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Boundary
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controller stanza

The controller stanza configures Boundary controller-specific parameters.

controller {
  name = "example-controller"
  description = "An example controller"
  database {
    url = "postgresql://<username>:<password>@10.0.0.1:5432/<database_name>"
    max_open_connections = 5
  }
}

  • name - Specifies a unique name of this controller within the Boundary cluster. This value can be a direct name string, can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which an name will be read; or an env var (env://) from which the name will be read.

  • description - Specifies a friendly description of this controller. This value can be a direct description string, can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which a description will be read; or an env var (env://) from which the description will be read.

  • database - Configuration block with two valid parameters for connecting to Postgres:

    • url - Configures the URL for connecting to Postgres. If your Postgres server has TLS disabled, Boundary will not be able to connect by default. To run Boundary without a TLS connection to Postgres (not recommended for production usage), add the sslmode=disable parameter to your connection string, such as url = "postgresql://postgres:boundary@192.168.1.1:5432/boundary?sslmode=disable" This value can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which a URL will be read; an env var (env://) from which the URL will be read; or a direct database URL (postgres://). Since 0.10.5, this value is re-read on SIGHUP to support rotation of the database credential.
    • migration_url - Can be used to specify a different URL for migrations, as that usually requires higher privileges. This value can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which a URL will be read; an env var (env://) from which the URL will be read; or a direct database URL (postgres://).
    • max_open_connections - Can be used to control the maximum number of connections that can be opened by the controller. The minimum number of connections required is 5. Setting this value to 0 will allow the controller to open as many connections as needed. This value can be a string or an integer representing the max number of connections, or a string that can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which the number of connections will be read, or an env var (env://) from which the number of connections will be read.
    • max_idle_connections - Can be used to control the maximum number of idle connections in the idle connection pool. If max_open_connections is greater than 0 but less than max_idle_connections, then max_idle_connections will be reduced to match the max_open_connections limit. Setting this value to 0 will mean that no idle connections are retained. If not set or set to less than 0, the default sql.DB setting will be used. This value can be a string or an integer representing the max number of connections, or a string that can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which the number of connections will be read, or an env var (env://) from which the number of connections will be read.
    • max_idle_time - Can be used to control the maximum amount of time a connection may be idle. Setting this value to 0 will mean that connections are not closed due to a connections idle time. If not set or set to less than 0, the default sql.DB setting will be used. This value can be a string representing the duration, or a string that can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which the duration will be read, or an env var (env://) from which the duration will be read. Valid time units are anything specified by Golang's ParseDuration() method.

  • public_cluster_addr - Specifies the public host or IP address (and optionally port) at which the controller can be reached by workers. This will be used by workers after initial connection to controllers via the worker's initial_upstreams block. This defaults to the address of the listener marked for cluster purpose. It is used if there is a load balancer in front of multiple Boundary controllers. This is also especially useful for cloud environments that do not bind a publicly accessible IP to a NIC on the host directly, such as an Amazon EIP. This value can be a direct address string, can refer to a file on disk (file://) from which an address will be read; an env var (env://) from which the address will be read; or a go-sockaddr template. Note that the address should not include the protocol prefixes like http:// or https://.

  • auth_token_time_to_live - Maximum time to live (TTL) for all auth tokens globally (pertains to all tokens from all auth methods). Valid time units are anything specified by Golang's ParseDuration() method. Default is 7 days.

    Note that you cannot set a maximum time to live for auth tokens in HCP Boundary at this time. For HCP Boundary, all auth tokens' maximum time to live equal the default of 7 days.

  • auth_token_time_to_stale - Maximum time of inactivity for all auth tokens globally (pertains to all tokens from all auth methods). Valid time units are anything specified by Golang's ParseDuration() method. Default is 1 day.

  • scheduler - The configuration block that specifies the job scheduler behavior on the controller.

