Roles

Overview

Every user in SUSE Observability needs to have a subject and a set of permissions assigned; this combination is called a role. A role describes a group of users that can access a specific data set. SUSE Observability ships with a set of predefined roles and you can also create roles to match your needs.

Predefined roles

There are four roles predefined in SUSE Observability:

Administrator - has full access to all views and has all permissions.
Power User - typically granted to a user that needs to configure SUSE Observability for a team(s), but won’t manage the entire SUSE Observability installation.
Kubernetes Troubleshooter - has all permissions required to use SUSE Observability for troubleshooting, including the ability to enable/disable monitors, create custom views and use the Cli.
Guest - has read-only access to SUSE Observability.

The permissions assigned to each predefined SUSE Observability role can be found below. For details of the different permissions and how to manage them using the sts CLI, see Role based access control (RBAC) permissions

Administrator
Power User
Troubleshooter
Guest

The Administrator role (stackstate-admin): has all permissions assigned.

Permissions assigned to the predefined Administrator role (stackstate-admin) are listed below, these were retrieved using the sts CLI. For details of the different permissions and how to manage them using the sts CLI, see RBAC permissions.

❯ ./sts rbac describe-permissions --subject stackstate-admin
PERMISSION                      | RESOURCE
create-dashboards               | system
create-favorite-dashboards      | system
create-favorite-views           | system
create-ingestion-api-keys       | system
create-metric-bindings          | system
create-monitors                 | system
create-notifications            | system
create-service-tokens           | system
create-stackpack-configurations | system
create-views                    | system
delete-dashboards               | system
delete-favorite-dashboards      | system
delete-favorite-views           | system
delete-ingestion-api-keys       | system
delete-metric-bindings          | system
delete-monitors                 | system
delete-notifications            | system
delete-service-tokens           | system
delete-stackpack-configurations | system
delete-sync-data                | system
delete-views                    | system
execute-component-actions       | system
execute-monitors                | system
execute-restricted-scripts      | system
execute-scripts                 | system
get-agents                      | system
get-api-tokens                  | system
get-dashboards                  | system
get-ingestion-api-keys          | system
get-metric-bindings             | system
get-metrics                     | system
get-monitors                    | system
get-notifications               | system
get-permissions                 | system
get-service-tokens              | system
get-settings                    | system
get-stackpacks                  | system
get-sync-data                   | system
get-system-notifications        | system
get-topic-messages              | system
get-topology                    | system
get-traces                      | system
get-views                       | system
update-dashboards               | system
update-metric-bindings          | system
update-metrics                  | system
update-monitors                 | system
update-notifications            | system
update-permissions              | system
update-scoped-permissions       | system
update-settings                 | system
update-stackpack-configurations | system
update-stackpacks               | system
update-views                    | system
update-visualization            | system

The Power User role (stackstate-power-user) has all Administrator permissions, except for:

execute-restricted-scripts
update-permissions
update-stackpacks

Permissions assigned to the predefined Power User role (stackstate-power-user) are listed below, these were retrieved using the sts CLI. For details of the different permissions and how to manage them using the sts CLI, see RBAC permissions.

❯ ./sts rbac describe-permissions --subject stackstate-power-user
PERMISSION                      | RESOURCE
create-dashboards               | system
create-favorite-dashboards      | system
create-favorite-views           | system
create-metric-bindings          | system
create-monitors                 | system
create-notifications            | system
create-stackpack-configurations | system
create-views                    | system
delete-dashboards               | system
delete-favorite-dashboards      | system
delete-favorite-views           | system
delete-metric-bindings          | system
delete-monitors                 | system
delete-notifications            | system
delete-stackpack-configurations | system
delete-sync-data                | system
execute-component-actions       | system
execute-monitors                | system
execute-scripts                 | system
get-agents                      | system
get-api-tokens                  | system
get-dashboards                  | system
get-metric-bindings             | system
get-metrics                     | system
get-monitors                    | system
get-notifications               | system
get-permissions                 | system
get-settings                    | system
get-stackpacks                  | system
get-sync-data                   | system
get-system-notifications        | system
get-topic-messages              | system
get-topology                    | system
get-traces                      | system
get-views                       | system
update-dashboards               | system
update-metric-bindings          | system
update-metrics                  | system
update-monitors                 | system
update-notifications            | system
update-settings                 | system
update-stackpack-configurations | system
update-views                    | system
update-visualization            | system

The Troubleshooter role (stackstate-k8s-troubleshooter) has access to all data available in SUSE Observability and the ability to create views and enable/disable monitors.

Permissions assigned to the predefined troubleshooter role are listed below, these were retrieved using the sts CLI. For details of the different permissions and how to manage them using the sts CLI, see RBAC permissions.

❯ ./sts rbac describe-permissions --subject stackstate-k8s-troubleshooter
PERMISSION                 | RESOURCE
create-dashboards          | system
create-favorite-dashboards | system
create-favorite-views      | system
create-monitors            | system
create-notifications       | system
create-views               | system
delete-dashboards          | system
delete-favorite-dashboards | system
delete-favorite-views      | system
delete-monitors            | system
delete-notifications       | system
delete-views               | system
execute-monitors           | system
get-agents                 | system
get-api-tokens             | system
get-dashboards             | system
get-metric-bindings        | system
get-metrics                | system
get-monitors               | system
get-notifications          | system
get-permissions            | system
get-settings               | system
get-stackpacks             | system
get-system-notifications   | system
get-topic-messages         | system
get-traces                 | system
get-views                  | system
update-dashboards          | system
update-monitors            | system
update-notifications       | system
update-stackpacks          | system
update-views               | system
update-visualization       | system

The Guest role (stackstate-guest) has read-only access to SUSE Observability.

