Certificate management

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Note:

This article assumes you have already deployed CockroachDB securely on a single Kubernetes cluster using the Operator or Helm. However, it's possible to configure these settings before starting CockroachDB on Kubernetes.

By default, self-signed certificates are used when using the Operator or Helm to securely deploy CockroachDB on Kubernetes.

This page explains how to:

Authenticate an Operator or Helm deployment using a custom CA
Rotate security certificates
Secure the webhooks (Operator)

Warning:

If you are running a secure Helm deployment on Kubernetes 1.22 and later, you must migrate away from using the Kubernetes CA for cluster authentication. For details, see Migration to self-signer.

Note:

All kubectl steps should be performed in the namespace where you installed the Operator. By default, this is cockroach-operator-system.

Use a custom CA

By default, the Operator will generate and sign 1 client and 1 node certificate to secure the cluster.

To use your own certificate authority instead, add the following to the Operator's custom resource before initializing the cluster:

spec:
  nodeTLSSecret: {node secret name}
  clientTLSSecret: {client secret name}

These should specify the names of Kubernetes secrets that contain your generated certificates and keys:

clientTLSSecret specifies the client secret name.
nodeTLSSecret specifies the node secret name.

Note:

Currently, the Operator requires that the client and node secrets each contain the filenames tls.crt and tls.key.

Apply the new settings to the cluster:

$ kubectl apply -f example.yaml

By default on secure deployments, the Helm chart will generate and sign 1 client and 1 node certificate to secure the cluster.

To use your own certificate authority instead, specify the following in the custom values file you created when deploying the cluster:

tls:
  enabled: true
  certs:
    provided: true
    clientRootSecret: {client secret name}
    nodeSecret: {node secret name}

clientRootSecret and nodeSecret should specify the names of Kubernetes secrets that contain your generated certificates and keys:

clientRootSecret specifies the client secret name.
nodeSecret specifies the node secret name.

Apply the custom values to override the default Helm chart values:

$ helm upgrade {release-name} --values {custom-values}.yaml cockroachdb/cockroachdb

Example: Authenticating with `cockroach cert`

Note:

The below steps use cockroach cert commands to quickly generate and sign the CockroachDB node and client certificates. Read our Authentication docs to learn about other methods of signing certificates.

Note:

Complete the following steps before initializing the cluster.

Create two directories:

$ mkdir certs my-safe-directory

Directory	Description
`certs`	You'll generate your CA certificate and all node and client certificates and keys in this directory.
`my-safe-directory`	You'll generate your CA key in this directory and then reference the key when generating node and client certificates.

Create the CA certificate and key pair:
```
$ cockroach cert create-ca \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key
```
Create a client certificate and key pair for the root user:
```
$ cockroach cert create-client \
root \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key
```

Upload the client certificate and key to the Kubernetes cluster as a secret, renaming them to the filenames required by the Operator:

$ kubectl create secret \
generic cockroachdb.client.root \
--from-file=tls.key=certs/client.root.key \
--from-file=tls.crt=certs/client.root.crt \
--from-file=ca.crt=certs/ca.crt

secret/cockroachdb.client.root created

Create the certificate and key pair for your CockroachDB nodes, specifying the namespace you used when deploying the cluster. This example uses the Operator's default namespace (cockroach-operator-system):

cockroach cert create-node \
localhost 127.0.0.1 \
cockroachdb-public \
cockroachdb-public.cockroach-operator-system \
cockroachdb-public.cockroach-operator-system.svc.cluster.local \
*.cockroachdb \
*.cockroachdb.cockroach-operator-system \
*.cockroachdb.cockroach-operator-system.svc.cluster.local \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key

Upload the node certificate and key to the Kubernetes cluster as a secret, renaming them to the filenames required by the Operator:

$ kubectl create secret \
generic cockroachdb.node \
--from-file=tls.key=certs/node.key \
--from-file=tls.crt=certs/node.crt \
--from-file=ca.crt=certs/ca.crt

secret/cockroachdb.node created

Check that the secrets were created on the cluster:

$ kubectl get secrets

NAME                      TYPE                                  DATA   AGE
cockroachdb.client.root   Opaque                                3      13s
cockroachdb.node          Opaque                                3      3s
default-token-6js7b       kubernetes.io/service-account-token   3      9h

Add nodeTLSSecret and clientTLSSecret to the Operator's custom resource, specifying the generated secret names:
```
spec:
  clientTLSSecret: cockroachdb.client.root
  nodeTLSSecret: cockroachdb.node
```

Create two directories:

$ mkdir certs my-safe-directory

Directory	Description
`certs`	You'll generate your CA certificate and all node and client certificates and keys in this directory.
`my-safe-directory`	You'll generate your CA key in this directory and then reference the key when generating node and client certificates.

