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Configure TLS/SSL in MariaDB

KubeDB supports providing TLS/SSL encryption (via, requireSSL mode) for MariaDB. This tutorial will show you how to use KubeDB to deploy a MariaDB database with TLS/SSL configuration.

Before You Begin

At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.
Install cert-manger v1.0.0 or later to your cluster to manage your SSL/TLS certificates.
Install KubeDB in your cluster following the steps here.
To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.
```
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
```

Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/guides/mariadb/tls/configure/examples folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.

Deploy MariaDB database with TLS/SSL configuration

As pre-requisite, at first, we are going to create an Issuer/ClusterIssuer. This Issuer/ClusterIssuer is used to create certificates. Then we are going to deploy a MariaDB standalone and a group replication that will be configured with these certificates by KubeDB operator.

Create Issuer/ClusterIssuer

Now, we are going to create an example Issuer that will be used throughout the duration of this tutorial. Alternatively, you can follow this cert-manager tutorial to create your own Issuer. By following the below steps, we are going to create our desired issuer,

Start off by generating our ca-certificates using openssl,

$ openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout ./ca.key -out ./ca.crt -subj "/CN=mariadb/O=kubedb"
Generating a RSA private key
...........................................................................+++++
........................................................................................................+++++
writing new private key to './ca.key'

create a secret using the certificate files we have just generated,

kubectl create secret tls md-ca \
     --cert=ca.crt \
     --key=ca.key \
     --namespace=demo
secret/md-ca created

Now, we are going to create an Issuer using the md-ca secret that hols the ca-certificate we have just created. Below is the YAML of the Issuer cr that we are going to create,

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: Issuer
metadata:
  name: md-issuer
  namespace: demo
spec:
  ca:
    secretName: md-ca

Let’s create the Issuer cr we have shown above,

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/guides/mariadb/tls/configure/examples/issuer.yaml
issuer.cert-manager.io/md-issuer created

Deploy MariaDB Standalone with TLS/SSL configuration

Here, our issuer md-issuer is ready to deploy a MariaDB standalone with TLS/SSL configuration. Below is the YAML for MariaDB Standalone that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
  name: md-standalone-tls
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "12.1.2"
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi   
  requireSSL: true
  tls:
    issuerRef:
      apiGroup: cert-manager.io
      kind: Issuer
      name: md-issuer
    certificates:
    - alias: server
      subject:
        organizations:
        - kubedb:server
      dnsNames:
      - localhost
      ipAddresses:
      - "127.0.0.1"
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Here,

spec.requireSSL specifies the SSL/TLS client connection to the server is required.
spec.tls.issuerRef refers to the md-issuer issuer.
spec.tls.certificates gives you a lot of options to configure so that the certificate will be renewed and kept up to date. You can found more details from here

Deploy MariaDB Standalone:

Let’s create the MariaDB cr we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/guides/mariadb/tls/configure/examples/tls-standalone.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/md-standalone-tls created

Wait for the database to be ready:

Now, wait for MariaDB going on Running state and also wait for PetSet and its pod to be created and going to Running state,

$ kubectl get mariadb -n demo md-standalone-tls
NAME             VERSION   STATUS   AGE
md-standalone-tls   11.8.5    Ready    5m48s

$ kubectl get petset -n demo md-standalone-tls
NAME             READY   AGE
md-standalone-tls   1/1     7m5s

Verify tls-secrets created successfully:

If everything goes well, you can see that our tls-secrets will be created which contains server, client, exporter certificate. Server tls-secret will be used for server configuration and client tls-secret will be used for a secure connection.

All tls-secret are created by KubeDB Ops Manager. Default tls-secret name formed as {mariadb-object-name}-{cert-alias}-cert.

Let’s check the tls-secrets have created,

$ kubectl get secrets -n demo | grep md-standalone-tls
md-standalone-tls-archiver-cert             kubernetes.io/tls                     3      7m53s
md-standalone-tls-auth                      kubernetes.io/basic-auth              2      7m54s
md-standalone-tls-metrics-exporter-cert     kubernetes.io/tls                     3      7m53s
md-standalone-tls-metrics-exporter-config   Opaque                                1      7m54s
md-standalone-tls-server-cert               kubernetes.io/tls                     3      7m53s
md-standalone-tls-token-7hhg2

Verify MariaDB Standalone configured with TLS/SSL:

Now, we are going to connect to the database for verifying the MariaDB server has configured with TLS/SSL encryption.

Let’s exec into the pod to verify TLS/SSL configuration,

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-standalone-tls-0 -- bash

root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/client
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/server
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key

root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mariadb -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 64
Server version: 11.8.5-MariaDB-1:11.8.5+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%ssl%';
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| Variable_name       | Value                           |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| have_openssl        | YES                             |
| have_ssl            | YES                             |
| ssl_ca              | /etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt  |
| ssl_capath          | /etc/mysql/certs/server         |
| ssl_cert            | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt |
| ssl_cipher          |                                 |
| ssl_crl             |                                 |
| ssl_crlpath         |                                 |
| ssl_key             | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020     |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.002 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name            | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON    |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> quit;
Bye

The above output shows that the MariaDB server is configured to TLS/SSL. You can also see that the .crt and .key files are stored in /etc/mysql/certs/client/ and /etc/mysql/certs/server/ directory for client and server respectively.

Verify secure connection for SSL required user:

Now, you can create an SSL required user that will be used to connect to the database with a secure connection.

