Chapter 31. Delegating permissions to user groups to manage users using Ansible playbooks


Delegation is one of the access control methods in IdM, along with self-service rules and role-based access control (RBAC). You can use delegation to assign permissions to one group of users to manage entries for another group of users.

This section covers the following topics:

31.1. Delegation rules

You can delegate permissions to user groups to manage users by creating delegation rules.

Delegation rules allow a specific user group to perform write (edit) operations on specific attributes for users in another user group. This form of access control rule is limited to editing the values of a subset of attributes you specify in a delegation rule; it does not grant the ability to add or remove whole entries or control over unspecified attributes.

Delegation rules grant permissions to existing user groups in IdM. You can use delegation to, for example, allow the managers user group to manage selected attributes of users in the employees user group.

31.2. Creating an Ansible inventory file for IdM

When working with Ansible, it is good practice to create, in your home directory, a subdirectory dedicated to Ansible playbooks that you copy and adapt from the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/* and /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/* subdirectories. This practice has the following advantages:

  • You can find all your playbooks in one place.
  • You can run your playbooks without invoking root privileges.

Procedure

  1. Create a directory for your Ansible configuration and playbooks in your home directory:

    $ mkdir ~/MyPlaybooks/
  2. Change into the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory:

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks
  3. Create the ~/MyPlaybooks/ansible.cfg file with the following content:

    [defaults]
    inventory = /home/<username>/MyPlaybooks/inventory
    
    [privilege_escalation]
    become=True
  4. Create the ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory file with the following content:

    [eu]
    server.idm.example.com
    
    [us]
    replica.idm.example.com
    
    [ipaserver:children]
    eu
    us

    This configuration defines two host groups, eu and us, for hosts in these locations. Additionally, this configuration defines the ipaserver host group, which contains all hosts from the eu and us groups.

31.3. Using Ansible to ensure that a delegation rule is present

The following procedure describes how to use an Ansible playbook to define privileges for a new IdM delegation rule and ensure its presence. In the example, the new basic manager attributes delegation rule grants the managers group the ability to read and write the following attributes for members of the employees group:

  • businesscategory
  • departmentnumber
  • employeenumber
  • employeetype

Prerequisites

  • On the control node:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.15 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory:

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/
  2. Make a copy of the delegation-present.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/ directory:

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/delegation-present.yml delegation-present-copy.yml
  3. Open the delegation-present-copy.yml Ansible playbook file for editing.
  4. Adapt the file by setting the following variables in the ipadelegation task section:

    • Set the ipaadmin_password variable to the password of the IdM administrator.
    • Set the name variable to the name of the new delegation rule.
    • Set the permission variable to a comma-separated list of permissions to grant: read and write.
    • Set the attribute variable to a list of attributes the delegated user group can manage: businesscategory, departmentnumber, employeenumber, and employeetype.
    • Set the group variable to the name of the group that is being given access to view or modify attributes.
    • Set the membergroup variable to the name of the group whose attributes can be viewed or modified.

    This is the modified Ansible playbook file for the current example:

    ---
    - name: Playbook to manage a delegation rule
      hosts: ipaserver
    
      vars_files:
      - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml
      tasks:
      - name: Ensure delegation "basic manager attributes" is present
        ipadelegation:
          ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}"
          name: "basic manager attributes"
          permission: read, write
          attribute:
          - businesscategory
          - departmentnumber
          - employeenumber
          - employeetype
          group: managers
          membergroup: employees
  5. Save the file.
  6. Run the Ansible playbook. Specify the playbook file, the file storing the password protecting the secret.yml file, and the inventory file:

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory delegation-present-copy.yml

Additional resources

  • Delegation rules
  • The README-delegation.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/ directory
  • Sample playbooks in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ipadelegation directory

31.4. Using Ansible to ensure that a delegation rule is absent

The following procedure describes how to use an Ansible playbook to ensure a specified delegation rule is absent from your IdM configuration. The example below describes how to make sure the custom basic manager attributes delegation rule does not exist in IdM.

Prerequisites

  • On the control node:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.15 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory:

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks>/
  2. Make a copy of the delegation-absent.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/ directory:

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/delegation-present.yml delegation-absent-copy.yml
  3. Open the delegation-absent-copy.yml Ansible playbook file for editing.
  4. Adapt the file by setting the following variables in the ipadelegation task section:

    • Set the ipaadmin_password variable to the password of the IdM administrator.
    • Set the name variable to the name of the delegation rule.
    • Set the state variable to absent.

