AWS PrivateLink traffic filters

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Traffic filtering, to only AWS PrivateLink connections, is one of the security layers available in Elasticsearch Service. It allows you to limit how your deployments can be accessed.

Read more about Traffic Filtering for the general concepts behind traffic filtering in Elasticsearch Service.

PrivateLink filtering is supported only for AWS regions. AWS does not support cross-region PrivateLink connections. Your PrivateLink endpoint needs to be in the same region as your target deployments. Additional details can be found in the AWS VPCE Documentation. AWS interface VPC endpoints get created in availability zones (AZ). In some regions, our VPC endpoint service is not present in all the possible AZs that a region offers. You can only choose AZs that are common on both sides. As the names of AZs (for example us-east-1a) differ between AWS accounts, the following list of AWS regions shows the ID (e.g. use1-az4) of each available AZ for the service. Check interface endpoint availability zone considerations for more details.

Transport client is not supported over PrivateLink connections.

AWS PrivateLink establishes a secure connection between two AWS Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). The VPCs can belong to separate accounts, i.e. a service provider and its service consumers. AWS routes the PrivateLink traffic within the AWS data center and never exposes it to the public internet. In such a configuration, Elastic Cloud is the third-party service provider and the customers are service consumers.

PrivateLink is a connection between a VPC Endpoint and a PrivateLink Service.

PrivateLink service names and aliases

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PrivateLink Service is set up by Elastic in all supported AWS regions under the following service names:

AWS Public Regions
Region VPC Service Name Private hosted zone domain name AZ Names (AZ IDs)

af-south-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.af-south-1.vpce-svc-0d3d7b74f60a6c32c

vpce.af-south-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

af-south-1a (afs1-az1), af-south-1b (afs1-az2), af-south-1c (afs1-az3)

ap-east-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.ap-east-1.vpce-svc-0f96fbfaf55558d5c

vpce.ap-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

ap-east-1a (ape1-az1), ap-east-1b (ape1-az2), ap-east-1c (ape1-az3)

ap-northeast-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.ap-northeast-1.vpce-svc-0e1046d7b48d5cf5f

vpce.ap-northeast-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

ap-northeast-1b (apne1-az4), ap-northeast-1c (apne1-az1), ap-northeast-1d (apne1-az2)

ap-northeast-2

com.amazonaws.vpce.ap-northeast-2.vpce-svc-0d90cf62dae682b84

vpce.ap-northeast-2.aws.elastic-cloud.com

ap-northeast-2a (apne2-az1), ap-northeast-2b (apne2-az2), ap-northeast-2c (apne2-az3)

ap-south-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.ap-south-1.vpce-svc-0e9c1ae5caa269d1b

vpce.ap-south-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

ap-south-1a (aps1-az1), ap-south-1b (aps1-az3), ap-south-1c (aps1-az2)

ap-southeast-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.ap-southeast-1.vpce-svc-0cbc6cb9bdb683a95

vpce.ap-southeast-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

ap-southeast-1a (apse1-az1), ap-southeast-1b (apse1-az2), ap-southeast-1c (apse1-az3)

ap-southeast-2

com.amazonaws.vpce.ap-southeast-2.vpce-svc-0cde7432c1436ef13

vpce.ap-southeast-2.aws.elastic-cloud.com

ap-southeast-2a (apse2-az1), ap-southeast-2b (apse2-az3), ap-southeast-2c (apse2-az2)

ca-central-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.ca-central-1.vpce-svc-0d3e69dd6dd336c28

vpce.ca-central-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

ca-central-1a (cac1-az1), ca-central-1b (cac1-az2), ca-central-1d (cac1-az4)

eu-central-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.eu-central-1.vpce-svc-081b2960e915a0861

vpce.eu-central-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

eu-central-1a (euc1-az2), eu-central-1b (euc1-az3), eu-central-1c (euc1-az1)

eu-central-2

com.amazonaws.vpce.eu-central-2.vpce-svc-07deba12e07d77434

vpce.eu-central-2.aws.elastic-cloud.com

eu-central-2a (euc2-az1), eu-central-2b (euc2-az2), eu-central-2c (euc2-az3)

eu-south-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.eu-south-1.vpce-svc-03d8fc8a66a755237

vpce.eu-south-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

eu-south-1a (eus1-az1), eu-south-1b (eus1-az2), eu-south-1c (eus1-az3)

eu-north-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.eu-north-1.vpce-svc-05915fc851f802294

vpce.eu-north-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

eu-north-1a (eun1-az1), eu-north-1b (eun1-az2), eu-north-1c (eun1-az3)

eu-west-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.eu-west-1.vpce-svc-01f2afe87944eb12b

vpce.eu-west-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

eu-west-1a (euw1-az2), eu-west-1b (euw1-az1), eu-west-1c (euw1-az3)

eu-west-2

com.amazonaws.vpce.eu-west-2.vpce-svc-0e42a2c194c97a1d0

vpce.eu-west-2.aws.elastic-cloud.com

eu-west-2a (euw2-az2), eu-west-2b (euw2-az3), eu-west-2c (euw2-az1)