    • job_run_interval - The interval at which the scheduler will call the database to check if there are any jobs that need to run. Default is 1 minute.

    • monitor_interval - The interval at which the scheduler will check and interrupt any defuncted jobs that were running on another scheduler. A job is considered defuncted if it has not reported a status to the database for 5 minutes. Once a job is interrupted it will be run immediate on the first controller available. Default is 30 seconds.

  • graceful_shutdown_wait_duration - Amount of time Boundary will wait before initiating the shutdown procedure, after receiving a shutdown signal. In this state, Boundary still processes requests as normal but replies with 503 Service Unavailable to any health requests. This is designed to allow an operator to configure load-balancers to preemptively stop new traffic to a Boundary instance that is going away. Valid time units are anything specified by Go's ParseDuration() method. Only used when an ops listener is set and the Controller is present. Default is 0 seconds.

  • api_rate_limit - Sets limits on the rate of requests for controller API endpoints. This setting can help prevent resources from being overwhelmed with too many requests at a time. The api_rate_limit configuration stanza contains the following fields:

    • resources - Specifies the Boundary resource you want to limit rates for. The resource can be target or credential-library, for example. You can include all resources by using the wildcard "*".

    • actions - Specifies the actions you want to limit on the resource. The actions could be create, list, or authorize-session, for example. You can include all actions by using the wildcard "*".

    • per - Specifies how the limit is allocated. You can choose from the following values:

      • total - Counts all requests, regardless of auth token or IP address.
      • ip-address - Counts requests per IP address. This value lets you limit requests per IP address.
      • auth-token - Counts requests per the user's auth token. This value lets you limit requests per auth token.

      You can also use the wildcard "*" to include all values, but only when unlimited is also configured.

    • limit - Specifies the number of requests that are allowed within the period.

    • period - Specifies the time window for the limit. The limit resets after this period of time has passed.

    • unlimited - Indicates that the corresponding resources and actions should not be rate limited. If you set this value to true, you should not specify values for the limit and period or you will receive an error.

      For more information about how API rate limiting works, refer to the API rate limiting documentation.

  • api_rate_limit_disable - Disables API rate limiting, if set to true. If api_rate_limit_disable is set to true, and you have provided any api_rate_limit stanzas, you will receive an error.

  • api_rate_limit_max_quotas - Specifies the maximum number of API rate limiting quotas that Boundary allows.

  • max_page_size - The max allowed page size when paginating. If a user specifies a page size greater than this number, it will be truncated to this number. This is also used as the default page size for any requests that don't explicitly specify a page size. Default is 1000.

Signals

The SIGHUP signal causes a controller to reload its configuration file to pick up any updates to the database url value. Any other updated values are ignored.

The SIGTERM and SIGINT signals initiate a graceful shutdown on a controller. A graceful shutdown closes listeners and servers before shutting down the controller.

KMS configuration

The controller requires two KMS stanzas for root and worker-auth purposes:

# Root KMS configuration block: this is the root key for Boundary
# Use a production KMS such as AWS KMS in production installs
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "root"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "sP1fnF5Xz85RrXyELHFeZg9Ad2qt4Z4bgNHVGtD6ung="
  key_id = "global_root"
}

# Worker authorization KMS
# Use a production KMS such as AWS KMS for production installs
# This key is the same key used in the worker configuration
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "worker-auth"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
  key_id = "global_worker-auth"
}

And optionally, a KMS stanza for recovery purpose:

# Recovery KMS block: configures the recovery key for Boundary
# Use a production KMS such as AWS KMS for production installs
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "recovery"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
  key_id = "global_recovery"
}

And optionally, a KMS stanza for configuration encryption purpose:

# Configuration encryption block: decrypts sensitive values in the
# configuration file. See `boundary config [encrypt|decrypt] -h`.
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "config"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "7xtkEoS5EXPbgynwd+dDLHopaCqK8cq0Rpep4eooaTs="
}

And optionally, a KMS stanza to enable the session recording feature:

# BSR encryption block: encrypts data and checks the integrity
# of session recordings. If you do not add a BSR key to your
# controller configuration, you cannot enable session recording.
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "bsr"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "8Vg!XCbS.fzNKB@Uu.ccB588H#4iyHAd:TpgjuwC/;J;"
  key_id = "session_recording"
}

Boundary supports many kinds of KMS integrations. For a complete guide to all available KMS types, see our KMS documentation.

