User Management

This page describes the management of users licensed to work with the Weka system.

Types of Users

Access to a Weka system cluster is controlled by creating, modifying, and deleting users. Up to 512 local users can be defined to work with a Weka system cluster. Each user is identified by a username and must provide a password for authentication to work with the Weka system GUI or CLI.

Every Weka system user has one of the following defined roles:

  • Cluster Admin: A user with additional privileges, as described in Cluster Admin Role Privileges below.

  • Organization Admin: A user with additional privileges within an organization (when working with different organizations, as described in Organization Admin Role Privileges).

  • Read-only: A user with read-only privileges.

  • S3: A user to run S3 commands and APIs. This user can operate within the limits of the S3 IAM policy attached to it.

  • Regular: A user that should only be able to mount filesystems

    • can log-in to obtain an access token

    • can change their password

    • cannot access the UI or run other CLI/API commands

First User (Cluster Admin)

By default, when a Weka cluster is created, a first user with an admin username and password is created. This user has a Cluster Admin role, which allows the running of all commands.

Cluster Admin users are responsible for managing the cluster as a whole. When using multiple organizations, there is a difference between managing a single organization and managing the cluster because managing the cluster also covers the management of the cluster hardware and resources. These are the additional permissions given to a Cluster Admin in comparison to an Organization Admin.

A Cluster Admin user is created because a Weka system cluster must have at least one defined Admin user. However, it is possible to create a user with a different name and delete the default admin user, if required.

Cluster Admin Role Privileges

Cluster Admin users have additional privileges over regular users. These include the ability to:

  • Create new users

  • Delete existing users

  • Change user passwords

  • Set user roles

  • Manage LDAP configurations

  • Manage organizations

Additionally, the following restrictions are implemented for Cluster Admin users, to avoid situations where a Cluster Admin loses access to a Weka system cluster:

  • Cluster Admins cannot delete themselves.

  • Cluster Admins cannot change their role to a regular user role.

Managing Users

Creating Users

Command: weka user add

Use the following command line to create a local user:

weka user add <username> <role> [password] [--posix-uid uid] [--posix-gid gid]

Parameters in Command Line

Name

Type

Value

Limitations

Mandatory

Default

username

String

Name for the new user

Yes

role

String

Role of the new created user

regular, s3,readonly, orgadmin or clusteradmin

Yes

password

String

New user password

No

If not supplied, command will prompt to supply the password

posix-uid

Number

POSIX UID of underlying files representing objects created by this S3 user access/keys credentials

For S3 user roles only

No

0

posix-gid

Number

POSIX GID of underlying files representing objects created by this S3 user access/keys credentials

For S3 user roles only

No

0

For Example:

$ weka user add my_new_user regular S3cret

This command line creates a user with a username of my_new_user, a password of S3cret and a role of Regular user. It is then possible to display a list of users and verify that the user was created:

$ weka user
Username    | Source   | Role
------------+----------+--------
my_new_user | Internal | Regular
admin       | Internal | Admin

Using the weka user whoami command, it is possible to receive information about the current user running the command.

To use the new user credentials, use theWEKA_USERNAME and WEKA_PASSWORDenvironment variables:

$ WEKA_USERNAME=my_new_user WEKA_PASSWORD=S3cret weka user whoami
Username    | Source   | Role
------------+----------+--------
my_new_user | Internal | Regular

Changing Users Passwords

Command: weka user passwd

Use the following command line to change a local user password:

weka user passwd <password> [--username username]

Parameters in Command Line

Name

Type

Value

Limitations

Mandatory

Default

password

String

New password

Yes

username

String

Name of the user to change the password for

Must be a valid local user

No

Current logged-in user

Note: If necessary, provide or setWEKA_USERNAME or WEKA_PASSWORD.

Updating Users

Command: weka user update

Use the following command line to update a local user:

weka user update <username> [--role role] [--posix-uid uid] [--posix-gid gid]

Parameters in Command Line

Name

Type

Value

Limitations

Mandatory

Default

username

String

Name of an existing user

Must be a valid local user

Yes

role

String

Updated user role

regular, s3,readonly, orgadmin or clusteradmin

No

posix-uid

Number

POSIX UID of underlying files representing objects created by this S3 user access/keys credentials

For S3 user roles only

No

posix-gid

Number

POSIX GID of underlying files representing objects created by this S3 user access/keys credentials

For S3 user roles only

No

Deleting Users

Command: weka user delete

To delete a user, use the following command line:

weka user delete <username>

Parameters in Command Line

Name

Type

Value

Limitations

Mandatory

Default

username

String

Name of the user to delete

Must be a valid local user

Yes

For Example:

$ weka user add my_new_user

Then run theweka user command to verify that the user was deleted:

$ weka user
Username | Source   | Role
---------+----------+------
admin    | Internal | Admin

User Log In

When a login is attempted, the user is first searched in the list of internal users, i.e., users created using theweka user add command.

