# Amazon EKS + DocumentDB (Terraform) Terraform stack that creates a **basic Kubernetes cluster (EKS) and a managed MongoDB-compatible database (Amazon DocumentDB) on AWS**, wired together so Kerberos Hub can be installed on it straight away. It is primarily meant as a **reproducible test environment** for the DocumentDB support in the [`hub` helm chart](https://github.com/kerberos-io/helm-charts), in particular the `mongodb.tls.*` values that mount the Amazon RDS certificate authority bundle. It is deliberately small and cheap, not a hardened production landing zone. ## What it creates ```mermaid flowchart LR subgraph VPC["VPC (10.20.0.0/16)"] subgraph Public["Public subnets"] NAT[NAT gateway] LB[Load balancers] end subgraph Private["Private subnets"] NODES[EKS managed node group] DOCDB[(DocumentDB cluster
TLS enforced)] end end EKSCP[EKS control plane] --- NODES NODES -- "27017 / TLS" --> DOCDB NODES --> NAT ``` | Component | Details | | --------- | ------- | | VPC | Public + private subnets across 3 availability zones, internet gateway, NAT gateway | | EKS | Managed control plane, one managed node group, `coredns`, `kube-proxy`, `vpc-cni`, `eks-pod-identity-agent` and `aws-ebs-csi-driver` add-ons (IRSA role included) | | DocumentDB | Cluster + instances in the private subnets, encryption **at rest** (KMS) and **in transit** (`tls=enabled`), subnet group, cluster parameter group | | Security | A dedicated security group that only allows port `27017` from the EKS worker node security group (plus any extra CIDRs you pass in) | > [!IMPORTANT] > DocumentDB has **no public endpoint**. It can only be reached from inside the > VPC, which is why the workloads that talk to it must run on this cluster (or > you must tunnel through a bastion host / VPN). > [!WARNING] > This stack costs money while it exists (EKS control plane, NAT gateway, EC2 > nodes, DocumentDB instances and storage). Run `terraform destroy` when you are > done. ## Prerequisites - [Terraform](https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/downloads) >= 1.5 - [AWS CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html) v2, authenticated with permissions to create VPC, EKS, IAM and DocumentDB resources - `kubectl` and `helm` ## Usage ```bash cd deployment/modules/amazon-eks-documentdb cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars $EDITOR terraform.tfvars terraform init terraform plan terraform apply ``` Creating the cluster and the database takes a while (EKS and DocumentDB are both slow to provision). ### Replacing the VPC AWS cannot move a DocumentDB subnet group or cluster between VPCs. The subnet group name therefore includes the VPC ID, allowing Terraform to create a new group and replace the cluster when the VPC changes instead of attempting an unsupported in-place subnet update. Discard any saved plan created before a VPC replacement or configuration change, then create and apply a fresh one: ```bash rm -f tfplan terraform plan -out=tfplan terraform apply tfplan ``` > [!WARNING] > Replacing the VPC also replaces the DocumentDB cluster. If it contains data, > create and verify a snapshot before applying the plan; a final snapshot > preserves the old data but is not restored into the replacement cluster > automatically. State is kept locally by default. For anything shared, add a backend, for example: ```hcl terraform { backend "s3" { bucket = "my-terraform-state" key = "kerberos-hub/eks-documentdb.tfstate" region = "eu-west-1" } } ``` ### Connect kubectl ```bash $(terraform output -raw update_kubeconfig_command) kubectl get nodes ``` ## Installing Kerberos Hub against DocumentDB ### 1. Create the certificate authority secret DocumentDB presents a certificate signed by the Amazon RDS certificate authority, so every client needs the bundle: ```bash kubectl create namespace kerberos-hub curl -O https://truststore.pki.rds.amazonaws.com/global/global-bundle.pem kubectl create secret generic mongodb-ca \ --from-file=global-bundle.pem \ -n kerberos-hub ``` ### 2. Generate the values ```bash terraform output -raw hub_values_snippet > hub-documentdb-values.yaml ``` Which produces something like: ```yaml mongodb: flavor: "documentdb" retryWrites: "false" uri: "mongodb://kerberos:...