eu-west-3

com.amazonaws.vpce.eu-west-3.vpce-svc-0d6912d10db9693d1

vpce.eu-west-3.aws.elastic-cloud.com

eu-west-3a (euw3-az1), eu-west-3b (euw3-az2), eu-west-3c (euw3-az3)

me-south-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.me-south-1.vpce-svc-0381de3eb670dcb48

vpce.me-south-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

me-south-3a (mes1-az1), me-south-3b (mes1-az2), me-south-3c (mes1-az3)

sa-east-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.sa-east-1.vpce-svc-0b2dbce7e04dae763

vpce.sa-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

sa-east-1a (sae1-az1), sa-east-1b (sae1-az2), sa-east-1c (sae1-az3)

us-east-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.us-east-1.vpce-svc-0e42e1e06ed010238

vpce.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

us-east-1a (use1-az4), us-east-1b (use1-az6), us-east-1e (use1-az2)

us-east-2

com.amazonaws.vpce.us-east-2.vpce-svc-02d187d2849ffb478

vpce.us-east-2.aws.elastic-cloud.com

us-east-2a (use2-az1), us-east-2b (use2-az2), us-east-2a (use2-az3)

us-west-1

com.amazonaws.vpce.us-west-1.vpce-svc-00def4a16a26cb1b4

vpce.us-west-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

us-west-1a (usw1-az1), us-west-1b (usw1-az2), us-west-1c (usw1-az3)

us-west-2

com.amazonaws.vpce.us-west-2.vpce-svc-0e69febae1fb91870

vpce.us-west-2.aws.elastic-cloud.com

us-west-2a (usw2-az2), us-west-2b (usw2-az1), us-west-2c (usw2-az3)

GovCloud Regions
Region VPC Service Name Private hosted zone domain name

us-gov-east-1 (GovCloud)

com.amazonaws.vpce.us-gov-east-1.vpce-svc-0bba5ffa04f0cb26d

vpce.us-gov-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

The process of setting up the PrivateLink connection to your clusters is split between AWS (e.g. by using AWS console) and Elastic Cloud UI. These are the high-level steps:

AWS console Elastic Cloud

1. Create a VPC endpoint using Elastic Cloud service name.

2. Create a DNS record pointing to the VPC endpoint.

3. Create a PrivateLink rule set with your VPC endpoint ID.

4. Associate the PrivateLink rule set with your deployments.

5. Interact with your deployments over PrivateLink.

Ensure your VPC endpoint is in all availability zones supported by Elastic Cloud on the region for the VPC service

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Ensuring that your VPC is in all supported Elastic Cloud availability zones for a particular region avoids potential for a traffic imbalance. That imbalance may saturate some coordinating nodes and underutilize others in the deployment, eventually impacting performance. Enabling all supported Elastic Cloud zones ensures that traffic is balanced optimally.

You can find the zone name to zone ID mapping with AWS CLI:

$ aws ec2 describe-availability-zones --region us-east-1 | jq -c '.AvailabilityZones[] | { id: .ZoneId, name: .ZoneName } ' | sort
{"id":"use1-az1","name":"us-east-1c"}
{"id":"use1-az2","name":"us-east-1e"}
{"id":"use1-az3","name":"us-east-1d"}
{"id":"use1-az4","name":"us-east-1a"}
{"id":"use1-az5","name":"us-east-1f"}
{"id":"use1-az6","name":"us-east-1b"}

The mapping will be different for your region. Our production VPC Service for us-east-1 is located in use1-az2, use1-az4, use1-az6. We need to create the VPC Endpoint for the preceding mapping in at least one of us-east-1a, us-east-1d, us-east-1b.

Create your VPC endpoint and DNS entries in AWS

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  1. Create a VPC endpoint in your VPC using the service name for your region.

    Follow the AWS instructions for details on creating a VPC interface endpoint to an endpoint service.

    Use the service name for your region.

    PrivateLink

    The security group for the endpoint should at minimum allow for inbound connectivity from your instances CIDR range on ports 443 and 9243. Security groups for the instances should allow for outbound connnectibity to the endpoint on ports 443 and 9243.

  2. Create a DNS record.

    1. Create a Private hosted zone. Consult Private hosted zone domain name in PrivateLink service names and aliases for the name of the zone. For example, in us-east-1 use vpce.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com as the zone domain name. Don’t forget to associate the zone with your VPC.

      Private hosted zone example
    2. Then create a DNS CNAME alias pointing to the PrivateLink Endpoint. Add the record to a private DNS zone in your VPC. Use * as the record name, and the VPC endpoint DNS name as a value.

      Follow the AWS instructions for details on creating a CNAME record which points to your VPC endpoint DNS name.

      PrivateLink CNAME
  3. Test the connection.

    Find out the endpoint of your deployment. You can do that by selecting Copy endpoint in the Cloud UI. It looks something like my-deployment-d53192.es.us-east-1.aws.found.io. my-deployment-d53192 is an alias, and es is the product you want to access within your deployment.