Complete configuration example

# Disable memory lock: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/mlock.2.html
disable_mlock = true

# Controller configuration block
controller {
  # This name attr must be unique across all controller instances if running in HA mode
  name = "demo-controller-1"
  description = "A controller for a demo!"

  # After receiving a shutdown signal, Boundary will wait 10s before initiating the shutdown process.
  graceful_shutdown_wait_duration = "10s"

  # Database URL for postgres. This can be a direct "postgres://"
  # URL, or it can be "file://" to read the contents of a file to
  # supply the url, or "env://" to name an environment variable
  # that contains the URL.
  database {
      url = "postgresql://boundary:boundarydemo@postgres.yourdomain.com:5432/boundary"
  }

  # Rate limiting examples to conserve controller resources
  # total limit for all resources and actions
  api_rate_limit {
    resources = ["*"]
    actions   = ["*"]
    per     = "total"
    limit   = 500
    period  = "1s"
  }

  # Limit for ip addresses to all resources+actions to prevent a malicious
  # host that is fabricating tokens, or spamming unauthed endpoints
  api_rate_limit {
    resources = ["*"]
    actions   = ["*"]
    per     = "ip-address"
    limit   = 100
    period  = "1s"
  }

  # Limit of all authed requests, to prevent one user consuming all of the total limit
  api_rate_limit {
    resources = ["*"]
    actions   = ["*"]
    per     = "auth-token"
    limit   = 100
    period  = "1s"
  }
}

# API listener configuration block
listener "tcp" {
  # Should be the address of the NIC that the controller server will be reached on
  address = "10.0.0.1"
  # The purpose of this listener block
  purpose = "api"

  tls_disable = false

  # Uncomment to enable CORS for the Admin UI. Be sure to set the allowed origin(s)
  # to appropriate values.
  #cors_enabled = true
  #cors_allowed_origins = ["https://yourcorp.yourdomain.com", "serve://boundary"]
}

# Data-plane listener configuration block (used for worker coordination)
listener "tcp" {
  # Should be the IP of the NIC that the worker will connect on
  address = "10.0.0.1"
  # The purpose of this listener
  purpose = "cluster"
}

listener "tcp" {
  # Should be the address of the NIC where your external systems'
  # (eg: Load-Balancer) will connect on.
  address = "10.0.0.1"
  # The purpose of this listener block
  purpose = "ops"

  tls_disable = false
}

# Root KMS configuration block: this is the root key for Boundary
# Use a production KMS such as AWS KMS in production installs
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "root"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "sP1fnF5Xz85RrXyELHFeZg9Ad2qt4Z4bgNHVGtD6ung="
  key_id = "global_root"
}

# Worker authorization KMS
# Use a production KMS such as AWS KMS for production installs
# This key is the same key used in the worker configuration
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "worker-auth"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
  key_id = "global_worker-auth"
}

# Recovery KMS block: configures the recovery key for Boundary
# Use a production KMS such as AWS KMS for production installs
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "recovery"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
  key_id = "global_recovery"
}

# BSR encryption block: encrypts data and checks the integrity
# of session recordings. If you do not add a BSR key to your
# controller configuration, you cannot enable session recording.
kms "aead" {
  purpose = "bsr"
  aead_type = "aes-gcm"
  key = "8Vg!XCbS.fzNKB@Uu.ccB588H#4iyHAd:TpgjuwC/;J;"
  key_id = "session_recording"
}
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