http] [...] # Determines whether HTTPS is enabled. https-enabled = true [...] # The SSL certificate to use when HTTPS is enabled. https-certificate = "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.crt" # Use a separate private key location. https-private-key = "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.key" # For self-signed key https-insecure-tls = true
Step 3: Enable HTTPS within the configuration file for each Data Node
HTTPS is disabled by default. There are two sets of configuration changes required.
First, enable HTTPS for each Data Node within the [http] section of the configuration file (/etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf) by setting:
https-enabledtotruehttp-certificateto/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.crthttp-private-keyto/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.key[http] [...] # Determines whether HTTPS is enabled. https-enabled = true [...] # The SSL certificate to use when HTTPS is enabled. https-certificate = "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.crt" # Use a separate private key location. https-private-key = "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.key"
Second, Configure the Data Nodes to use HTTPS when communicating with the Meta Nodes within the [meta] section of the configuration file (/etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf) by setting:
meta-tls-enabledtotruemeta-insecure-tlstotrueto indicate a self-signed key[meta] [...] meta-tls-enabled = true #for self-signed key meta-insecure-tls = true
Step 4: Restart InfluxDB Enterprise
Restart the InfluxDB Enterprise meta node 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
Step 5: Verify the HTTPS Setup
Verify that HTTPS is working on the meta nodes by using influxd-ctl.
influxd-ctl -bind-tls -k show
Once you have enabled HTTPS, you MUST use -bind-tls in order for influxd-ctl to connect to the meta node. Because the cert is self-signed, you MUST also use the -k option. This skips 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 CLI tool:
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 InfluxDB Enterprise instance that’s using HTTPS 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 and change localhost to the
relevant domain name.
>
The best practice in terms of security is to transfer the cert to the client and make it trusted (e.g. by putting in OS cert repo or using ssl_ca option). The alternative is to sign the cert using an internal CA and then trust the CA cert.
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
[...]
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