ssm-env
ssm-env
is a simple UNIX tool to populate env vars from AWS Parameter Store.
Installation
$ go get -u github.com/remind101/ssm-env
You can most likely find the downloaded binary in ~/go/bin/ssm-env
Usage
ssm-env [-template STRING] [-with-decryption] [-no-fail] COMMAND
Details
Given the following environment:
RAILS_ENV=production
COOKIE_SECRET=ssm://prod.app.cookie-secret
You can run the application using ssm-env
to automatically populate the COOKIE_SECRET
env var from SSM:
$ ssm-env env
RAILS_ENV=production
COOKIE_SECRET=super-secret
You can also configure how the parameter name is determined for an environment variable, by using the -template
flag:
$ export COOKIE_SECRET=xxx
$ ssm-env -template '{{ if eq .Name "COOKIE_SECRET" }}prod.app.cookie-secret{{end}}' env
RAILS_ENV=production
COOKIE_SECRET=super-secret
ssm-env
also supports versioned SSM params:
$ export OLD_SECRET=ssm://secret:1
$ export NEW_SECRET=ssm://secret:2
$ ssm-env env
OLD_SECRET=super_secret_v1
NEW_SECRET=super_secret_v2
Usage with Docker
A common use case is to use ssm-env
as a Docker ENTRYPOINT. You can copy and paste the following into the top of a Dockerfile:
RUN curl -L https://github.com/remind101/ssm-env/releases/download/v0.0.4/ssm-env > /usr/local/bin/ssm-env && \
cd /usr/local/bin && \
echo 4a5140b04f8b3f84d16a93540daa7bbd ssm-env | md5sum -c && \
chmod +x ssm-env
ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/ssm-env", "-with-decryption"]
Now, any command executed with the Docker image will be funneled through ssm-env.
Alpine Docker Image
To use ssm-env
with Alpine Docker images, root certificates need to be added
and the installation command differs, as shown in the Dockerfile
below:
FROM alpine:latest
# ...copy code
# ssm-env: See https://github.com/remind101/ssm-env
RUN wget -O /usr/local/bin/ssm-env https://github.com/remind101/ssm-env/releases/download/v0.0.3/ssm-env
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ssm-env
# Alpine Linux doesn't include root certificates which ssm-env needs to talk to AWS.
# See https://simplydistributed.wordpress.com/2018/05/22/certificate-error-with-go-http-client-in-alpine-docker/
RUN apk add --no-cache ca-certificates
ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/ssm-env", "-with-decryption"]
Usage with Kubernetes
A simple way to provide AWS credentials to ssm-env
in containers run in Kubernetes is to use Kubernetes
Secrets and to expose
them as environment variables. There are more secure alternatives to environment variables, but if this is secure
enough for your needs, it provides a low-effort setup path.
First, store your AWS credentials in a secret called aws-credentials
:
kubectl create secret generic aws-credentials --from-literal=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID='AKIA...' --from-literal=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY='...'
Then, in the container specification in your deployment or pod file, add them as environment variables (alongside all other environment variables, including those retrieved from SSM):
containers:
- env:
- name: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: aws-credentials
key: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
- name: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
valueFrom:
secretKeyRef:
name: aws-credentials
key: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
- name: AWS_REGION
value: us-east-1
- name: SSM_EXAMPLE
value: ssm:///foo/bar