Initialize Boundary

This document describes how to access Boundary for the first time and create the necessary resources to log in as a user.

You can also initialize and manage Boundary using Terraform. Refer to the Terraform patterns page to learn more.

Requirements

Before you initialize Boundary, you should have initialized a database.

Log in with recovery KMS

To access a new Boundary instance for the first time, you must use the recovery KMS defined in the controller configuration file. The following example represents a configuration file that uses hard-coded AEAD keys:

Note

In a production environment, HashiCorp recommends that you use a cloud provider's KMS such as AWS KMS to manage the keys Boundary uses to encrypt sensitive information.

<truncated>
kms "aead" {
    purpose   = "root"
    aead_type = "aes-gcm"
    key       = "sP1fnF5Xz85RrXyELHFeZg9Ad2qt4Z4bgNHVGtD6ung="
    key_id    = "global_root"
}

kms "aead" {
    purpose   = "worker-auth"
    aead_type = "aes-gcm"
    key       = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
    key_id    = "global_worker-auth"
}

kms "aead" {
    purpose   = "recovery"
    aead_type = "aes-gcm"
    key       = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
    key_id    = "global_recovery"
}
<truncated>

The KMS with the recovery purpose is used to "recover" Boundary, allowing you to authenticate to Boundary and manage it as a super user. It also allows you to authenticate from the CLI or from Terraform to manage Boundary without any generated resources.

To authenticate to Boundary using the recovery KMS workflow:

To use the recovery workflow on the CLI, you must pass the -recovery-config <path_to_kms_recovery_config> flag or set the environment variable for BOUNDARY_RECOVERY_CONFIG for every command ran. Authentication takes place for every command ran when using the recovery workflow. The boundary authenticate command does not apply when you use the recovery KMS.

$ cat << EOF > /tmp/recovery.hcl
kms "aead" {
        purpose   = "recovery"
        aead_type = "aes-gcm"
        key       = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
        key_id    = "global_recovery"
}
EOF

# Example command
$ boundary users create <truncated> -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl
...

To configure your provider to use the recovery KMS workflow, provide the KMS block as the value for recovery_kms_hcl:

provider "boundary" {
  addr             = "https://boundary.mycorp.com:9200"
  recovery_kms_hcl = <<EOT
kms "aead" {
    purpose   = "recovery"
    aead_type = "aes-gcm"
    key       = "8fZBjCUfN0TzjEGLQldGY4+iE9AkOvCfjh7+p0GtRBQ="
    key_id    = "global_recovery"
}
EOT
}

This section covers how to configure your first auth method, user, account, and role to log in to Boundary without the recovery KMS workflow. In this example, we are going to make an admin user for the global and project level scopes we create. This will allow our user to configure targets within those scopes and manage them.

Create org and project scopes

First, create an org and project scope and skip creating an administrator and admin role for each scope. We are going to specify a role for managing these scopes by selected users in a later step.

$ boundary scopes create -name 'org' -scope-id 'global' \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -skip-admin-role-creation \
  -skip-default-role-creation
<truncated>

$ boundary scopes create -name 'project' -scope-id <org_scope_id_from_last_step> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -skip-admin-role-creation \
  -skip-default-role-creation
<truncated>

resource "boundary_scope" "org" {
  scope_id    = "global"
  name        = "organization"
  description = "Organization scope"

  auto_create_admin_role   = false
  auto_create_default_role = false
}

resource "boundary_scope" "project" {
  name                     = "project"
  description              = "My first project"
  scope_id                 = boundary_scope.org.id
  auto_create_admin_role   = false
  auto_create_default_role = false
}

Create an auth method

Create an auth method in the organization scope.

$ boundary auth-methods create password \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -scope-id <org_scope_id> \
  -name 'my_method' \
  -description 'My password auth method'

Create a login account for the auth method.

$ boundary accounts create password \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -login-name "myuser" \
  -auth-method-id <auth_method_id_from_last_step>

resource "boundary_account" "myuser" {
  name           = "myuser"
  description    = "User account for my user"
  type           = "password"
  login_name     = "myuser"
  password       = "foofoofoo"
  auth_method_id = boundary_auth_method.password.id
}

Create a user

Create a user and associate the user with the login account created in the previous step. This user will also be the principal in the role we create in the following step.

$ boundary users create -scope-id <org_scope_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -name "myuser" \
  -description "My user!"

