Cross-account sharing of a PrivateLink endpoint using Private Hosted Zones and CloudFormation

Introduction

It is possible to concentrate all your PrivateLink endpoints in one account, then share them with other accounts and access them through a Transit Gateway.

This reduces the consumption of private IPs and makes everything cleaner. You also do not have to pay a hourly fee for these endpoints in each of your accounts, although you still have to consider the transit fees involved to bring the data in another VPC.

This is done using Route53 and Private Hosted Zones (PHZs). James Levine's post Integrating AWS Transit Gateway with AWS PrivateLink and Amazon Route 53 Resolver explains very clearly how you can achieve this. I'll spare the details but basically, this lets you override the DNS addresses of the endpoints within your accounts to point to your private address instead of the public one.

Go read James' article first, then come back here for implementation details.

A sample use case

The use case that made me do this initially is AWS Systems Manager. I wanted to be able to use its Session Manager feature to open interactive sessions on EC2 instances, in multiple accounts. Since I wanted to prevent routing SSM data through the internet, combined with the fact that it required many VPC endpoints, I decided to concentrate them in one account.

As documented, four VPC interface endpoints (i.e. PrivateLink endpoints) are needed for this: ssm, ssmmessages, ec2 and ec2messages. There is also a fifth endpoint for S3, but that one is a gateway endpoint and it needs to be defined in each of your accounts.

When an EC2 instance tries to communicate with the ssm endpoint, its agent looks up that endpoint's  DNS address and by default, it gets the public IP address for your region. For example:

$ nslookup ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com
Address: 52.94.100.144

But what do you do if you have defined a PrivateLink endpoint for ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com in another account, and you wish to use it through a peering connection or a Transit Gateway? James explains how to configure a DNS hosted zone to fool everything in that VPC into using a private address. A lookup in this EC2 instance will then give this result:

$ nslookup ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com
Address: 192.168.0.10

where 192.168.0.10 is the private IP address assigned to the VPC endpoint.

This works because that DNS record is, in fact, an alias record on the regional address of your endpoint. For example, ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws is aliased to vpce-0123456789abcdef-01234abcd.ssm.ca-central-1.vpce.amazonaws.com.

If you went further and defined your VPC in multiple AZs, you should have multiple addresses :

$ nslookup ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com
Address: 192.168.0.10, 192.168.1.10

N.B. I'm still not sure what the impact of a failure in one AZ is in this scenario as I'm well-aware that using DNS as a failover mechanism isn't great and can involve timeouts.  I hope that any unavailable IP address will be removed dynamically from the regional address... I don't have the answer to this one.

Configuring a PrivateLink endpoint with a PHZ in CloudFormation

Here are the three resources you need to put in your CF template to deploy an endpoint and a private hosted zone. Once you have these in place, it is a matter of repeating the same code for ssmmessages, ec2 and ec2messages.

Security Group

The first thing you need is to define a security group to make your endpoint accessible on the port it needs (usually TCP/443):

  ssmendpointSG:

    Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup

    Properties:

      GroupDescription: "SG for SSM endpoint"

      GroupName: "SSMSG"

      SecurityGroupIngress:

        - CidrIp: 10.10.0.0/16

          IpProtocol: tcp

          FromPort: 443

          ToPort: 443

      Tags:

        - Key: Name

          Value: "My SSM Endpoint SG"

      VpcId:

        Fn::ImportValue: "VPC-id-outputvariable-from-another-template"

Note here that I've imported the VPC ID using an output variable that comes from another CF template. You can hardcode it or input it as a parameter if you prefer.

PrivateLink Endpoint

Then, you define the PrivateLink endpoint itself:

  ssmendpointVPC:

    Type: AWS::EC2::VPCEndpoint

    Properties:

      VpcEndpointType: Interface

      ServiceName: !Sub com.amazonaws.${AWS::Region}.ssm

      SecurityGroupIds:

        - !Ref ssmendpointSG

      SubnetIds:

        - Fn::ImportValue:

            !Sub "AZ1-subnet-id-outputvariable-from-another-template"

        - Fn::ImportValue:

            !Sub "AZ2-subnet-id-outputvariable-from-another-template"

      VpcId:

        Fn::ImportValue:

          !Sub "VPC-id-outputvariable-from-another-template"

Private hosted zone

As for the private zone, these two entries need to be configured (you'll need to replace the region with yours):

  phzssmcacentral1amazonawscom:

    Type: AWS::Route53::HostedZone

    Properties:

      Name: ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com

      VPCs:

      - VPCId:

          Fn::ImportValue: "VPC-id-outputvariable-from-another-template"

        VPCRegion: "ca-central-1"

  phzaliasrecordssmcacentral1amazonawscom:

    Type: AWS::Route53::RecordSet

    Properties:

      AliasTarget:

        HostedZoneId: !Select [ '0', !Split [ ':', !Select [ '0', !GetAtt ssmendpointVPC.DnsEntries ]]]

        DNSName: !Select [ '1', !Split [ ':', !Select [ '0', !GetAtt ssmendpointVPC.DnsEntries ]]]

      HostedZoneId: !Ref phzssmcacentral1amazonawscom

      Name: ssm.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com.