Permissions assigned to the predefined Guest role are listed below, these were retrieved using the sts CLI. For details of the different permissions and how to manage them using the sts CLI, see RBAC permissions.

❯ ./sts rbac describe-permissions --subject stackstate-guest
PERMISSION                 | RESOURCE
create-dashboards          | system
create-favorite-dashboards | system
create-favorite-views      | system
delete-dashboards          | system
delete-favorite-dashboards | system
delete-favorite-views      | system
get-api-tokens             | system
get-dashboards             | system
get-metric-bindings        | system
get-metrics                | system
get-monitors               | system
get-notifications          | system
get-permissions            | system
get-settings               | system
get-system-notifications   | system
get-topic-messages         | system
get-traces                 | system
get-views                  | system
update-dashboards          | system
update-visualization       | system

Custom roles (Configuration RBAC)

In addition to the predefined roles (stackstate-admin, stackstate-power-user, stackstate-k8s-troubleshooter, stackstate-guest), which are always available, custom roles can be added. There are multiple ways to add custom roles:

via the configuration file, with the same permission as the predefined roles
via the configuration file, with a custom permissions
using the sts CLI, the subjects and their permissions are stored in the database and can be modified during runtime

Roles added via the configuration file require a restart and therefore result in a short period of downtime. Roles created using the CLI are stored in the database and can be modified at runtime.

Custom names for predefined roles

Use this option when the predefined SUSE Observability roles are a good fit but the external authentication provider has different names for the roles. For example when the LDAP authentication provider has similar but differently named roles include this YAML snippet in an authentication.yaml to give the roles from LDAP the same permissions and scopes as the predefined, equivalent, roles.

stackstate:
  authentication:
    roles:
      guest: ["ldap-guest-role"]
      powerUser: ["ldap-power-user-role"]
      admin: ["ldap-admin-role"]
      k8sTroubleshooter: ["ldap-troubleshooter-role"]

To use it in for your SUSE Observability installation (or already running instance, note that it will restart the API):

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace suse-observability \
  --values values.yaml \
  --values authentication.yaml \
suse-observability \
suse-observability/suse-observability

Custom roles via the configuration file

To set up a new role called development-troubleshooter, which will allow the same permissions as the predefined troubleshooter role, but only for the dev-test cluster, include this YAML snippet in an authentication.yaml:

stackstate:
  authentication:
    roles:
      custom:
        development-troubleshooter:
          systemPermissions:
          - create-dashboards
          - create-favorite-dashboards
          - create-favorite-views
          - create-monitors
          - create-notifications
          - create-views
          - delete-dashboards
          - delete-favorite-dashboards
          - delete-favorite-views
          - delete-monitors
          - delete-notifications
          - delete-views
          - execute-monitors
          - get-agents
          - get-api-tokens
          - get-dashboards
          - get-metric-bindings
          - get-metrics
          - get-monitors
          - get-notifications
          - get-permissions
          - get-settings
          - get-stackpacks
          - get-system-notifications
          - get-topic-messages
          - get-traces
          - get-views
          - update-dashboards
          - update-monitors
          - update-notifications
          - update-stackpacks
          - update-views
          - update-visualization
          resourcePermissions:
            get-topology:
            - "cluster-name:dev-test"

To use it in for your SUSE Observability installation (or already running instance, note that it will restart the API):

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace suse-observability \
  --values values.yaml \
  --values authentication.yaml \
suse-observability \
suse-observability/suse-observability

Custom roles via the CLI (Observability RBAC)

To set up a new role called development-troubleshooter, which will allow the same permissions as the normal troubleshooter role, but only for the dev-test cluster, a new subject needs to be created. Further more this subject needs to be assigned the required set of permissions:

Create the subject (with the same name as the role, the role-subject matching is name based and case-sensitive):

sts rbac create-subject --subject development-troubleshooter
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-topology --resource "cluster-name:dev-test"'

Configured subjects need permissions to access parts of the UI and to execute actions in it. To grant the same permissions as the troubleshooter role, follow the below example:

sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission create-dashboards
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission create-favorite-dashboards
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission create-favorite-views
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission create-monitors
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission create-notifications
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission create-views
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission delete-dashboards
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission delete-favorite-dashboards
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission delete-favorite-views
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission delete-monitors
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission delete-notifications
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission delete-views
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission execute-monitors
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-agents
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-api-tokens
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-dashboards
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-metric-bindings
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-metrics
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-monitors
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-notifications
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-permissions
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-settings
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-stackpacks
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-system-notifications
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-topic-messages
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-traces
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission get-views
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission update-dashboards
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission update-monitors
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission update-notifications
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission update-stackpacks
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission update-views
sts rbac grant --subject development-troubleshooter --permission update-visualization

Please note that the subject’s name, as well as permissions, are case-sensitive.