Create the CA certificate and key pair:
```
$ cockroach cert create-ca \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key
```
Create a client certificate and key pair for the root user:
```
$ cockroach cert create-client \
root \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key
```
Upload the client certificate and key to the Kubernetes cluster as a secret:
```
$ kubectl create secret \
generic cockroachdb.client.root \
--from-file=certs
```
```
secret/cockroachdb.client.root created
```

Create the certificate and key pair for your CockroachDB nodes:

$ cockroach cert create-node \
localhost 127.0.0.1 \
my-release-cockroachdb-public \
my-release-cockroachdb-public.default \
my-release-cockroachdb-public.default.svc.cluster.local \
*.my-release-cockroachdb \
*.my-release-cockroachdb.default \
*.my-release-cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key

Note:

This example assumes that you followed our deployment example, which uses my-release as the release name. If you used a different value, be sure to adjust the release name in this command.

Upload the node certificate and key to the Kubernetes cluster as a secret:
```
$ kubectl create secret \
generic cockroachdb.node \
--from-file=certs
```
```
secret/cockroachdb.node created
```

Check that the secrets were created on the cluster:

$ kubectl get secrets

NAME                      TYPE                                  DATA   AGE
cockroachdb.client.root   Opaque                                3      41m
cockroachdb.node          Opaque                                5      14s
default-token-6qjdb       kubernetes.io/service-account-token   3      4m

Specify the following in the custom values file you created when deploying the cluster, using the generated secret names:
```
tls:
  enabled: true
  certs:
    provided: true
    clientRootSecret: cockroachdb.client.root
    nodeSecret: cockroachdb.node
```
Apply the custom values to override the default Helm chart values:
```
$ helm upgrade {release-name} --values {custom-values}.yaml cockroachdb/cockroachdb
```

Rotate security certificates

You may need to rotate the node, client, or CA certificates in the following scenarios:

The node, client, or CA certificates are expiring soon.
Your organization's compliance policy requires periodic certificate rotation.
The key (for a node, client, or CA) is compromised.
You need to modify the contents of a certificate, for example, to add another DNS name or the IP address of a load balancer through which a node can be reached. In this case, you would need to rotate only the node certificates.

Example: Rotating certificates signed with `cockroach cert`

If you previously authenticated with cockroach cert, follow these steps to rotate the certificates using the same CA:

Create a new client certificate and key pair for the root user, overwriting the previous certificate and key:
```
$ cockroach cert create-client \
root \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key \
--overwrite
```

Upload the new client certificate and key to the Kubernetes cluster as a new secret, renaming them to the filenames required by the Operator:

$ kubectl create secret \
generic cockroachdb.client.root.2 \
--from-file=tls.key=certs/client.root.key \
--from-file=tls.crt=certs/client.root.crt \
--from-file=ca.crt=certs/ca.crt

secret/cockroachdb.client.root created

Create a new certificate and key pair for your CockroachDB nodes, overwriting the previous certificate and key. Specify the namespace you used when deploying the cluster. This example uses the Operator's default namespace (cockroach-operator-system):

cockroach cert create-node \
localhost 127.0.0.1 \
cockroachdb-public \
cockroachdb-public.cockroach-operator-system \
cockroachdb-public.cockroach-operator-system.svc.cluster.local \
*.cockroachdb \
*.cockroachdb.cockroach-operator-system \
*.cockroachdb.cockroach-operator-system.svc.cluster.local \
--certs-dir=certs \
--ca-key=my-safe-directory/ca.key \
--overwrite

Upload the new node certificate and key to the Kubernetes cluster as a new secret, renaming them to the filenames required by the Operator:

