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Enforce Keyfile Access Control in Sharded Cluster¶
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Overview¶
Enforcing access control on a sharded cluster requires configuring:
- Security between components of the cluster using Internal Authentication.
- Security between connecting clients and the cluster using Role-Based Access Control.
For this tutorial, each member of the sharded cluster must use the same internal authentication mechanism and settings. This means enforcing internal authentication on each mongos and mongod in the cluster.
The following tutorial uses a keyfile to enable internal authentication.
Enforcing internal authentication also enforces user access control. To connect to the replica set, clients like the mongo shell need to use a user account. See Access Control.
CloudManager and OpsManager¶
If Cloud Manager or Ops Manager is managing your deployment, internal authentication is automatically enforced.
To configure Access Control on a managed deployment, see: Configure Access Control for MongoDB Deployments in the Cloud Manager manual or in the Ops Manager manual.
Considerations¶
Operating System¶
This tutorial primarily refers to the mongod process. Windows users should use the mongod.exe program instead.
Keyfile Security¶
Keyfiles are bare-minimum forms of security and are best suited for testing or development environments. For production environments we recommend using x.509 certificates.
Access Control¶
This tutorial covers creating the minimum number of administrative users on the admin database only. For the user authentication, the tutorial uses the default SCRAM-SHA-1 authentication mechanism. Challenge-response security mechanisms are are best suited for testing or development environments. For production environments, we recommend using x.509 certificates or LDAP Proxy Authority Authentication (available for MongoDB Enterprise only) or Kerberos Authentication (available for MongoDB Enterprise only).
For details on creating users for specific authentication mechanism, refer to the specific authentication mechanism pages.
See Configure Role-Based Access Control for best practices for user creation and management.
Users¶
In general, to create users for a sharded clusters, connect to the mongos and add the sharded cluster users.
However, some maintenance operations require direct connections to specific shards in a sharded cluster. To perform these operations, you must connect directly to the shard and authenticate as a shard-local administrative user.
Shard-local users exist only in the specific shard and should only be used for shard-specific maintenance and configuration. You cannot connect to the mongos with shard-local users.
See the Users security documentation for more information.
Downtime¶
Upgrading a sharded cluster to enforce access control requires downtime.
Procedures¶
Enforce Keyfile Internal Authentication on Existing Sharded Cluster Deployment¶
Create a keyfile.¶
The contents of the keyfile serves as the shared password for the members of the sharded cluster. The content of the keyfile must be the same for all members of the sharded cluster.
You can generate a keyfile using any method you choose. The contents of the keyfile must be between 6 and 1024 characters long.
Note
On UNIX systems, the keyfile must not have group or world permissions. On Windows systems, keyfile permissions are not checked.
The following operation uses openssl to generate a complex pseudo-random 1024 character string to use for a keyfile. It then uses chmod to change file permissions to provide read permissions for the file owner only:
openssl rand -base64 755 > <path-to-keyfile>
chmod 400 <path-to-keyfile>
See Keyfiles for additional details and requirements for using keyfiles.
Copy the keyfile to each component in the sharded cluster.¶
Every server hosting a mongod or mongos component of the sharded cluster must contain a copy of the keyfile.
Copy the keyfile to each server hosting the sharded cluster members. Use a consistent location for each server.
Important
Do not use shared network locations or storage mediums such as USB drives for storing the keyfile.
Ensure that the user running the mongod or mongos instances can access the keyfile.
Disable the Balancer.¶
Connect a mongo shell to a mongos.
sh.stopBalancer()
The balancer may not stop immediately if a migration is in progress. The sh.stopBalancer() method blocks the shell until the balancer stops.
Use sh.getBalancerState() to verify that the balancer has stopped.
sh.getBalancerState()
Important
Do not proceed until the balancer has stopped running.
See Manage Sharded Cluster Balancer for tutorials on configuring sharded cluster balancer behavior.
Shut down all mongos instances for the sharded cluster.¶
Connect a mongo shell to each mongos and shut them down.
Use the db.shutdownServer() method on the admin database to safely shut down the mongod:
db.getSiblingDB("admin").shutdownServer()
Repeat until all mongos instances in the cluster are offline.
Once this step is complete, all mongos instances in the cluster should be offline.
Shut down config server mongod instances.¶
Connect a mongo shell to each mongod in the config server deployment and shut them down.
For replica set config server deployments, shut down the primary member last.
For mirrored config server deployments, there is no required order for shutting down the individual mongod instances.
Use the db.shutdownServer() method on the admin database to safely shut down the mongod:
db.getSiblingDB("admin").shutdownServer()
Repeat until all config servers are offline.