@kerberos-hub-docdb.cluster-xxxx.eu-west-1.docdb.amazonaws.com:27017/?replicaSet=rs0&readPreference=secondaryPreferred&retryWrites=false" adminDatabase: "admin" authenticationMechanism: "SCRAM-SHA-1" tls: enabled: true existingSecret: "mongodb-ca" caFileName: "global-bundle.pem" mountPath: "/certs" ``` The chart mounts the bundle into every workload that talks to MongoDB, appends `tls=true&tlsCAFile=/certs/global-bundle.pem` to the URI, and exposes `MONGODB_TLS`, `MONGODB_TLS_CA_FILE` and `MONGODB_TLS_INSECURE_SKIP_VERIFY` through the `mongodb-config` ConfigMap. > [!NOTE] > With DocumentDB you must configure the database through `mongodb.uri`, not > through `mongodb.host` / `mongodb.username` / `mongodb.password`, so that the > TLS parameters end up in the connection string that every service uses. ### 3. Install the chart ```bash helm repo add kerberos https://charts.kerberos.io helm install hub kerberos/hub \ --version 0.127.0 \ -n kerberos-hub \ -f your-hub-values.yaml \ -f hub-documentdb-values.yaml ``` The `hub_values_snippet` output contains credentials, so treat the generated file as a secret and do not commit it. ### 4. Verify ```bash kubectl logs -n kerberos-hub deploy/hub-api | head -50 kubectl exec -n kerberos-hub deploy/hub-api -- ls -l /certs ``` A one-off connectivity check from inside the cluster: ```bash kubectl run mongosh --rm -it --restart=Never -n kerberos-hub \ --image=mongodb/mongodb-community-server:7.0-ubi8 \ --overrides='{"spec":{"volumes":[{"name":"ca","secret":{"secretName":"mongodb-ca"}}],"containers":[{"name":"mongosh","image":"mongodb/mongodb-community-server:7.0-ubi8","stdin":true,"tty":true,"command":["mongosh"],"args":["'"$(terraform output -raw mongodb_uri)"'&tls=true&tlsCAFile=/certs/global-bundle.pem"],"volumeMounts":[{"name":"ca","mountPath":"/certs"}]}]}}' ``` ### 5. Import the example Hub data This module has a separate DocumentDB import under [`database-import`](database-import). It uses the chart-managed `mongodb-config`, mounts `mongodb-ca`, forces TLS with the Amazon RDS CA bundle, and refuses to run unless the backend flavor is `documentdb` with retryable writes disabled. Install Hub chart `0.127.0` or newer before running it. Run it after installing Hub: ```bash ./database-import/run.sh ``` The import is idempotent: it upserts two example users, one subscription and five settings documents using fixed IDs, then verifies those records. It can be rerun after deleting or replacing the DocumentDB cluster. | Account | Password | Role | | ------- | -------- | ---- | | `example-user` | `example-password` | Hub owner | | `example-application` | `example-password` | Admin application | These are public example credentials. Do not use this seed data in a production deployment. ## Public HTTPS ingress The [`ingress`](ingress) package installs ingress-nginx behind an internet-facing AWS Network Load Balancer, installs cert-manager, and creates Let's Encrypt certificates for exactly these routes: | Host | Service | | ---- | ------- | | `aws-app.kerberos.lol` | `hub-frontend-svc:80` | | `aws-api.kerberos.lol` | `hub-api-svc:8081` | Keep the Hub chart's global `ingress` value disabled. The module owns these two Ingress resources so that enabling public access does not also expose the Hub administration services. Install the controllers and resources: ```bash ./ingress/install.sh ``` The cert-manager values use `1.1.1.1` and `8.8.8.8` for HTTP-01 self-checks. This avoids waiting for the AWS VPC resolver if it cached an `NXDOMAIN` before the public records were created. The override affects only cert-manager's ACME self-checks; normal cluster DNS continues to use the VPC resolver. The script prints the NLB hostname. Create both DNS records as CNAMEs pointing to that hostname. You can retrieve it again with: ```bash kubectl get service ingress-nginx-controller \ --namespace ingress-nginx \ --output jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].hostname}{"\n"}' ``` | DNS name | Type | Target | | -------- | ---- | ------ | | `aws-app.kerberos.lol` | CNAME | The ingress-nginx NLB hostname | | `aws-api.kerberos.lol` | CNAME | The ingress-nginx NLB hostname | cert-manager automatically retries its HTTP-01 challenges after DNS resolves; do not delete pending CertificateRequests. Wait for both certificates: ```bash kubectl wait --namespace kerberos-hub \ --for=condition=Ready certificate/aws-app-kerberos-lol-tls \ certificate/aws-api-kerberos-lol-tls \ --timeout=10m ``` Set Hub's public URLs with the non-secret values fragment after the certificates are ready. Include the same private Hub and DocumentDB values used for the original installation: ```bash helm upgrade hub kerberos/hub \ --version 0.127.0 \ --namespace kerberos-hub \ --file your-hub-values.yaml \ --file hub-documentdb-values.yaml \ --file ingress/hub-public-values.yaml \ --atomic \ --wait ``` Verify both public endpoints: ```bash curl --fail https://aws-api.kerberos.lol/health curl --fail --output /dev/null https://aws-app.kerberos.lol/login ``` ## Persistent volumes The EBS CSI driver is installed, but EKS ships `gp2` as the default storage class. To use `gp3` instead: ```bash kubectl patch storageclass gp2 -p '{"metadata":{"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"false"}}}' kubectl apply -f - <<'EOF' apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1 kind: StorageClass metadata: name: gp3 annotations: storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true" provisioner: ebs.csi.aws.com volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer allowVolumeExpansion: true parameters: type: gp3 EOF ``` ## Tear down ```bash # Remove Kubernetes resources first so AWS load balancers and volumes are cleaned up. kubectl delete -f ingress/hub-ingresses.yaml --ignore-not-found helm uninstall hub -n kerberos-hub kubectl delete -f ingress/cluster-issuer.yaml --ignore-not-found helm uninstall cert-manager -n cert-manager helm uninstall ingress-nginx -n ingress-nginx terraform destroy ``` ## Inputs The defaults are tuned for a small test stack. See [variables.tf](variables.tf) for the full list; the ones you are most likely to change: | Variable | Default | Description | | -------- | ------- | ----------- | | `name` | `kerberos-hub` | Name prefix for every resource | | `region` | `eu-west-1` | AWS region | | `vpc_cidr` | `10.20.0.0/16` | VPC CIDR block | | `single_nat_gateway` | `true` | One shared NAT gateway (cheaper, not highly available) | | `kubernetes_version` | `1.31` | EKS control plane version | | `cluster_endpoint_public_access_cidrs` | `["0.0.0.0/0"]` | Who may reach the Kubernetes API, **narrow this down** | | `node_instance_types` | `["t3.large"]` | Worker node instance types | | `node_desired_size` | `2` | Number of worker nodes | | `docdb_instance_class` | `db.t3.medium` | DocumentDB instance class | | `docdb_instance_count` | `1` | Number of DocumentDB instances | | `docdb_username` | `kerberos` | Master username | | `docdb_password` | generated | Master password, generated when unset | | `docdb_tls` | `true` | Enforce TLS on the cluster | | `docdb_allowed_cidrs` | `[]` | Extra CIDRs allowed on port 27017 | ## Outputs | Output | Description | | ------ | ----------- | | `cluster_name`, `cluster_endpoint` | EKS cluster identity | | `update_kubeconfig_command` | Ready to run `aws eks update-kubeconfig ...` | | `vpc_id`, `private_subnet_ids` | Networking identifiers | | `docdb_endpoint`, `docdb_reader_endpoint`, `docdb_port` | DocumentDB connection details | | `docdb_username`, `docdb_password` | Master credentials (password is sensitive) | | `mongodb_uri` | Connection string for `mongodb.uri` (sensitive) | | `hub_values_snippet` | Ready to paste helm values including the TLS block (sensitive) | ## Related - [`../amazon-documentdb`](../amazon-documentdb/README.md) — using DocumentDB as the Kerberos Hub metadata store - [`../../overlays/documentdb`](../../overlays/documentdb) — Kustomize overlay that deploys Kerberos Hub against DocumentDB - [`../../README.k8s-managed.md`](../../README.k8s-managed.md) — installing on managed Kubernetes