      Type: A

Note the multiple selectors under AliasTarget. The combination of these selectors extracts specific fields from AWS::EC2::VPCEndpoint that are made available as attributes once CloudFormation deploys the endpoint, namely:

• The hosted zone ID for the endpoint
• The regional DNS address of the endpoint (as opposed to the one pointing to the AZ itself)

Sharing a PHZ across accounts

Once the PHZ is deployed, you need it to share it with your accounts. Unfortunately, you cannot do this with CloudFormation. The procedure is explained in the KB article How do I associate a Route 53 private hosted zone with a VPC on a different AWS account?. It explains how to do this using the CLI.

Good luck.

Deploying a cross-account Transit Gateway using CloudFormation

Introduction

I've decided to automate the deployment of a Transit Gateway using CloudFormation.

I'll show you here how I did it, but be advised that it is currently not possible to do complex configurations on a TGW using CloudFormation. You will need to do some tasks manually, at least one which can only be done with the AWS CLI.

First, some caveats

Now there are a few caveats you need to be aware of before using CloudFormation to deploy a Transit Gateway:

• At this time, there are no attributes whatsoever that can be extracted from GetAtt, which means you can't extract its ARN, default route table ID, and others and use them later in your template. 
• Every (and I mean every) property change requires a replacement, which is a big deal.
• This means that doing something as simple as trying to change a tag on your Transit Gateway using CloudFormation will cause downtime, as it requires that you first remove any attachments and dependencies before being able to update the stack.
• It also means that the ID and ARN of the TGW itself will change once it is replaced, which requires lots of planning: any dependents that refer to these identifiers will need to be reconfigured.

tgw-main.yml : Deploying the Transit Gateway

Deploying a TGW is fairly straightforward:

Resources:
  mytgw:
    Type: 'AWS::EC2::TransitGateway'
    Properties:
      AutoAcceptSharedAttachments: enable
      Tags:
      - Key: Name
        Value: "My Transit Gateway"

Outputs:
  outmytgw:
    Description: TGW ID
    Value: !Ref mytgw
    Export:
      Name: "mytgw-id"

I've set AutoAcceptSharedAttachments to enable to prevent having to accept VPC attachments manually, as they will be done later.

I've also added an output variable. It is set so that I can then reference the TGW ID from other stacks, namely the VPC-related stacks that will attach themselves to the TGW. I suggest you export it with the name !Sub "${AWS::StackName}-mytgw-id" if you prefer prefixing it with the stack name.

Caution: Whatever you do, be sure to understand all the properties of AWS::EC2::TransitGateway and their implications. As I said earlier, you cannot change any of them once it's deployed without replacing the TGW, and removing all the dependencies below (and possibly more).

tgw-ram.yml: Sharing the TGW across different accounts (optional)

If you need to attach to the TGW from a VPC in another account, you first need to use Resource Access Manager (RAM) to share it between your accounts.

This cannot be done in the previous stack (tgw-main.yml); sharing the TGW requires getting its ARN and as explained in the Caveats section, there is no way do to that from CloudFormation. To my knowledge, it's not available in the portal either. Therefore, you first need to extract the ARN using the AWS CLI:

$ aws ec2 describe-transit-gateways

This will show you the ARN, such as:
arn:aws:ec2:xx-xxxxx-x:yyyyyyyyyyy:transit-gateway/tgw-zzzzzzzzzzz

Where:

• xx-xxxx-x: The AWS region where the TGW is located
• yyyyyyyy: The account number that hosts the TGW
• tgw-zzzzz: The TGW ID.

Then, you can build your RAM template like this:

Resources:
  sharemytgw:
    Type: "AWS::RAM::ResourceShare"
    Properties:
      Name: "My TGW RAM Share"
      ResourceArns: arn:aws:ec2:my-aws-region:my-aws-account:transit-gateway/tgw-my-tgw-id
      Principals:
        - "first_account_number"
- "second_account_number"
      Tags:
        - Key: "Name"
          Value: "My TGW RAM Share"

N.B. I actually use a parameter for ResourceArns, so I don't have to hardcode the ARN in there. I've left it out to keep things simple.

Once this template is run, you need to go manually inside each account and accept the Resource Access Manager invite. There is no way, to my knowledge, of doing this within CloudFormation.

tgw-vpc-attach.yml: Attaching a VPC to the TGW

Assuming you already have a CloudFormation Template to deploy your VPCs, it is then a matter of adding this code to have them attach to the TGW:

Resources:
  vpctgwattach:
    Type: 'AWS::EC2::TransitGatewayAttachment'
    Properties:
      TransitGatewayId:
        Fn::ImportValue:
          !Sub "mytgw-id"
      VpcId: !Ref myvpc
      SubnetIds:
        - !Ref mysubnetAZ1
        - !Ref mysubnetAZ2
      Tags:
      - Key: Name
        Value: "VPC TGW attachment"

Outputs:
  outvpctgwattach:
    Description: VPC TGW Attachment ID
    Value: !Ref vpctgwattach
    Export:
      Name: "vpctgwattach-id"

See here that I refer to the output variable defined previously in tgw-main.yml in order to get the ID of the TGW (without the stack name, but this is up to you).

