Step Certificates Database

step certificates uses a simple key-value interface over popular database implementations to store persistent certificate management meta-data.

Our recommended default database implementation is nosql-Badger - a NoSQL interface over the popular Badger database.

What will the database store?

As a first pass, the database layer will store every certificate (along with metadata surrounding the provisioning of the certificate) and revocation data that will be used to enforce passive revocation.

Implementations

Current implementations include Badger (default), BoltDB, and MysQL.

Memory
BoltDB -- etcd fork.
Badger
MariaDB/MySQL
PostgreSQL
Cassandra
...

Let us know which integration you would like to see next by opening an issue or PR.

Configuration

Configuring step certificates to use a database is as simple as adding a top-level db stanza to your step-ca.config (see getting started doc for more info). Below are a few examples for supported databases:

Badger

{
  ...
  "crt": ".step/certs/intermediate_ca.crt",
  "key": ".step/secrets/intermediate_ca_key",
  "db": {
    "type": "badger",
    "dataSource": "./.step/db",
    "valueDir": "./.step/valuedb"
    "badgerValueLogLoadingMode": "MemoryMap"
  },
  ...
},

Options

type
- badger - currently refers to Badger V1. However, as Badger V1 is deprecated, this will refer to Badger V2 starting with a the next major version release.
- badgerV1 - explicitly select Badger V1.
- badgerV2 - explicitly select Badger V2. Anyone looking to use Badger V2 will need to set it explicitly until it becomes the default.
dataSource - path, database directory.
valueDir [optional] - path, value directory, only if different from dataSource.
badgerValueLogLoadingMode [optional] - can be set to FileIO (instead of the default MemoryMap) to avoid memory-mapping log files. This can be useful in environments with low RAM. Make sure to use badgerV2 as the database type if using this option.
- MemoryMap - default.
- FileIO - This can be useful in environments with low RAM.

BoltDB

{
  ...
  "crt": ".step/certs/intermediate_ca.crt",
  "key": ".step/secrets/intermediate_ca_key",
  "db": {
    "type": "bbolt",
    "dataSource": "./stepdb"
  },
  ...
},

MySQL

{
  ...
  "crt": ".step/certs/intermediate_ca.crt",
  "key": ".step/secrets/intermediate_ca_key",
  "db": {
    "type": "mysql",
    "dataSource": "user:password@tcp(127.0.0.1:3306)/",
    "database": "myDatabaseName"
  },
  ...
},

Schema

As the interface is a key-value store, the schema is very simple. We support tables, keys, and values. An entry in the database is a []byte value that is indexed by []byte table and []byte key.

Data Backup

Backing up your data is important, and it's good hygiene. We chose Badger as our default file based data storage backend because it has mature tooling for running common database tasks. See the documentation for a guide on backing up your data.

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