Shut down shard replica set mongod instances.¶
For each shard replica set, connect a mongo shell to each mongod member in the replica set and shut them down. Shut down the primary member last.
Use the db.shutdownServer() method on the admin database to safely shut down the mongod:
db.getSiblingDB("admin").shutdownServer()
Repeat this step for each shard replica set until all mongod instances in all shard replica sets are offline.
Once this step is complete, the entire sharded cluster should be offline.
Enforce Access Control on the Config Servers.¶
Start each mongod in the config server replica set. Include the keyFile setting. The keyFile setting enforces both Internal Authentication and Role-Based Access Control.
You can specify the mongod settings either via a configuration file or the command line.
Note
MongoDB 3.2 deprecates mirrored config servers. The downtime may be an ideal time to upgrade mirrored config servers to a replica set deployment. See the Upgrade Config Servers to Replica Set tutorial for instructions on converting a mirrored config server deployment to a replica set deployment.
Configuration File
If using a configuration file, for a config server replica set, set security.keyFile to the keyfile’s path, sharding.clusterRole to configsvr, and replication.replSetName to the name of the config server replica set.
security:
keyFile: <path-to-keyfile>
sharding:
clusterRole: configsvr
replication:
replSetName: <setname>
storage:
dbpath: <path>
Include additional settings as appropriate to your deployment. For more information on the configuration file, see configuration options.
If using a mirrored config server deployment, omit the replication.replSetName option.
security:
keyFile: <path-to-keyfile>
sharding:
clusterRole: configsvr
storage:
dbpath: <path>
Include additional settings as appropriate to your deployment. For more information on the configuration file, see configuration options.
Start the mongod specifying the --config option and the path to the configuration file.
mongod --config <path-to-config>
Command Line
If using the command line parameters, for a config server replica set, start the mongod with the -keyFile, --configsvr, and --replSetName parameters.
mongod --keyFile <path-to-keyfile> --configsvr --replSetName <setname> --dbPath <path>
If using a mirrored config server deployment, omit the --replSetName parameter.
mongod --keyFile <path-to-keyfile> --configsvr --dbPath <path>
For more information on startup parameters, see the mongod reference page.
Make sure to use the original replica set name when restarting each member. You cannot change the name of a replica set.
Enforce Access Control for each Shard in the Sharded Cluster.¶
Running a mongod with the keyFile parameter enforces both Internal Authentication and Role-Based Access Control.
Start each mongod in the replica set using either a configuration file or the command line.
Configuration File
If using a configuration file, set the security.keyFile option to the keyfile’s path and the replication.replSetName option to the original name of the replica set.
security:
keyFile: <path-to-keyfile>
replication:
replSetName: <setname>
storage:
dbpath: <path>
Include any other options as appropriate for your deployment. See Configuration File Options for settings available.
Start the mongod specifying the --config option and the path to the configuration file.
mongod --config <path-to-config-file>
Command Line
If using the command line parameters, start the mongod and specify the --keyFile and --replSetName parameters.
mongod --keyfile <path-to-keyfile> --replSetName <setname> --dbPath <path>
For more information on startup parameters, see the mongod reference page.
Make sure to use the original replica set name when restarting each member. You cannot change the name of a replica set.
Repeat this step until all shards in the cluster are online.
Create a Shard-Local User Administrator (Optional).¶
Important
The Localhost Exception allows clients connected over the localhost interface to create users on a mongod enforcing access control. After creating the first user, the Localhost Exception closes.
The first user must have privileges to create other users, such as a user with the userAdminAnyDatabase. This ensures that you can create additional users after the Localhost Exception closes.
If at least one user does not have privileges to create users, once the localhost exception closes you may be unable to create or modify users with new privileges, and therefore unable to access certain functions or operations.
For each shard replica set in the cluster, connect a mongo shell to the primary member over the localhost interface. You must run the mongo on the same machine as the target mongod to use the localhost interface.
Create a user with the userAdminAnyDatabase role on the admin database. This user can create additional users for the shard replica set as necessary. Creating this user also closes the Localhost Exception.
The following example creates the shard-local user fred on the admin database.
Important
Passwords should be random, long, and complex to ensure system security and to prevent or delay malicious access.
admin = db.getSiblingDB("admin")
admin.createUser(
{
user: "fred",
pwd: "changeme1",
roles: [ { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" } ]
}
)
Enforce Access Control for the mongos servers.¶
Running a mongod with the keyFile parameter enforces both Internal Authentication and Role-Based Access Control.
Start each mongos in the replica set using either a configuration file or the command line.
