Managing Tls Certificates

---
name: managing-tls-certificates
description: Manages TLS certificates for CockroachDB clusters including CA certificate configuration, client certificate authentication, certificate rotation, and troubleshooting SSL/TLS connection errors. Use when setting up client certificate auth, resolving SSL connection failures, rotating certificates, or configuring mTLS for CDC changefeeds.
compatibility: Requires ccloud CLI for Cloud clusters. Requires admin access and cockroach cert CLI for self-hosted clusters.
metadata:
  author: cockroachdb
  version: "1.0"
---

# Managing TLS Certificates

Manages TLS certificates for CockroachDB clusters, covering CA certificate downloads, client certificate authentication setup, certificate rotation, and troubleshooting common SSL/TLS connection errors. Addresses both CockroachDB Cloud (always-on TLS) and self-hosted certificate lifecycle management.

## When to Use This Skill

- Troubleshooting SSL/TLS connection errors from application clients (DBeaver, TypeORM, psql, Go, Python, Java)
- Setting up client certificate authentication on CockroachDB Cloud
- Uploading a custom Client CA to a Cloud cluster
- Rotating or renewing certificates (Cloud or self-hosted)
- Configuring mTLS for CDC changefeeds to Kafka
- Downloading or locating the CA certificate for a Cloud cluster

## Prerequisites

**CockroachDB Cloud:**