Using Secrets to store sensitive data

You can use a Secret to store sensitive configuration information, such as passwords and access keys, in your GKE cluster. This page describes how Config Connector uses Secret values when configuring your Google Cloud resources.

Overview

This section presents an overview on using Secrets with Config Connector.

Using a Secret when creating a resource

You can use the data inside a Secret when you create a resource. In Passing a Secret to a resource, you create a Secret that contains a password, then reference the Secret for a user on a Cloud SQL database.

Updating Secrets

When you apply an update to a Secret, Config Connector updates the resource when it next reconciles your desired state. For example, if you update the Secret that is referenced as the password for an SQLUser, Config Connector will then update the user's password.

Deleting Secrets

If you delete a Secret that is in use by a resource, Config Connector will not remove the resource's reference to the Secret. For example, if you create an SQLUser with a password that references a Secret and then delete the Secret, the password will remain on the SQLUser.

Troubleshooting

If you create a resource that references a Secret that does not exist, Config Connector will create a DependencyNotFound or DependencyInvalid Event.

Secrets and Kubernetes namespaces

Because Kubernetes does not allow access to secrets across Namespaces, if you are using the same secret value for resources from different Namespaces, you must apply secrets in every Namespace.

Passing a Secret to a resource

In this section, you will create a Cloud SQL server and set the default user's password with a Secret.

Before you begin

To complete these steps, you need the following:

Config Connector installed on a Kubernetes cluster
The Cloud SQL Admin API enabled in your project. To confirm that the API is enabled, run the following gcloud command:
```
gcloud services list --filter=sqladmin.googleapis.com
```
If the command prints Listed 0 items., you need to enable the API. You can enable the API with Config Connector and the Resource Manager API, or a gcloud command.

Service Usage API

Config Connector uses the Service Usage API to enable service APIs. To perform these steps, you need to enable the Service Usage API. You can enable this API by using the Google Cloud CLI:
```
gcloud services enable serviceusage.googleapis.com
```
Note: Enabling the API might take several minutes.

Copy the following YAML into a file named enable-sql.yaml

apiVersion: serviceusage.cnrm.cloud.google.com/v1beta1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: sqladmin.googleapis.com

Apply enable-sql.yaml to your cluster with kubectl:
```
kubectl apply -f enable-sql.yaml --namespace CC_NAMESPACE
```
Replace CC_NAMESPACE with the namespace Config Connector manages resources from.

gcloud

To enable the SQL Admin API with the Google Cloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud services enable sqladmin.googleapis.com

Creating a Cloud SQL Server

Copy the YAML below into a file named sql-server-example.yaml. This creates a Cloud SQL server named sqlserver-1 and a user named sqluser-sample. The password for sqluser-sample is set by a resource reference to a secret named secret-1.

apiVersion: sql.cnrm.cloud.google.com/v1beta1
kind: SQLInstance
metadata:
  labels:
    label-one: "sql-server-example"
  name: sqlserver-1
spec:
  region: us-central1
  databaseVersion: MYSQL_5_7
  settings:
    tier: db-g1-small
---
apiVersion: sql.cnrm.cloud.google.com/v1beta1
kind: SQLUser
metadata:
  name: sqluser-sample
spec:
  instanceRef:
    name: sqlserver-1
  host: "%"
  password:
    valueFrom:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: secret-1  # Name of the Secret object to extract a value from
        key: password   # Key that identifies the value to be extracted

Copy the YAML below into a file named example-secret.yaml. Edit the value for password before saving. This declares secret-1, referenced in the prior section.
```
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name:  secret-1
stringData:
  password: PASSWORD
```
Apply the configurations to your cluster.
```
kubectl apply -n CC_NAMESPACE -f example-secret.yaml
kubectl apply -n CC_NAMESPACE -f sql-server-example.yaml
```
Replace CC_NAMESPACE with the namespace Config Connector manages resources from.

Config Connector creates the Cloud SQL instance and a user with the password you specified. This might take several minutes.
Wait several minutes, and confirm the instance is available:
```
gcloud sql instances list --filter="name=sqlserver-1"
```
The output should include a server with a STATUS of RUNNABLE.
Confirm that you can connect to the SQL instance:
```
gcloud sql connect sqlserver-1 --user=sqluser-sample
```
You are prompted for your password.

Cleaning up

If you do not wish to keep the instance, delete the Cloud SQL instance, user, and secret with kubectl.

    kubectl delete -n CC_NAMESPACE -f sql-server-example.yaml
    kubectl delete -n CC_NAMESPACE -f example-secret.yaml

Replace CC_NAMESPACE with the namespace Config Connector manages resources from.

What's next

Learn how to specify Resource references between Config Connector resources.
Take a deep dive into Kubernetes Secrets.