$ kubectl create secret \
generic cockroachdb.node.2 \
--from-file=tls.key=certs/node.key \
--from-file=tls.crt=certs/node.crt \
--from-file=ca.crt=certs/ca.crt

secret/cockroachdb.node created

Add nodeTLSSecret and clientTLSSecret to the Operator's custom resource, specifying the new secret names:
```
spec:
  clientTLSSecret: cockroachdb.client.root.2
  nodeTLSSecret: cockroachdb.node.2
```

Check that the secrets were created on the cluster:

$ kubectl get secrets

NAME                        TYPE                                  DATA   AGE
cockroachdb.client.root.2   Opaque                                3      4s
cockroachdb.node.2          Opaque                                3      1s
default-token-6js7b         kubernetes.io/service-account-token   3      9h

Note:

Remember that nodeTLSSecret and clientTLSSecret in the Operator's custom resource must specify these secret names. For details, see Use a custom CA.

Apply the new settings to the cluster:
```
$ kubectl apply -f example.yaml
```
The pods will terminate and restart one at a time, using the new certificates.

You can observe this process:

$ kubectl get pods

NAME                                  READY   STATUS        RESTARTS   AGE
cockroach-operator-655fbf7847-lvz6x   1/1     Running       0          4h29m
cockroachdb-0                         1/1     Running       0          4h16m
cockroachdb-1                         1/1     Terminating   0          4h16m
cockroachdb-2                         1/1     Running       0          43s

Delete the existing client secret that is no longer in use:
```
$ kubectl delete secret cockroachdb.client.root
```
```
secret "cockroachdb.client.root" deleted
```
Delete the existing node secret that is no longer in use:
```
$ kubectl delete secret cockroachdb.node
```
```
secret "cockroachdb.node" deleted
```

The Helm chart includes values to configure a Kubernetes cron job that regularly rotates certificates before they expire.

If you previously authenticated with cockroach cert, follow these steps to ensure the certificates are rotated:

Upload the CA certificate that you previously created to the Kubernetes cluster as a secret:
```
$ kubectl create secret \
generic cockroachdb.ca \
--from-file=certs/ca.crt
```
```
secret/cockroachdb.ca created
```
Specify the following in the custom values file you created when deploying the cluster, using the generated secret name:
```
selfSigner:
  enabled: true
  caProvided: true
  caSecret: cockroachdb.ca
  rotateCerts: true
```
Note:

selfSigner.enabled and selfSigner.rotateCerts are true by default in the Helm chart values.

Customize the following selfSigner fields to set the frequency of certificate rotation. These should correspond to the durations of the CA, client, and node certificates.

selfSigner:
  minimumCertDuration: 624h
  caCertDuration: 43800h
  caCertExpiryWindow: 648h
  clientCertDuration: 672h
  clientCertExpiryWindow: 48h
  nodeCertDuration: 8760h
  nodeCertExpiryWindow: 168h

caCertDuration, clientCertDuration, and nodeCertDuration specify the duration in hours of the CA, client, and node certificates, respectively.
caCertExpiryWindow, clientCertExpiryWindow, and nodeCertExpiryWindow specify the timeframe in hours during which the CA, client, and node certificates, respectively, should be rotated before they expire.
minimumCertDuration specifies the minimum duration in hours for all certificates. This is to ensure that the client and node certificates are rotated within the duration of the CA certificate. This value must be less than:
- cacertExpiryWindow
- The difference of clientCertDuration and clientExpiryWindow
- The difference of nodeCertDuration and nodeCertExpiryWindow

Certificate duration is configured when running cockroach cert. You can check the expiration dates of the cockroach cert certificates by running:

cockroach cert list --certs-dir=certs

Certificate directory: certs
  Usage  | Certificate File |    Key File     |  Expires   |                                                                                                                                  Notes                                                                                                                                  | Error
---------+------------------+-----------------+------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
  CA     | ca.crt           |                 | 2031/09/07 | num certs: 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
  Node   | node.crt         | node.key        | 2026/09/03 | addresses: localhost,my-release-cockroachdb-public,my-release-cockroachdb-public.default,my-release-cockroachdb-public.default.svc.cluster.local,*.my-release-cockroachdb,*.my-release-cockroachdb.default,*.my-release-cockroachdb.default.svc.cluster.local,127.0.0.1 |
  Client | client.root.crt  | client.root.key | 2026/09/03 | user: root                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |

Apply the custom values to override the default Helm chart values:
```
$ helm upgrade {release-name} --values {custom-values}.yaml cockroachdb/cockroachdb
```
The certificates will be rotated during the specified expiry windows.