Let’s connect to the database server with a secure connection,

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-standalone-tls-0 -- bash
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mariadb -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 92
Server version: 11.8.5-MariaDB-1:11.8.5+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'new_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '1234' REQUIRE SSL;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.028 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> exit
Bye

#  accessing the database server with newly created user
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mariadb -unew_user -p1234
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'new_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

# accessing the database server newly created user with certificates
root@md-standalone-tls-0:/ mariadb -unew_user -p1234 --ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt  --ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt --ssl-key=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 116
Server version: 11.8.5-MariaDB-1:11.8.5+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> exit 
Bye

From the above output, you can see that only using client certificate we can access the database securely, otherwise, it shows “Access denied”. Our client certificate is stored in /etc/mysql/certs/client/ directory.

Deploy MariaDB Cluster with TLS/SSL configuration

Now, we are going to deploy a MariaDB Cluster with TLS/SSL configuration. Below is the YAML for MariaDB cluster that we are going to create,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: MariaDB
metadata:
  name: md-cluster-tls
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "12.1.2"
  replicas: 3
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi   
  requireSSL: true
  tls:
    issuerRef:
      apiGroup: cert-manager.io
      kind: Issuer
      name: md-issuer
    certificates:
    - alias: server
      subject:
        organizations:
        - kubedb:server
      dnsNames:
      - localhost
      ipAddresses:
      - "127.0.0.1"
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Deploy MariaDB Cluster:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/guides/mariadb/tls/configure/examples/tls-cluster.yaml
mariadb.kubedb.com/md-cluster-tls created

Wait for the database to be ready :

Now, wait for MariaDB going on Running state and also wait for PetSet and its pods to be created and going to Running state,

$ kubectl get mariadb -n demo md-cluster-tls
NAME             VERSION   STATUS   AGE
md-cluster-tls   11.8.5    Ready    2m49s

$ kubectl get pod -n demo | grep md-cluster-tls
md-cluster-tls-0   1/1     Running   0          3m29s
md-cluster-tls-1   1/1     Running   0          3m9s
md-cluster-tls-2   1/1     Running   0          2m49s

Verify tls-secrets created successfully :

All tls-secret are created by KubeDB Ops Manager. Default tls-secret name formed as {mariadb-object-name}-{cert-alias}-cert.

Let’s check the tls-secrets have created,

$ kubectl get secrets -n demo | grep md-cluster-tls
md-cluster-tls-archiver-cert             kubernetes.io/tls                     3      6m20s
md-cluster-tls-auth                      kubernetes.io/basic-auth              2      6m22s
md-cluster-tls-metrics-exporter-cert     kubernetes.io/tls                     3      6m20s
md-cluster-tls-metrics-exporter-config   Opaque                                1      6m21s
md-cluster-tls-server-cert               kubernetes.io/tls                     3      6m21s
md-cluster-tls-token-nrs75

Verify MariaDB Cluster configured with TLS/SSL:

Now, we are going to connect to the database for verifying the MariaDB server has configured with TLS/SSL encryption.

Let’s exec into the first pod to verify TLS/SSL configuration,

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-cluster-tls-0 -- bash

root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/client
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/server
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key

root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mariadb -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 64
Server version: 11.8.5-MariaDB-1:11.8.5+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%ssl%';
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| Variable_name       | Value                           |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| have_openssl        | YES                             |
| have_ssl            | YES                             |
| ssl_ca              | /etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt  |
| ssl_capath          | /etc/mysql/certs/server         |
| ssl_cert            | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt |
| ssl_cipher          |                                 |
| ssl_crl             |                                 |
| ssl_crlpath         |                                 |
| ssl_key             | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020     |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.002 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name            | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON    |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> quit;
Bye

Now let’s check for the second database server,

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-cluster-tls-1 -- bash
root@md-cluster-tls-1:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/client
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key
root@md-cluster-tls-1:/ ls /etc/mysql/certs/server
ca.crt  tls.crt  tls.key
root@md-cluster-tls-1:/ mariadb -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 34
Server version: 11.8.5-MariaDB-1:11.8.5+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%ssl%';
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| Variable_name       | Value                           |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
| have_openssl        | YES                             |
| have_ssl            | YES                             |
| ssl_ca              | /etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt  |
| ssl_capath          | /etc/mysql/certs/server         |
| ssl_cert            | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt |
| ssl_cipher          |                                 |
| ssl_crl             |                                 |
| ssl_crlpath         |                                 |
| ssl_key             | /etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key |
| version_ssl_library | OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020     |
+---------------------+---------------------------------+
10 rows in set (0.001 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> show variables like '%require_secure_transport%';
+--------------------------+-------+
| Variable_name            | Value |
+--------------------------+-------+
| require_secure_transport | ON    |
+--------------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> quit;
Bye

Verify secure connection for SSL required user:

Now, you can create an SSL required user that will be used to connect to the database with a secure connection.

Let’s connect to the database server with a secure connection,

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo md-cluster-tls-0 -- bash
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mariadb -u${MYSQL_ROOT_USERNAME} -p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 92
Server version: 11.8.5-MariaDB-1:11.8.5+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'new_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '1234' REQUIRE SSL;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.028 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> exit
Bye

#  accessing the database server with newly created user
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mariadb -unew_user -p1234
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'new_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

# accessing the database server newly created user with certificates
root@md-cluster-tls-0:/ mariadb -unew_user -p1234 --ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/certs/server/ca.crt  --ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.crt --ssl-key=/etc/mysql/certs/server/tls.key
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 116
Server version: 11.8.5-MariaDB-1:11.8.5+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> exit 
Bye

Cleaning up

To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:

$ kubectl delete  mariadb demo  md-standalone-tls
mariadb.kubedb.com "md-standalone-tls" deleted
$ kubectl delete  mariadb demo  md-cluster-tls
mariadb.kubedb.com "md-cluster-tls" deleted
$ kubectl delete ns demo
namespace "demo" deleted

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