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Boundary
HCP administration

Manage sessions with HCP Boundary

  • 8min
  • |
  • HCP
  • Boundary

Sessions are Boundary resources created when connecting to a target. A target allows Boundary users to define an endpoint with a protocol and default port to establish a session. Unless specified with a -host-id flag when establishing a session, Boundary will choose one host from the target's host sets to connect to at random.

This tutorial demonstrates the basics of how to start a session, view the session details and cancel a session in Boundary.

Note

All resource IDs in this tutorial are illustrations only. IDs are uniquely generated for every resource upon creation. Be sure to use the resource IDs that are generated for your environment.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that you successfully completed the Manage Scopes and Manage Targets tutorials.

Retrieve resource IDs

To connect to a target, you need the target ID and host ID to use the -host-id flag. If you are not sure about those IDs, follow the steps in this section; otherwise, skip to the Start a session section.

Log back into the CLI as the admin user. Enter password at the Please enter the password (it will be hidden): prompt.

$ boundary authenticate password \
  -auth-method-id=$BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID \
  -login-name=admin

  1. List the existing targets under the QA_Tests project.

    $ boundary targets list -scope-id=$PROJECT_ID

Target information:
  ID:                    ttcp_34yV5O9cwt
    Version:             4
    Type:                tcp
    Name:                ubuntu-target
    Description:         Ubuntu target
    Authorized Actions:
      no-op
      read
      update
      delete
      add-host-sources
      set-host-sources
      remove-host-sources
      add-credential-sources
      set-credential-sources
      remove-credential-sources
      authorize-session

    Now, you have the target ID (e.g. ttcp_34yV5O9cwt).

    If you haven't already, copy the ID and save it as an environment variable, TARGET_ID.

    Example:

    $ export TARGET_ID=ttcp_34yV5O9cwt

  2. List the host IDs that belong to the host catalog.

    $ boundary hosts list -host-catalog-id=$HOST_CATALOG_ID

Host information:
  ID:                    hst_FrdNPd9Zm9
    Version:             1
    Type:                static
    Name:                ubuntu
    Description:         Ubuntu host
    Authorized Actions:
      no-op
      read
      update
      delete

  1. Copy the generated host ID and create an environment variable called HOST_ID using copied value. In the example output, the ID is hst_FrdNPd9Zm9.

    $ export HOST_ID=<ubuntu_host_id>

Now, you have the target ID and host ID.

Start a session

You are now ready to connect to the target and establish a session.

  1. Retrieve the public IP address of your Ubuntu instance and export the address as an environment variable. Replace public-ip with the actual IP address.

    $ export UBUNTU_IP=public-ip

  2. Export an environment variable for your Ubuntu host's username and path to the private key. Replace the username and path to the key file with valid values for your host.

    $ export UBUNTU_USER=actualusername UBUNTU_KEY=private_key.pem

  3. Connect to the ubuntu-target using Boundary.

    $ boundary connect ssh -target-id=$TARGET_ID -host-id=$HOST_ID -- -l $UBUNTU_USER -i $UBUNTU_KEY
The authenticity of host 'ec2-198-52-100-1.compute-1.amazonaws.com (198-51-100-1)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is l4UB/neBad9tvkgJf1QZWxheQmR59WgrgzEimCG6kZY.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.19.0-1025-aws x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

ubuntu@ip-172-32-88-177:~

For more information regarding different ways to connect to a target behind Boundary see Connect to Target and the Advanced Session Establishment section.

View sessions

Note

Leave this session open, and open a new terminal window to proceed. Note that the exported environment variables will no longer be available in the new shell session.

Log back into the CLI as the admin user. Enter password at the Please enter the password (it will be hidden): prompt.

$ boundary authenticate password \
  -auth-method-id=$BOUNDARY_AUTH_METHOD_ID \
  -login-name=admin

List the available scopes.