However, if a user does not exist in the Weka system but does exist in an LDAP directory, it is possible to configure the LDAP user directory to the Weka system. This will enable a search for the user in the directory, followed by password verification.

On each successful login, a UserLoggedIn event is issued, containing the username, role and whether the user is an internal or LDAP user.

When a login fails, an "Invalid username or password" message is displayed and a UserLoginFailed event is issued, containing the username and the reason for the login failure.

When users open the GUI, they are prompted to provide their username and password. To pass username and password to the CLI, use the WEKA_USERNAME and WEKA_PASSWORD environment variables.

Alternatively, it is possible to log into the CLI as a specific user using theweka user login <username> <password>command. This will run each CLI command from that user. When a user logs in, a token file is created to be used for authentication (default to ~/.weka/auth-token.json, which can be changed using the --path attribute). To see the logged-in CLI user, run theweka user whoami command.

Note: Theweka user login command is persistent, but only applies to the host on which it was set.

Note: If theWEKA_USERNAME/WEKA_PASSWORD environment variables are not specified, the CLI uses the default token file. If no CLI user is explicitly logged-in, and no token file is present the CLI uses the default admin/admin.

To use a non-default path for the token file, use the WEKA_TOKEN environment variable.

Authenticating Users from an LDAP User Directory

To authenticate users from an LDAP user directory, the LDAP directory must first be configured to the Weka system. This is performed as follows.

Configuring an LDAP User Directory

Command: weka user ldap setup weka user ldap setup-ad

One of two CLI commands is used to configure an LDAP user directory for user authentication. The first is for configuring a general LDAP server and the second is for configuring an Active Directory server.

To configure an LDAP server, use the following command line:

weka user ldap setup <server-uri> <base-dn> <user-object-class> <user-id-attribute> <group-object-class> <group-membership-attribute> <group-id-attribute> <reader-username> <reader-password> <cluster-admin-group> <org-admin-group> <regular-group> <readonly-group> [--start-tls start-tls] [--ignore-start-tls-failure ignore-start-tls-failure] [--server-timeout-secs server-timeout-secs] [--protocol-version protocol-version] [--user-revocation-attribute user-revocation-attribute]

To configure an Active Directory server, use the following command line:

weka user ldap setup-ad <server-uri> <domain> <reader-username> <reader-password> <cluster-admin-group> <org-admin-group> <regular-group> <readonly-group> [--start-tls start-tls] [--ignore-start-tls-failure ignore-start-tls-failure] [--server-timeout-secs server-timeout-secs] [--user-revocation-attribute user-revocation-attribute]

Parameters in Command Line

Name

Type

Value

Limitations

Mandatory

Default

server-uri

String

Either the LDAP server host name/IP or a URI

URI must be in format ldap://hostname:port or ldaps://hostname:port

Yes

base-dn

String

Base DN under which users are stored

Must be valid name

Yes

user-id-attribute

String

Attribute storing user IDs

Must be valid name

Yes

user-object-class

String

Object class of users

Must be valid name

Yes

group-object-class

String

Object class of groups

Must be valid name

Yes

group-membership-attribute

String

Attribute of group containing the DN of a user membership in the group

Must be valid name

Yes

group-id-attribute

String

Attribute storing the group name

Name has to match names used in the <admin-group>, <regular group> and <readonly group>

Yes

reader-username and reader-password

String

Credentials of a user with read access to the directory

Password is kept in the Weka cluster configuration in plain text, as it is used to authenticate against the directory during user authentication

Yes

cluster-admin-group

String

Name of group containing users defined with cluster admin role

Must be valid name

Yes

org-admin-group

String

Name of group containing users defined with organization admin role

Must be valid name

Yes

regular-group

String

Name of group containing users defined with regular privileges

Must be valid name

Yes

readonly-group

String

Name of group containing users defined with read only privileges

Must be valid name

Yes

server-timeout-secs

Number

Server connection timeout

Seconds

No

protocol-version

String

Selection of LDAP version

LDAP v2 or v3

No`

LDAP v3

user-revocation-attribute

String

The LDAP attribute; when its value changes in the LDAP directory, user access and mount tokens are revoked

User must re-login after a change is detected

No

start-tls

String

Issue StartTLS after connecting

yes or no

should not be used with ldaps://

No

no

ignore-start-tls-failure

String

Ignore start TLS failure

yes or no

No

no

Viewing a Configured LDAP User Directory

Command: weka user ldap

This command is used for viewing the current LDAP configuration used for authenticating users.

Disabling/Enabling a Configured LDAP User Directory

Command: weka user ldap disable weka user ldap enable

These commands are used for disabling or enabling user authentication through a configured LDAP user directory.

Note: It is not possible to delete an LDAP configuration; only disable it.

Last updated