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 a Ignite instance. This tutorial will show you how to use KubeDB to run Ignite database 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/ignite folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.
Overview
KubeDB allows users to provide custom RBAC resources, namely, ServiceAccount, Role, and RoleBinding for Ignite. This is provided via the spec.podTemplate.spec.serviceAccountName field in Ignite crd. If this field is left empty, the KubeDB operator will create a service account name matching Ignite 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 a Ignite instance named quick-ignite to provide the bare minimum access permissions.
Custom RBAC for Ignite
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: "2019-05-30T04:23:39Z"
name: my-custom-serviceaccount
namespace: demo
resourceVersion: "21657"
selfLink: /api/v1/namespaces/demo/serviceaccounts/myserviceaccount
uid: b2ec2b05-8292-11e9-8d10-080027a8b217
secrets:
- name: myserviceaccount-token-t8zxd
Now, we need to create a role that has necessary access permissions for the Ignite instance named quick-ignite.
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.6.30/docs/examples/ignite/custom-rbac/ig-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:
- ignite-db
resources:
- podsecuritypolicies
verbs:
- use
This permission is required for Ignite 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: "kubectl get rolebinding -n demo my-custom-rolebinding -o yaml"
name: my-custom-rolebinding
namespace: demo
resourceVersion: "1405"
selfLink: /apis/rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/demo/rolebindings/my-custom-rolebinding
uid: 123afc02-8297-11e9-8d10-080027a8b217
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: Role
name: my-custom-role
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: my-custom-serviceaccount
namespace: demo
Now, create a Ignite crd specifying spec.podTemplate.spec.serviceAccountName field to my-custom-serviceaccount.
$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2025.6.30/docs/examples/ignite/custom-rbac/ig-custom-db.yaml
ignite.kubedb.com/ignite-quickstart created
Below is the YAML for the Ignite crd we just created.
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Ignite
metadata:
name: ignite-quickstart
namespace: demo
spec:
replicas: 3
version: "2.17.0"
podTemplate:
spec:
serviceAccountName: my-custom-serviceaccount
containers:
- name: ignite
resources:
limits:
cpu: 500m
memory: 128Mi
requests:
cpu: 250m
memory: 64Mi
deletionPolicy: DoNotTerminate
Now, wait a few minutes. the KubeDB operator will create necessary petset, services, secret etc. If everything goes well, we should see that a pod with the name quick-ignite-0 has been created.
Check that the pod is running:
$ kubectl get pods -n demo
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
ignite-quickstart-0 1/1 Running 0 5m54s
ignite-quickstart-1 1/1 Running 0 4m42s
ignite-quickstart-2 1/1 Running 0 3m31s
Reusing Service Account
An existing service account can be reused in another Ignite instance. No new access permission is required to run the new Ignite instance.
Now, create Ignite crd minute-ignite 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/v2025.6.30/docs/examples/ignite/custom-rbac/ig-custom-db-two.yaml
ignite.kubedb.com/ignite-quickstart created
Below is the YAML for the Ignite crd we just created.
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Ignite
metadata:
name: minute-ignite
namespace: demo
spec:
replicas: 1
version: "2.17.0"
podTemplate:
spec:
serviceAccountName: my-custom-serviceaccount
containers:
- name: ignite
resources:
limits:
cpu: 500m
memory: 128Mi
requests:
cpu: 250m
memory: 64Mi
deletionPolicy: DoNotTerminate
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-ignite-0 has been created.
Check that the pod is running:
$ kubectl get pods -n demo
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
minute-ignite-0 1/1 Running 0 5m52s
Cleaning up
To cleanup the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:
$ kubectl patch -n demo ig/ignite-quickstart -p '{"spec":{"deletionPolicy":"WipeOut"}}' --type="merge"
ignite.kubedb.com/ignite-quickstart patched
$ kubectl delete -n demo ig/ignite-quickstart
ignite.kubedb.com "ignite-quickstart" deleted
$ kubectl patch -n demo ig/minute-ignite -p '{"spec":{"deletionPolicy":"WipeOut"}}' --type="merge"
ignite.kubedb.com/minute-ignite patched
$ kubectl delete -n demo ig/minute-ignite
ignite.kubedb.com "minute-ignite" deleted
$ kubectl delete -n demo role my-custom-role
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io "my-custom-role" deleted
$ kubectl delete -n demo rolebinding my-custom-rolebinding
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io "my-custom-rolebinding" deleted
$ kubectl delete sa -n demo my-custom-serviceaccount
serviceaccount "my-custom-serviceaccount" deleted
$ kubectl delete ns demo
namespace "demo" deleted
If you would like to uninstall the KubeDB operator, please follow the steps here.
Next Steps
- Quickstart Ignite with KubeDB Operator.
- Monitor your Ignite database with KubeDB using out-of-the-box Prometheus operator.
- Monitor your Ignite database with KubeDB using out-of-the-box builtin-Prometheus.
- Use private Docker registry to deploy Ignite with KubeDB.
- Detail concepts of Ignite object.
- Want to hack on KubeDB? Check our contribution guidelines.