    To access your Elasticsearch cluster over PrivateLink:

    • If you have a custom endpoint alias configured, you can use the custom endpoint URL to connect.
    • Alternatively, use the following URL structure:

      https://{alias}.{product}.{private_hosted_zone_domain_name}

      For example:

      https://my-deployment-d53192.es.vpce.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com

    You can use either 443, or 9243 as a port.

    You can test the AWS console part of the setup with a following curl (substitute the region and Elasticsearch ID with your cluster):

    $ curl -v https://my-deployment-d53192.es.vpce.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com
    ..
    * Server certificate:
    *  subject: CN=*.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com
    *  SSL certificate verify ok.
    ..
    {"ok":false,"message":"Forbidden"}
    * Connection #0 to host my-deployment-d53192.es.vpce.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com left intact

    The connection is established, and a valid certificate is presented to the client. The 403 Forbidden is expected, because you haven’t allowed the traffic over this PrivateLink connection yet.

Add the private link rules to your deployments

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Follow these high-level steps to add private link rules to your deployments.

Finding your VPC endpoint ID

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Having trouble finding your VPC endpoint ID? You can find it in the AWS console.

VPC Endpoint ID

Create rules with the VPC endpoint

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Once you know your VPC endpoint ID you can create a private link traffic filter rule set.

  1. Log in to the Elasticsearch Service Console.
  2. Find your deployment on the home page in the Elasticsearch Service card and select Manage to access it directly. Or, select Hosted deployments to go to the deployments page to view all of your deployments.
  3. Under the Features tab, open the Traffic filters page.
  4. Select Create filter.
  5. Select Private link endpoint.
  6. Create your rule set, providing a meaningful name and description.
  7. Select the region for the rule set.
  8. Enter your VPC endpoint ID.
  9. Select if this rule set should be automatically attached to new deployments.

    Each rule set is bound to a particular region and can be only assigned to deployments in the same region.

  10. (Optional) You can claim your VPC endpoint ID, so that no other organization is able to use it in a traffic filter ruleset.

The next step is to associate the rule set with your deployments.

Associate a PrivateLink rule set with your deployment

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To associate a private link rule set with your deployment:

  1. Go to the deployment.
  2. On the Security page, under Traffic filters select Apply filter.
  3. Choose the filter you want to apply and select Apply filter.

Access the deployment over a PrivateLink

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For traffic to connect with the deployment over a PrivateLink, the client making the request needs to be located within the VPC where you’ve created the VPC endpoint. You can also setup network traffic to flow through the originating VPC from somewhere else, such as another VPC or VPN from your corporate network. This assumes that the VPC endpoint and the DNS record are also available within that context. Check your service provider documentation for setup instructions.

Use the alias you’ve set up as CNAME DNS record to access your deployment.

If your deployment alias is my-deployment-12ab9b and it is located in us-east-1 region you can access it under https://my-deployment-12ab9b.es.vpce.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com.

$ curl -u 'username:password' -v https://my-deployment-d53192.es.vpce.us-east-1.aws.elastic-cloud.com
..
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
..

If you are using AWS PrivateLink together with Fleet, and enrolling the Elastic Agent with a PrivateLink URL, you need to configure Fleet Server to use and propagate the PrivateLink URL by updating the Fleet Server hosts field in the Fleet settings section of Kibana. Otherwise, Elastic Agent will reset to use a default address instead of the PrivateLink URL. The URL needs to follow this pattern: https://<Fleet component ID/deployment alias>.fleet.<Private hosted zone domain name>:443.

Similarly, the Elasticsearch host needs to be updated to propagate the Privatelink URL. The Elasticsearch URL needs to follow this pattern: https://<Elasticsearch cluster ID/deployment alias>.es.<Private hosted zone domain name>:443.

The settings xpack.fleet.agents.fleet_server.hosts and xpack.fleet.outputs that are needed to enable this configuration in Kibana are currently available on-prem only, and not in the Kibana settings in Elastic Cloud.

Edit a PrivateLink connection

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You can edit a rule set name or to change the VPC endpoint ID.

  1. Log in to the Elasticsearch Service Console.
  2. Find your deployment on the home page in the Elasticsearch Service card and select Manage to access it directly. Or, select Hosted deployments to go to the deployments page to view all of your deployments.
  3. Under the Features tab, open the Traffic filters page.
  4. Find the rule set you want to edit.
  5. Select the Edit icon.

Delete a PrivateLink rule set

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If you need to remove a rule set, you must first remove any associations with deployments.

To delete a rule set with all its rules:

  1. Remove any deployment associations.
  2. Under the Features tab, open the Traffic filters page.
  3. Find the rule set you want to edit.
  4. Select the Remove icon. The icon is inactive if there are deployments assigned to the rule set.

Remove a PrivateLink rule set association from your deployment

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To remove an association through the UI:

  1. Go to the deployment.
  2. On the Security page, under Traffic filters select Remove.