$ boundary scopes list -recursive

Scope information:
  ID:                    o_1234567890
    Scope ID:            global
    Version:             1
    Name:                Generated org scope
    Description:         Provides an initial org scope in Boundary
    Authorized Actions:
      no-op
      read
      update
      delete

  ID:                    o_u54jrD6ydN
    Scope ID:            global
    Version:             1
    Name:                IT_Support
    Description:         IT Support Team
    Authorized Actions:
      no-op
      read
      update
      delete

  ID:                    p_1234567890
    Scope ID:            o_1234567890
    Version:             1
    Name:                Generated project scope
    Description:         Provides an initial project scope in Boundary
    Authorized Actions:
      no-op
      read
      update
      delete

  ID:                    p_oMgeFL2hP6
    Scope ID:            o_u54jrD6ydN
    Version:             1
    Name:                QA_Tests
    Description:         Manage QA machines
    Authorized Actions:
      no-op
      read
      update
      delete

Copy the QA_Tests project scope ID, such as p_oMgeFL2hP6.

View all sessions which Boundary has under the QA_Tests project by listing them.

$ boundary sessions list -scope-id=p_oMgeFL2hP6

Session information:
  ID:                    s_7JwF1yMY2g
    Status:              active
    Created Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:40 MDT
    Expiration Time:     Fri, 25 Aug 2023 00:35:40 MDT
    Updated Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:41 MDT
    User ID:             u_r1jtIlLsjK
    Target ID:           ttcp_TV3E2bW91i
    Authorized Actions:
      no-op
      read
      read:self
      cancel
      cancel:self

We can get a more detailed view of a specific session by reading it.

$ boundary sessions read -id=s_7JwF1yMY2g

Session information:
  Auth Token ID:       at_wdKAieLzv8
  Created Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:40 MDT
  Endpoint:            tcp://3.88.69.227:22
  Expiration Time:     Fri, 25 Aug 2023 00:35:40 MDT
  Host ID:             hst_7Jeh2Z1mKk
  Host Set ID:         hsst_qzAKjQKXgq
  ID:                  s_7JwF1yMY2g
  Status:              active
  Target ID:           ttcp_TV3E2bW91i
  Type:                tcp
  Updated Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:41 MDT
  User ID:             u_r1jtIlLsjK
  Version:             2

  Scope:
    ID:                p_ZWc13Om0sf
    Name:              QA_Tests
    Parent Scope ID:   o_GHxE1QbtE5
    Type:              project

  Authorized Actions:
    no-op
    read
    read:self
    cancel
    cancel:self

  States:
    Start Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:41 MDT
    Status:            active

    End Time:          Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:41 MDT
    Start Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:40 MDT
    Status:            pending


  Connections:
    Bytes Down:        7129
    Bytes Up:          4461
    Client Address:    172.17.0.1:37856
    Endpoint Address:  3.88.69.227:22

Cancel a session

If unexpected activity is detected, you can force-cancel the session.

Cancel the session using the session ID copied in the previous step.

$ boundary sessions cancel -id=s_7JwF1yMY2g

Session information:
  Auth Token ID:       at_wdKAieLzv8
  Created Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:40 MDT
  Endpoint:            tcp://3.88.69.227:22
  Expiration Time:     Fri, 25 Aug 2023 00:35:40 MDT
  Host ID:             hst_7Jeh2Z1mKk
  Host Set ID:         hsst_qzAKjQKXgq
  ID:                  s_7JwF1yMY2g
  Status:              canceling
  Target ID:           ttcp_TV3E2bW91i
  Type:                tcp
  Updated Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:38:05 MDT
  User ID:             u_r1jtIlLsjK
  Version:             3

  Scope:
    ID:                p_ZWc13Om0sf
    Name:              QA_Tests
    Parent Scope ID:   o_GHxE1QbtE5
    Type:              project

  Authorized Actions:
    no-op
    read
    read:self
    cancel
    cancel:self

  States:
    Start Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:38:05 MDT
    Status:            canceling

    End Time:          Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:38:05 MDT
    Start Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:41 MDT
    Status:            active

    End Time:          Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:41 MDT
    Start Time:        Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:40 MDT
    Status:            pending

The status is now canceling. When it completes, the session status will change to terminated.

Wait a moment, and then read the session details.

