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RBAC in Gateway

Role-based authorization and access

This article provides information on role-based access control (RBAC) for Itential Gateway, which entails configuration of roles and groups for users of Gateway. In the context of Gateway, a role enables user access to a single route or multiple routes. They are auto-generated at the time of server initialization using information provided for each route found in the Gateway API documentation. The name of a role is derived using the tag name (i.e., modules, playbooks, nornir, terraform, etc.) defined for a set of routes along with the action categories read, write, exec, and history. Note that multiple routes can fall under a given action category.

Action categories

These categories specify the actions that the role allows to be performed.

ActionDescription
readUser has access to read API calls.
writeUser has access to write API calls.
execUser has access to execute API calls.
historyUser has access to execution history API calls.

Sample role names

The following provides a sample list of role names.

  • modules:read
  • playbooks:write
  • terraform:exec
  • nornir:history

Along with roles, RBAC groups contain a set of users. Users that are members of a particular group will have access to the routes defined by the roles that have been configured for the group. Users and roles can be members of multiple groups.

The RBAC group admin is automatically created by the Gateway server upon the first boot up of a release with RBAC support. When doing an upgrade from a previous release that does not contain RBAC support, all existing users will automatically be added to the admin group upon first boot up of the server. The admin group contains all roles that are made available by the server. Users that are members of the admin group have access to all available routes.

Manage users and groups in Gateway

Groups are used to manage users who need the same permissions or restrictions. A summary of how to create, edit, and delete groups is presented below, along with how to manage user roles and permission sets that control access to areas and features within Gateway.

Create groups

To create groups within Gateway:

1

Log in as an administrator

Log in to Gateway as an administrator (a user with the admin role).

3

Select Groups

Select Groups from the sidenav menu on the left. A list of all defined groups is displayed.

4

Open the Create Group dialog

Click View All Groups and select the blue plus icon (+) in the top left corner of the page. The Create Group dialog displays.

5

Enter group information

Enter the new group information, i.e. name and description.

6

Assign roles

Assign appropriate roles to the group.

7

Save the group

Click Save to finalize your changes.

Create group dialog

Edit groups

To edit groups within Gateway:

1

Log in as an administrator

Log in to Gateway as an administrator (a user with the admin role).

3

Select Groups

Select Groups from the sidenav menu. A list of all defined groups is displayed.

4

Locate the group

Locate the group in the list. You can filter the list by typing in the Search Groups field.

5

Select and edit the group

Select the group in the list to view or edit.

6

Edit the description

Edit the description, as desired.

7

Edit roles and members

Edit roles and members, as desired.

8

Save your changes

Click Save to finalize your changes.

Edit group roles
Edit group members

Delete groups

Only Gateway groups created by end users can be deleted. The admin group cannot be deleted or modified.

This is a hard delete. Deleting a group will remove the role from all users and groups assigned to it.

1

Select the group

Select the group.

2

Open the options menu

Click the blue icon (stacked dots) in the upper-right corner of the page to reveal the Clone and Delete options.

3

Select Delete

Select Delete. A prompt displays to confirm deletion of the group from the application.

4

Confirm deletion

Click Delete.

Edit users

To edit users within Gateway:

1

Log in as an administrator

Log in to Gateway as an administrator (a user with the admin role).

3

Locate the user

Locate the user in the list. Optionally, filter the list by typing in the Search Users field and pressing Enter, or click the search icon.

4

Select the user

Select the appropriate user from the list to view or edit.

5

Edit attributes

Edit attributes, as desired.

6

Edit groups

Edit Groups, as desired.

7

Save your changes

Click Save to finalize your changes.

Users list
Edit user group assignments

Add LDAP users and groups

For LDAP users to appear in the Itential Gateway Authorization Users list, you will need to:

  • Manually create each LDAP user; make sure the username matches the LDAP username.
  • Manually create the groups in Gateway to which the LDAP users will be added.

Groups are added as members to a role, and group members are listed as user members for the role. Therefore, once you have created the LDAP users and LDAP groups manually in Gateway, and assigned all necessary permissions to each group, whenever an LDAP user of the same matching username logs in, that user is automatically added to the group to which the user is a member and whatever role permissions are assigned to the group.