    This is the modified Ansible playbook file for the current example:

    ---
    - name: Delegation absent
      hosts: ipaserver
    
      vars_files:
      - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml
      tasks:
      - name: Ensure delegation "basic manager attributes" is absent
        ipadelegation:
          ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}"
          name: "basic manager attributes"
          state: absent
  5. Save the file.
  6. Run the Ansible playbook. Specify the playbook file, the file storing the password protecting the secret.yml file, and the inventory file:

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory delegation-absent-copy.yml

Additional resources

  • Delegation rules
  • The README-delegation.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/ directory
  • Sample playbooks in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ipadelegation directory

31.5. Using Ansible to ensure that a delegation rule has specific attributes

The following procedure describes how to use an Ansible playbook to ensure that a delegation rule has specific settings. You can use this playbook to modify a delegation role you have previously created. In the example, you ensure the basic manager attributes delegation rule only has the departmentnumber member attribute.

Prerequisites

  • On the control node:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.15 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.
  • The basic manager attributes delegation rule exists in IdM.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory:

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/
  2. Make a copy of the delegation-member-present.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/ directory:

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/delegation-member-present.yml delegation-member-present-copy.yml
  3. Open the delegation-member-present-copy.yml Ansible playbook file for editing.
  4. Adapt the file by setting the following variables in the ipadelegation task section:

    • Set the ipaadmin_password variable to the password of the IdM administrator.
    • Set the name variable to the name of the delegation rule to modify.
    • Set the attribute variable to departmentnumber.
    • Set the action variable to member.

    This is the modified Ansible playbook file for the current example:

    ---
    - name: Delegation member present
      hosts: ipaserver
    
      vars_files:
      - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml
      tasks:
      - name: Ensure delegation "basic manager attributes" member attribute departmentnumber is present
        ipadelegation:
          ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}"
          name: "basic manager attributes"
          attribute:
          - departmentnumber
          action: member
  5. Save the file.
  6. Run the Ansible playbook. Specify the playbook file, the file storing the password protecting the secret.yml file, and the inventory file:

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory delegation-member-present-copy.yml

Additional resources

  • Delegation rules
  • The README-delegation.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/ directory
  • The sample playbooks in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ipadelegation directory

31.6. Using Ansible to ensure that a delegation rule does not have specific attributes

The following procedure describes how to use an Ansible playbook to ensure that a delegation rule does not have specific settings. You can use this playbook to make sure a delegation role does not grant undesired access. In the example, you ensure the basic manager attributes delegation rule does not have the employeenumber and employeetype member attributes.

Prerequisites

  • On the control node:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.15 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.
  • The basic manager attributes delegation rule exists in IdM.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory:

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/
  2. Make a copy of the delegation-member-absent.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/ directory:

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/delegation/delegation-member-absent.yml delegation-member-absent-copy.yml
  3. Open the delegation-member-absent-copy.yml Ansible playbook file for editing.
  4. Adapt the file by setting the following variables in the ipadelegation task section:

    • Set the ipaadmin_password variable to the password of the IdM administrator.
    • Set the name variable to the name of the delegation rule to modify.
    • Set the attribute variable to employeenumber and employeetype.
    • Set the action variable to member.
    • Set the state variable to absent.

    This is the modified Ansible playbook file for the current example:

    ---
    - name: Delegation member absent
      hosts: ipaserver
    
      vars_files:
      - /home/user_name/MyPlaybooks/secret.yml
      tasks:
      - name: Ensure delegation "basic manager attributes" member attributes employeenumber and employeetype are absent
        ipadelegation:
          ipaadmin_password: "{{ ipaadmin_password }}"
          name: "basic manager attributes"
          attribute:
          - employeenumber
          - employeetype
          action: member
          state: absent
  5. Save the file.
  6. Run the Ansible playbook. Specify the playbook file, the file storing the password protecting the secret.yml file, and the inventory file:

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory delegation-member-absent-copy.yml

Additional resources

  • Delegation rules
  • The README-delegation.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/ directory.
  • Sample playbooks in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ipadelegation directory
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