$ boundary sessions read -id=s_7JwF1yMY2g

Session information:
  Auth Token ID:        at_wdKAieLzv8
  Created Time:         Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:35:40 MDT
  Endpoint:             tcp://3.88.69.227:22
  Expiration Time:      Fri, 25 Aug 2023 00:35:40 MDT
  Host ID:              hst_7Jeh2Z1mKk
  Host Set ID:          hsst_qzAKjQKXgq
  ID:                   s_7JwF1yMY2g
  Status:               terminated
  Target ID:            ttcp_TV3E2bW91i
  Termination Reason:   canceled
  Type:                 tcp
  Updated Time:         Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:38:06 MDT
  User ID:              u_r1jtIlLsjK
  Version:              5

  Scope:
    ID:                 p_ZWc13Om0sf
    Name:               QA_Tests
    Parent Scope ID:    o_GHxE1QbtE5
    Type:               project

  Authorized Actions:
    no-op
    read
    read:self
    cancel
    cancel:self

  States:
    Start Time:         Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:38:06 MDT
    Status:             terminated

    End Time:           Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:38:06 MDT
    Start Time:         Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:38:05
    MDT
    Status:             canceling

  Connections:
    Bytes Down:         12585
    Bytes Up:           8609
    Client Address:     172.17.0.1:37856
    Closed Reason:      unknown
    Endpoint Address:   3.88.69.227:22

Advanced session establishment

In addition to the boundary connect command, you can create a session to a target and connect to that session in separate steps. This is accomplished using the boundary targets authorize-session command, which generates an authorization token that a user can use to start a session via boundary connect -authz-token at their own convenience.

$ boundary targets authorize-session -id=<target_id> -host-id=<host_id>

For this example, gather the target ID and host ID as demonstrated in the previous tutorials:

List all targets.

$ boundary targets list -recursive

Copy the tests target ID.

List all host catalogs.

$ boundary host-catalogs list -recursive

You created the DevOps host catalog during the Manage Targets with HCP Boundary tutorial.

List and review the available hosts created previously.

$ boundary hosts list -host-catalog-id=$HOST_CATALOG_ID

Generate an authorization token for the ubuntu host.

Example:

$ boundary targets authorize-session -id=$TARGET_ID -host-id=$HOST_ID

Target information:
  Authorization Token:
  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
  Created Time:          Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:40:36 MDT
  Endpoint:              tcp://3.88.69.227:22
  Host ID:               hst_7Jeh2Z1mKk
  Scope ID:              p_ZWc13Om0sf
  Session ID:            s_RilblR6Arw
  Target ID:             ttcp_TV3E2bW91i
  Type:                  tcp
  User ID:               u_r1jtIlLsjK

Copy the generated Authorization Token value.

Note

In the absence of -host-id flag, Boundary will pick a host from the host set. If there is more than one host in the host set attached to the target, one is selected automatically.

$ boundary connect -authz-token=<authorization_token>

Example:

$ boundary connect ssh -authz-token="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"

Proxy listening information:
  Address:             127.0.0.1
  Connection Limit:    -1
  Expiration:          Fri, 25 Aug 2023 00:45:56 MDT
  Port:                58677
  Protocol:            tcp
  Session ID:          s_tDBDJCxDnv

With the above address and port information, you can connect to the local proxy and have your tcp traffic sent through the Boundary system.

Copy the Port (such as 61135) and note the Address (127.0.0.1).

Open a new terminal window.

Attempt to establish an ssh session to your localhost again. Like before, Remote Login may need to be enabled for the session to connect as expected.

When prompted, enter yes to continue connecting to the host.

$ ssh 127.0.0.1 -p 52185 -l $UBUNTU_USER -i $UBUNTU_KEY
The authenticity of host '[127.0.0.1]:58677 ([127.0.0.1]:58677)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:WDPtMwr4whbVp5VUJwvzee7x9O25XhqMyApnz1mmNfg.
This host key is known by the following other names/addresses:
    ~/.ssh/known_hosts:9: hst_7jeh2z1mkk
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[127.0.0.1]:58677' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.

Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.19.0-1025-aws x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

ubuntu@ip-172-32-88-177:~

Practice cancelling the session, as demonstrated before.

Summary

The Manage Scopes tutorial demonstrated the steps to create a new org (IT_Support) and a project (QA_Tests) under the org.

The Manage Targets tutorial demonstrated the creation of a host catalog, a host set, and hosts. Then, associated the host set to a target.

You also enabled a new authorization method (password) for the IT_Support org and created a new user in the Manage Users and Groups tutorial. The Manage Roles and Permissions tutorial showed you how to create a role and assign a grant which specifies a set of permissions.

Finally, this tutorial demonstrated session management based on the target you defined for the QA_Tests project.

To continue learning about HCP Boundary, check out the Self-Managed Worker Registration tutorial.

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Manage roles and permissions with HCP

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Manage workers with HCP