Skip to content

Use the Amazon Key Management Service (AWS KMS)

Percona Server for MySQL supports the Amazon Key Management Service (AWS KMS). Percona Server generates the keyring keys. Amazon Web Services (AWS) encrypts the keyring data.

The AWS KMS lets you create and manage cryptographic keys across AWS services. For more information, see the AWS Key Management Service Documentation.

To use the AWS KMS component, do the following:

  • Have an AWS user account. This account has an access key and a secret key.

  • Create a KMS key ID. The KMS key can then be referenced in the configuration either by its ID, alias (the key can have any number of aliases), or ARN.

Component installation

The component must be installed with a manifest. A keyring component is not loaded with the --early-plugin-load option on the server. The server uses a manifest and the component consults its configuration file during initialization. You should only load a keyring component with a manifest file. Do not use the INSTALL_COMPONENT statement, which loads the keyring components too late in the startup sequence of the server. For example, InnoDB requires the component, but because the components are registered in the mysql.component table, this table is loaded after InnoDB initialization.

You should create a global manifest file named mysqld.my in the installation directory and, optionally, create a local manifest file, also named mysqld.my in a data directory.

To install a keyring component, do the following:

  1. Write a manifest in a valid JSON format

  2. Write a configuration file

A manifest file indicates which component to load. If the manifest file does not exist, the server does not load the component associated with that file. During startup, the server reads the global manifest file from the installation directory. The global manifest file can contain the required information or point to a local manifest file located in the data directory. If you have multiple server instances that use different keyring components use a local manifest file in each data directory to load the correct keyring component for that instance.

Warning

Enable only one keyring plugin or one keyring component at a time for each server instance. Enabling multiple keyring plugins or keyring components or mixing keyring plugins or keyring components is not supported and may result in data loss.

For more information, see Installing and Uninstalling Components.

The following example is a global manifest file that does not use local manifests:

{
 "read_local_manifest": false,
 "components": "file://component_keyring_kms"
}

The following is an example of a global manifest file that points to a local manifest file:

{
 "read_local_manifest": true
}

The following is an example of a local manifest file:

{
 "components": "file://component_keyring_kms"
}

The configuration settings are either in a global configuration file or a local configuration file. The settings are the same.

The KMS configuration file has the following options:

  • read_local_config

  • path - the location of the JSON keyring database file.

  • read_only - if true, the keyring cannot be modified.

  • kms_key - the identifier of an AWS KMS master key. The user must create this key before creating the manifest file. The identifier can be one of the following:

    • UUID

    • Alias

    • ARN

For more information, see Finding the key ID and key ARN.

  • region - the AWS where the KMS is stored. Any HTTP request connect to this region.

  • auth_key - an AWS user authentication key. The user must have access to the KMS key.

  • secret_access_key - the secret key (API “password”) for the AWS user.

Note

The configuration file contains authentication information. Only the MySQL process should be able to read this file.

Example of a configuration file in JSON format
{
 "read_local_config": "true/false",
 "path": "/usr/local/mysql/keyring-mysql/aws-keyring-data",
 "region": "eu-central-1",
 "kms_key": "UUID, alias or ARN as displayed by the KMS console",
 "auth_key": "AWS user key",
 "secret_access_key": "AWS user secret key"
}

For more information, see Keyring Component installation.

Get expert help

If you need assistance, visit the community forum for comprehensive and free database knowledge, or contact our Percona Database Experts for professional support and services.


Last update: 2024-12-18