This is for a VPC located in the same account as the TGW; note that referencing CloudFormation output variables doesn't work across accounts, the TGW ID can then be hardcoded. There are workarounds, but from what I've seen, they involve Lambda functions and I prefer avoiding this for the moment.

The TGW needs to be attached to a subnet in each of the AZs that your VPC spans to. It doesn't matter which subnet you pick these AZs, but you need one. The attachment creates a "secret" endpoint that consumes an IP address in each subnet and all packets that go to the TGW will be routed through it.

While it could be possible to attach to that VPC directly from tgw-main.yml, I've decided not to do this, as I prefer not having to modify the main TGW template when adding new VPCs. It must also be done from within the account that owns the VPC, so I prefer keeping the attachment business out of the main template.

tgw-defaultroutetable.yml: Adding entries to the default route table

There is no way to extract the ID of the default route table from CloudFormation, so you first need to extract it using the CLI or the Portal. The value is labeled as tgw-rtb-xxxxxx where xxxxxx is the Transit Gateway ID.

Then, adding a new route is a matter of invoking AWS::EC2::TransitGatewayRoute while referring to the route table ID. I suggest you use a parameter for the route table ID, to your leisure.

Resources:
  tgwdefaultroutetableentry1:
    Type: AWS::EC2::TransitGatewayRoute
    Properties:
      DestinationCidrBlock: 0.0.0.0/0
      TransitGatewayAttachmentId:
        Fn::ImportValue:
          !Sub "mytgw-id"
      TransitGatewayRouteTableId: "tgw-rtb-xxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Notice here that I've used the export variable mytgw-id to identify my transit gateway.

Wrapping it all up

Deploying a TGW using CloudFormation and sharing it across accounts is a multi-step process:

• Deploy the TGW using tgw-main.yml
• Get the ARN manually using the AWS CLI (or some other way), then share it with with other accounts using tgw-share.yml
• Go into each account and accept the share invitation.
• Create a template to attach the VPCs named tgw-vpc-attach.yml or better, add the code of that template in your current VPC template(s).
• Get the default route table ID using the portal (or some other way) and add route entries to the TGW using yet another template named tgw-routetable.yml

That's about it.

Update and thoughts on Ansible for cloud automation

Except for a few posts here and there, there hasn't been much really useful content in this blog in almost eight years! I think an update is in order.

I started this blog initially to target mostly HP-UX as I was feeling comfortable enough to post on various subjects on this operating system, and few, if anybody, blogged on HP-UX outside of the official channels, making this niche blog relevant.

Then I moved on in 2010. Since then, HP-UX itself as a platform has moved on itself, with fewer and fewer systems running.  And in the years that followed, I'll be the first to admit that it has not been easy to find a subject on which I felt good enough to blog about.

This is partly because I could not get a foothold on any particular technology. I've briefly worked as a systems architect, then came back to the technical side in 2014 by keeping Tru64 systems up and running until they got decommissioned (this was in an environment with extremely strict compliance rules -- to be honest, it wasn't very exciting). I then assisted in deploying some Windows servers (!!) in 2015-2016, along with some Red Hat Linux systems, and finally, in 2017, I've got drafted to help upgrading some Solaris 11.3 servers on a few SuperClusters. Okay, drafted is a strong word, it's a terrific and exciting platform, but sorry Solaris, seems to me that you're slowly moving on like HP-UX, too.

For a year now, I've been working on automating deployments in Azure in a new team. This is a 180 degree turn for a systems administrator, and I like it.

We're using Ansible to do this, using it to call (somewhat in preferred order):

• native Ansible modules (when exist, and also when they don't crash)
• AZCLI
• REST API calls using azure_rm_resource whenever possible
• ARM templates 
• Powershell (last resort on a Linux host)

Is Ansible great at this job? It's been one year now, and I'm still not sure.

For starters, it takes a long time to make the code fully bullet-proof and idempotent. Furthermore, while Ansible (especially the modules) makes it easy to expect a desired state for specific Azure resources, it is harder to make a playbook that will take care of not only deploying resources, but reporting differences over time (i.e. drift management) and deleting these resources in the future when they will no longer be needed.

Terraform has been sugested many times to resolve this, but I haven't looked into it yet. Well, actually I did, but after an hour I still couldn't find out how to print "hello world" so I kind of called it quits, there is so much work to be done that side projects are kind of limited right now.

AWS seems to have got it right with Cloud Formation and stacks, a feature which, I think, is missing from ARM templates for now as ARM templates seem to be designed to be a one-time thing. I've just learned about stacks today and I'm getting excited.

To be continued!