New to KubeDB? Please start here.
Using Custom RBAC resources
KubeDB (version 0.13.0 and higher) supports finer user control over role based access permissions provided to an Elasticsearch instance. This tutorial will show you how to use KubeDB to run Elasticsearch instance with custom RBAC resources.
Before You Begin
At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.
Now, install KubeDB cli on your workstation and KubeDB operator in your cluster following the steps here.
To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created
Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/examples/elasticsearch folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.
Overview
KubeDB allows users to provide custom RBAC resources, namely, ServiceAccount, Role, and RoleBinding for Elasticsearch. This is provided via the spec.podTemplate.spec.serviceAccountName field in Elasticsearch crd. If this field is left empty, the KubeDB operator will create a service account name matching Elasticsearch crd name. Role and RoleBinding that provide necessary access permissions will also be generated automatically for this service account.
If a service account name is given, but there’s no existing service account by that name, the KubeDB operator will create one, and Role and RoleBinding that provide necessary access permissions will also be generated for this service account.
If a service account name is given, and there’s an existing service account by that name, the KubeDB operator will use that existing service account. Since this service account is not managed by KubeDB, users are responsible for providing necessary access permissions manually.
This guide will show you how to create custom Service Account, Role, and RoleBinding for an Elasticsearch Database named quick-elasticsearch to provide the bare minimum access permissions.
Custom RBAC for Elasticsearch
At first, let’s create a Service Acoount in demo namespace.
$ kubectl create serviceaccount -n demo my-custom-serviceaccount
serviceaccount/my-custom-serviceaccount created
It should create a service account.
$ kubectl get serviceaccount -n demo my-custom-serviceaccount -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
creationTimestamp: "2019-10-02T05:18:37Z"
name: my-custom-serviceaccount
namespace: demo
resourceVersion: "15521"
selfLink: /api/v1/namespaces/demo/serviceaccounts/my-custom-serviceaccount
uid: 16cf2f6c-e4d4-11e9-b2b2-42010a940225
secrets:
- name: my-custom-serviceaccount-token-ptt25
Now, we need to create a role that has necessary access permissions for the Elasticsearch instance named quick-elasticsearch.
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.12.18/docs/examples/elasticsearch/custom-rbac/es-custom-role.yaml
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/my-custom-role created
Below is the YAML for the Role we just created.
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
name: my-custom-role
namespace: demo
rules:
- apiGroups:
- policy
resourceNames:
- elasticsearch-db
resources:
- podsecuritypolicies
verbs:
- use
This permission is required for Elasticsearch pods running on PSP enabled clusters.
Now create a RoleBinding to bind this Role with the already created service account.
$ kubectl create rolebinding my-custom-rolebinding --role=my-custom-role --serviceaccount=demo:my-custom-serviceaccount --namespace=demo
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/my-custom-rolebinding created
It should bind my-custom-role and my-custom-serviceaccount successfully.
$ kubectl get rolebinding -n demo my-custom-rolebinding -o yaml
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
creationTimestamp: "2019-10-02T05:19:37Z"
name: my-custom-rolebinding
namespace: demo
resourceVersion: "15726"
selfLink: /apis/rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/demo/rolebindings/my-custom-rolebinding
uid: 3a5e9277-e4d4-11e9-b2b2-42010a940225
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: Role
name: my-custom-role
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: my-custom-serviceaccount
namespace: demo
Now, create an Elasticsearch crd specifying spec.podTemplate.spec.serviceAccountName field to my-custom-serviceaccount.
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.12.18/docs/examples/elasticsearch/custom-rbac/es-custom-db.yaml
elasticsearch.kubedb.com/quick-elasticsearch created
Below is the YAML for the Elasticsearch crd we just created.
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: Elasticsearch
metadata:
name: quick-elasticsearch
namespace: demo
spec:
version: xpack-8.11.1
podTemplate:
spec:
serviceAccountName: my-custom-serviceaccount
storageType: Durable
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
deletionPolicy: DoNotTerminate
$ kubectl get es -n demo
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
quick-elasticsearch 7.3.2 Running 74s
Now, wait a few minutes. the KubeDB operator will create necessary PVC, petset, services, secret etc. If everything goes well, we should see that a pod with the name quick-elasticsearch-0 has been created.
Check that the petset’s pod is running
$ kubectl get pod -n demo quick-elasticsearch-0
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
quick-elasticsearch-0 1/1 Running 0 93s
Reusing Service Account
An existing service account can be reused in another Elasticsearch Database. No new access permission is required to run the new Elasticsearch Database.
Now, create Elasticsearch crd minute-elasticsearch using the existing service account name my-custom-serviceaccount in the spec.podTemplate.spec.serviceAccountName field.
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.12.18/docs/examples/elasticsearch/custom-rbac/es-custom-db-two.yaml
elasticsearch.kubedb.com/quick-elasticsearch created
Below is the YAML for the Elasticsearch crd we just created.
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: Elasticsearch
metadata:
name: minute-elasticsearch
namespace: demo
spec:
version: xpack-8.11.1
storageType: Durable
podTemplate:
spec:
serviceAccountName: my-custom-serviceaccount
storage:
storageClassName: "standard"
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
deletionPolicy: DoNotTerminate
$ kubectl get es -n demo
NAME VERSION STATUS AGE
minute-elasticsearch 7.3.2 Running 59s
quick-elasticsearch 7.3.2 Running 3m17s
Now, wait a few minutes. the KubeDB operator will create necessary PVC, petset, services, secret etc. If everything goes well, we should see that a pod with the name minute-elasticsearch-0 has been created.
Check that the petset’s pod is running
$ kubectl get pod -n demo minute-elasticsearch-0
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
minute-elasticsearch-0 1/1 Running 0 71s
Cleaning up
To cleanup the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:
kubectl patch -n demo es/quick-elasticsearch -p '{"spec":{"deletionPolicy":"WipeOut"}}' --type="merge"
kubectl delete -n demo es/quick-elasticsearch
kubectl patch -n demo es/minute-elasticsearch -p '{"spec":{"deletionPolicy":"WipeOut"}}' --type="merge"
kubectl delete -n demo es/minute-elasticsearch
kubectl delete -n demo role my-custom-role
kubectl delete -n demo rolebinding my-custom-rolebinding
kubectl delete sa -n demo my-custom-serviceaccount
kubectl delete ns demo
If you would like to uninstall the KubeDB operator, please follow the steps here.
Next Steps
- Quickstart Elasticsearch with KubeDB Operator.
- Quickstart OpenSearch with KubeDB Operator.
- Backup & Restore Elasticsearch instances using Stash.
- Monitor your Elasticsearch instance with KubeDB using out-of-the-box Prometheus operator.
- Monitor your Elasticsearch instance with KubeDB using out-of-the-box builtin-Prometheus.
- Use private Docker registry to deploy Elasticsearch with KubeDB.
- Use kubedb cli to manage databases like kubectl for Kubernetes.
- Detail concepts of Elasticsearch object.
- Want to hack on KubeDB? Check our contribution guidelines.