docs-v2/content/v2.0/security/enable-tls.md

title	seotitle	description	weight	menu	v2.0/tags
Enable TLS encryption	Enable TLS/SSL encryption	Enable Transport Layer Security (TLS) and use the HTTPS protocol to secure communication between clients and InfluxDB.	101	v2_0 parent Security & authorization	security authentication tls https ssl

Enabling HTTPS encrypts the communication between clients and the InfluxDB server. When configured with a signed certificate, HTTPS can also verify the authenticity of the InfluxDB server to connecting clients.

{{% warn %}} InfluxData strongly recommends enabling HTTPS, especially if you plan on sending requests to InfluxDB over a network. {{% /warn %}}

Requirements

To enable HTTPS with InfluxDB, you need a Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate (also known as a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate). InfluxDB supports three types of TLS certificates:

Single domain certificates signed by a Certificate Authority

Single domain certificates provide cryptographic security to HTTPS requests and allow clients to verify the identity of the InfluxDB server. These certificates are signed and issued by a trusted, third-party Certificate Authority (CA). With this certificate option, every InfluxDB instance requires a unique single domain certificate.

Wildcard certificates signed by a Certificate Authority

Wildcard 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 InfluxDB instances on different servers.

Self-signed certificates

Self-signed certificates are not signed by a trusted, third-party CA. 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. With this certificate option, every InfluxDB instance requires a unique self-signed certificate. You can generate a self-signed certificate on your own machine.

Enable HTTPS with a CA-signed certificate

1. Install the certificate

   Place the private key file (.key) and the signed certificate file (.crt) in the /etc/ssl/ directory. (Other paths will also work.)

2. Set certificate file permissions

   The user running InfluxDB must have read permissions on the TLS certificate.

   {{% note %}}You may opt to set up multiple users, groups, and permissions. Ultimately, make sure all users running InfluxDB have read permissions for the TLS certificate. {{% /note %}}

   Run the following command to give InfluxDB read and write permissions on the certificate files.

   sudo chmod 644 /etc/ssl/<CA-certificate-file>
   sudo chmod 600 /etc/ssl/<private-key-file>
   

3. Run influxd with TLS flags

   Start InfluxDB with TLS command line flags:

   influxd \
   --tls-cert "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.crt" \
   --tls-key "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.key"
   

4. Verify TLS connection

   Ensure you can connect over HTTPS by running

   curl -v https://influxdb:9999/api/v2/ping
   

   With this command, you should see output confirming a succussful TLS handshake.

Enable HTTPS with a self-signed certificate

1. Generate a self-signed certificate

   Use the openssl utility (preinstalled on many OSes) to create a 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 /etc/ssl/ and gives them the required permissions. (Other paths will also work.)

   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.

2. Run influxd with TLS flags

   Start InfluxDB with TLS command line flags:

   influxd \
   --tls-cert "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.crt" \
   --tls-key "/etc/ssl/influxdb-selfsigned.key"
   

3. Verify TLS connection

   Ensure you can connect over HTTPS by running

   curl -vk https://influxdb:9999/api/v2/ping
   

   With this command, you should see output confirming a succussful TLS handshake.

Connect Telegraf to a secured InfluxDB instance

To connect Telegraf to an InfluxDB 2.0 instance with TLS enabled, update the following influxdb_v2 output settings in your Telegraf configuration file:

• Update urls to use https instead of http.
• If using a self-signed certificate, uncomment and set insecure_skip_verify to true.

Example configuration

###############################################################################
#                            OUTPUT PLUGINS                                   #
###############################################################################

# Configuration for sending metrics to InfluxDB
[[outputs.influxdb_v2]]
  ## The URLs of the InfluxDB cluster nodes.
  ##
  ## Multiple URLs can be specified for a single cluster, only ONE of the
  ## urls will be written to each interval.
  urls = ["https://127.0.0.1:9999"]

  [...]

  ## Optional TLS Config for use on HTTP connections.
  [...]
  ## Use TLS but skip chain & host verification
  insecure_skip_verify = true

Restart Telegraf using the updated configuration file.