$ boundary users add-accounts \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -id <myuser_user_id> \
  -account <myuser_account_id>

Create roles to manage scopes

The following section describes the four baseline roles you must create to manage resources within the org and project scopes that you created. These roles are similar to the roles Boundary automatically created for you if you did not skip generation using the -skip-initial-login-role-creation flag when you ran boundary database init. Declaring roles explicitly allows you to manage them independently and fully within Terraform or via the CLI. In doing so, you can precisely define their access.

The following example creates 4 roles:

To allow anonymous (unauthenticated) users the ability to list scopes and auth methods in the global scope.
To allow anonymous (unauthenticated) users the ability to list scopes and auth methods in the organization scope.
To allow myuser user administration grants at the org scope.
To allow myuser user administration grants at the project scope.

Anonymous listing role for global scope

Assumes recovery key export from above steps is still set:

# Create global anonymous listing role
$ boundary roles create -name 'global_anon_listing' \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -scope-id 'global'

$ boundary roles add-grants -id <global_anon_listing_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -grant 'ids=*;type=auth-method;actions=list,authenticate' \
  -grant 'ids=*;type=scope;actions=list,no-op' \
  -grant 'ids={{.Account.Id}};actions=read,change-password'

$ boundary roles add-principals -id <global_anon_listing_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -principal 'u_anon'

resource "boundary_role" "global_anon_listing" {
  scope_id = "global"
  grant_strings = [
    "ids=*;type=auth-method;actions=list,authenticate",
    "ids=*;type=scope;actions=list,no-op",
    "ids={{.Account.Id}};actions=read,change-password"
  ]
  principal_ids = ["u_anon"]
}

Anonymous listing role for org scope

Assumes recovery key export from above steps is still set:

$ boundary roles create -name 'org_anon_listing' \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -scope-id <org_scope_id>

$ boundary roles add-grants -id <org_anon_listing_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -grant 'ids=*;type=auth-method;actions=list,authenticate' \
  -grant 'type=scope;actions=list' \
  -grant 'ids={{.Account.Id}};actions=read,change-password'

$ boundary roles add-principals -id <org_anon_listing_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -principal 'u_anon'

resource "boundary_role" "org_anon_listing" {
  scope_id = boundary_scope.org.id
  grant_strings = [
    "ids=*;type=auth-method;actions=list,authenticate",
    "type=scope;actions=list",
    "ids={{.Account.Id}};actions=read,change-password"
  ]
  principal_ids = ["u_anon"]
}

Org admin role for myuser

Assumes recovery key export from above steps is still set:

$ boundary roles create -name 'org_admin' \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -scope-id 'global'

$ boundary roles set-grant-scopes \
  -id <org_admin_id> \
  -grant-scope-id <org_scope_id>

$ boundary roles add-grants -id <org_admin_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -grant 'ids=*;type=*;actions=*'

$ boundary roles add-principals -id <org_admin_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -principal <myuser_user_id>

resource "boundary_role" "org_admin" {
  scope_id       = "global"
  grant_scope_ids = [boundary_scope.org.id]
  grant_strings = [
    "ids=*;type=*;actions=*"
  ]
  principal_ids = [boundary_user.myuser.id]
}

Project admin for myuser

Assumes recovery key export from above steps is still set:

$ boundary roles create -name 'project_admin' \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -scope-id <org_scope_id> \
  -grant-scope-id <project_scope_id>

$ boundary roles add-grants -id <project_admin_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -grant 'ids=*;type=*;actions=*'

$ boundary roles add-principals -id <project_admin_id> \
  -recovery-config /tmp/recovery.hcl \
  -principal <myuser_user_id>

resource "boundary_role" "project_admin" {
  scope_id        = boundary_scope.org.id
  grant_scope_ids = [boundary_scope.project.id]
  grant_strings = [
    "ids=*;type=*;actions=*"
  ]
  principal_ids = [boundary_user.myuser.id]
}

Log in as your new user

boundary authenticate password \
  -auth-method-id <auth_method_id>

After initializing Boundary, you should:

Next, you should:

Install the Boundary Clients

Initialize Boundary

Requirements

Log in with recovery KMS

Create your first login account

Create org and project scopes

Create an auth method

Create a login account

Create a user

Create roles to manage scopes

Anonymous listing role for global scope

Anonymous listing role for org scope

Org admin role for myuser

Project admin for myuser

Log in as your new user