How do I mount an encrypted Amazon EFS file system to a pod in Amazon EKS?

Short description

You can encrypt your data either in transit with TLS or at rest.

Note: If you receive errors when you run AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands, then see Troubleshoot AWS CLI errors. Also, make sure that you're using the most recent AWS CLI version.

Resolution

Encrypt data in transit with TLS

To encrypt your data in transit with TLS, complete the following steps:

1. Deploy the Amazon EFS Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for your Amazon EKS cluster.

2. Create an Amazon EFS file system without encryption for your cluster.
   Note: When you create the file system, create a mount target for Amazon EFS in all Availability Zones where your EKS nodes are located. 

3. Clone the GitHub repository to your local system:

   git clone https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-efs-csi-driver.git

4. Go to the encryption_in_transit example directory:

   cd aws-efs-csi-driver/examples/kubernetes/encryption_in_transit/

5. Retrieve your Amazon EFS file system ID:

   aws efs describe-file-systems --query "FileSystems[*].FileSystemId" --output text

6. Go to the pv.yaml file in the /examples/kubernetes/encryption_in_transit/specs/ directory. Then, replace the value of VolumeHandle with the FileSystemId of the Amazon EFS file system that you're mounting. For example:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: PersistentVolume
   metadata:
     name: efs-pv
   spec:
     capacity:
       storage: 5Gi
     volumeMode: Filesystem
     accessModes:
       - ReadWriteOnce
     persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
     storageClassName: efs-sc
     csi:
       driver: efs.csi.aws.com
       volumeHandle: [FileSystemId]
       volumeAttributes:
         encryptInTransit: "true"

   Note: The volumeAttributes: encryptInTransit mount option activates encryption in transit.

7. Deploy the storage class, persistent volume claim, persistent volume, and pod from the /examples/kubernetes/encryption_in_transit/specs/ directory:

   kubectl apply -f specs/storageclass.yaml
   kubectl apply -f specs/pv.yaml
   kubectl apply -f specs/claim.yaml
   kubectl apply -f specs/pod.yaml

8. Verify that your pod is in a running state:

   kubectl get pods

9. List the persistent volumes in the default namespace:

   kubectl get pv

10. Describe the persistent volume:

    kubectl describe pv efs-pv

    Note: The Amazon EFS file system ID is listed as the VolumeHandle.

11. Verify that the data is written onto the Amazon EFS file system:

    kubectl exec -ti efs-app -- tail -f /data/out.txt

Encrypt data at rest

To encrypt data at rest, complete the following steps:

1. Deploy the Amazon EFS CSI driver for your Amazon EKS cluster.

2. Turn on encryption at rest for your Amazon EKS cluster to create an Amazon EFS file system.

3. Clone the following GitHub repository to your local system:

   git clone https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-efs-csi-driver.git

4. Go to the multiple_pods example directory:

   cd aws-efs-csi-driver/examples/kubernetes/multiple_pods/

5. Retrieve your Amazon EFS file system ID:

   aws efs describe-file-systems

   Example output:

   { "FileSystems": [
    {
    "SizeInBytes": {
    "Timestamp": ,
    "Value":
    },
    "ThroughputMode": "",
    "CreationToken": "",
    "Encrypted": true,
    "CreationTime": ,
    "PerformanceMode": "",
    "FileSystemId": "[FileSystemId]",
    "NumberOfMountTargets": ,
    "LifeCycleState": "available",
    "KmsKeyId": "arn:aws:kms:ap-southeast-1:<account_id>:key/854df848-fdd1-46e3-ab97-b4875c4190e6",
    "OwnerId": ""
    },
    ]
   }

6. Go to the pv.yaml file in the /examples/kubernetes/multiple_pods/specs/ directory. Then, replace the value of volumeHandle with the FileSystemId of the Amazon EFS file system that you're mounting. For example:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: PersistentVolume
   metadata:
     name: efs-pv
   spec:
     capacity:
       storage: 5Gi
     volumeMode: Filesystem
     accessModes:
       - ReadWriteMany
     persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
     storageClassName: efs-sc
     csi:
       driver: efs.csi.aws.com
       volumeHandle: [FileSystemId]

7. Deploy the storage class, persistent volume claim, persistent volume, and pod from the /examples/kubernetes/multiple_pods/specs/ directory:

   kubectl apply -f specs/storageclass.yaml  
   kubectl apply -f specs/pv.yaml 
   kubectl apply -f specs/claim.yaml 
   kubectl apply -f specs/pod1.yaml 
   kubectl apply -f specs/pod2.yaml

8. Verify that your pod is in a running state:

   kubectl get pods

9. List the persistent volumes in the default namespace:

   kubectl get pv

10. Describe the persistent volume:

    kubectl describe pv efs-pv

11. Verify that the data is written onto the Amazon EFS file system:

    kubectl exec -ti app1 -- tail /data/out1.txt
    kubectl exec -ti app2 -- tail /data/out1.txt