Migration to self-signer

Previous versions of the Helm chart used the Kubernetes CA to sign certificates. However, the Kubernetes CA is deprecated from Kubernetes 1.22 and later. The Helm chart now uses a self-signer for cluster authentication.

To migrate your Helm deployment to use the self-signer:

Set the cluster's upgrade strategy to OnDelete, which specifies that only pods deleted by the user will be upgraded.
```
helm upgrade {release-name} cockroachdb/cockroachdb --set statefulset.updateStrategy.type="OnDelete"
```

Confirm that the init pod has been created:

$ kubectl get pods

NAME                                READY     STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
my-release-cockroachdb-0            1/1       Running    0          6m
my-release-cockroachdb-1            1/1       Running    0          6m
my-release-cockroachdb-2            1/1       Running    0          6m
my-release-cockroachdb-init-59ndf   0/1       Completed  0          8s

Delete the cluster pods to start the upgrade process.

kubectl delete pods -l app.kubernetes.io/component=cockroachdb

pod "my-release-cockroachdb-0" deleted
pod "my-release-cockroachdb-1" deleted
pod "my-release-cockroachdb-2" deleted

All pods will be restarted with new certificates generated by the self-signer. Note that this is not a rolling upgrade, so the cluster will experience some downtime. You can monitor this process:

$ kubectl get pods

NAME                       READY   STATUS              RESTARTS   AGE
my-release-cockroachdb-0   0/1     ContainerCreating   0          14s
my-release-cockroachdb-1   0/1     ContainerCreating   0          4s
my-release-cockroachdb-2   0/1     Terminating         0          7m16s

Secure the webhooks

The Operator ships with both mutating and validating webhooks. Communication between the Kubernetes API server and the webhook service must be secured with TLS.

By default, the Operator searches for the TLS secret cockroach-operator-webhook-ca, which contains a CA certificate. If the secret is not found, the Operator auto-generates cockroach-operator-webhook-ca with a CA certificate for future runs.

The Operator then generates a one-time server certificate for the webhook server that is signed with cockroach-operator-webhook-ca. Finally, the CA bundle for both mutating and validating webhook configurations is patched with the CA certificate.

You can also use your own certificate authority rather than cockroach-operator-webhook-ca. Both the certificate and key files you generate must be PEM-encoded. See the following example.

Example: Using OpenSSL to secure the webhooks

These steps demonstrate how to use the openssl genrsa and openssl req subcommands to secure the webhooks on a running Kubernetes cluster:

Generate a 4096-bit RSA private key:
```
openssl genrsa -out tls.key 4096
```
Generate an X.509 certificate, valid for 10 years. You will be prompted for the certificate field values.
```
openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key tls.key -sha256 -days 3650 -out tls.crt
```

Create the secret, making sure that you are in the correct namespace:

kubectl create secret tls cockroach-operator-webhook-ca --cert=tls.crt --key=tls.key

secret/cockroach-operator-webhook-ca created

Remove the certificate and key from your local environment:
```
rm tls.crt tls.key
```
Roll the Operator deployment to ensure a new server certificate is generated:
```
kubectl rollout restart deploy/cockroach-operator-manager
```
```
deployment.apps/cockroach-operator-manager restarted
```

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Certificate management

Use a custom CA

Example: Authenticating with `cockroach cert`

Rotate security certificates

Example: Rotating certificates signed with `cockroach cert`

Migration to self-signer

Secure the webhooks

Example: Using OpenSSL to secure the webhooks

Certificate management

Use a custom CA

Example: Authenticating with cockroach cert

Rotate security certificates

Example: Rotating certificates signed with cockroach cert

Migration to self-signer

Secure the webhooks

Example: Using OpenSSL to secure the webhooks

Example: Authenticating with `cockroach cert`

Example: Rotating certificates signed with `cockroach cert`