Configuration File
If using a configuration file, set the security.keyFile to the keyfile`s path and the sharding.configDB to the replica set name and at least one member of the replica set in <replSetName>/<host:port> format.
security:
keyFile: <path-to-keyfile>
sharding:
configDB: <configReplSetName>/cfg1.example.net:27017,cfg2.example.net:27017,...
Start the mongos specifying the --config option and the path to the configuration file.
mongos --config <path-to-config-file>
For more information on the configuration file, see configuration options.
Command Line
If using command line parameters start the mongos and specify the --keyFile and --configDB parameters.
mongos --keyFile <path-to-keyfile> --configDB <configReplSetName>/cfg1.example.net:27017,cfg2.example.net:27017,...
Include any other options as appropriate for your deployment.
Using mirrored config servers
Changed in version 3.2: MongoDB deprecates mirrored config server configurations
If using a mirrored configuration, pass all of the config servers in <host>:<port> format to the configDB option.
If using a configuration file:
security:
keyFile: <path-to-keyfile>
sharding:
configDB: cfg1.example.net:27017,cfg2.example.net:27017,cfg3.example.net:27017
If using the command line parameters:
mongos --keyFile <path-to-keyfile> --configDB cfg1.example.net:27017,cfg2.example.net:27017,cfg3.example.net:27017
At this point, the entire sharded cluster is back online and can communicate internally using the keyfile specified. However, external programs like the mongo shell need to use a correctly provisioned user in order to read or write to the cluster.
Connect to the mongos instance over the localhost interface.¶
Connect a mongo shell to one of the config server mongos instances over the localhost interface. You must run the mongo shell on the same physical machine as the mongod instance.
The localhost interface is only available since no users have been created for the deployment. The localhost interface closes after the creation of the first user.
Create the user administrator.¶
Important
After you create the first user, the localhost exception is no longer available.
The first user must have privileges to create other users, such as a user with the userAdminAnyDatabase. This ensures that you can create additional users after the Localhost Exception closes.
If at least one user does not have privileges to create users, once the localhost exception closes you cannot create or modify users, and therefore may be unable to perform necessary operations.
Add a user using the db.createUser() method. The user should have at minimum the userAdminAnyDatabase role on the admin database.
Important
Passwords should be random, long, and complex to ensure system security and to prevent or delay malicious access.
The following example creates the user fred on the admin database:
admin = db.getSiblingDB("admin")
admin.createUser(
{
user: "fred",
pwd: "changeme1",
roles: [ { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" } ]
}
)
See Database User Roles for a full list of built-in roles and related to database administration operations.
Authenticate as the user administrator.¶
Use db.auth() to authenticate as the user administrator to create additional users:
db.getSiblingDB("admin").auth("fred", "changeme1" )
Alternatively, connect a new mongo shell to the target replica set member using the -u <username>, -p <password>, and the --authenticationDatabase admin parameters. You must use the Localhost Exception to connect to the mongos.
mongo -u "fred" -p "changeme1" --authenticationDatabase "admin"
Create Administrative User for Cluster Management¶
The cluster administrator user has the clusterAdmin role for the sharded cluster and not the shard-local cluster administrator.
The following example creates the user ravi on the admin database.
Important
Passwords should be random, long, and complex to ensure system security and to prevent or delay malicious access.
db.getSiblingDB("admin").createUser(
{
"user" : "ravi",
"pwd" : "changeme2",
roles: [ { "role" : "clusterAdmin", "db" : "admin" } ]
}
)
See Cluster Administration Roles for a full list of built-in roles related to replica set and sharded cluster operations.
Authenticate as cluster admin.¶
To perform sharding operations, authenticate as a clusterAdmin user with either the db.auth() method or a new mongo shell with the username, password, and authenticationDatabase parameters.
Note
This is the cluster administrator for the sharded cluster and not the shard-local cluster administrator.
Start the load balancer.¶
Start the load balancer.
sh.startBalancer()
Use the sh.getBalancerState() to verify the balancer has started.
See Manage Sharded Cluster Balancer for tutorials on the sharded cluster balancer.
Create additional users (Optional).¶
Create users to allow clients to connect and access the sharded cluster. See Database User Roles for available built-in roles, such as read and readWrite. You may also want additional administrative users. For more information on users, see Users.
To create additional users, you must authenticate as a user with userAdminAnyDatabase or userAdmin roles.
x.509 Internal Authentication¶
For details on using x.509 for internal authentication, see Use x.509 Certificate for Membership Authentication.
To upgrade from keyfile internal authentication to x.509 internal authentication, see Upgrade from Keyfile Authentication to x.509 Authentication.