Permissions

This page describes StackState version 4.2.

The StackState 4.2 version range is End of Life (EOL) and no longer supported. We encourage customers still running the 4.2 version range to upgrade to a more recent release.

Go to the documentation for the latest StackState release.

Permissions in StackState

Permissions in StackState are twofold: System permissions and View permissions. These two sets of permissions are prepared to allow Administrators to take control over actions that users can perform inside StackState, as well as adjusting a user's UI to fit their role. This means that StackState can present a completely different interface and feature set according to the user's active role. UI elements that users don't have access to are simply not displayed in their UI.

Please note that permissions are stored in StackGraph, so performing an upgrade with clear all data will also remove permission setup. Because permissions exist in StackGraph, in order to completely remove the user it needs to be removed from LDAP and from StackGraph manually.

Views permissions and system permissions

Views permissions are a set of permissions that allow for CRUD operations with Views in StackState. System permissions are scoping user capabilities like access to settings, query execution or scripting.

Predefined roles

StackState comes with three predefined roles - stackstate-admin (Adminstrator), stackstate-power-user (Power user) and stackstate-guest (Guest user).

Administrators have all permissions and access to all views.
Power Users have all Administrator permissions except update-permissions and upload-stackpacks. This role is typically granted to users that are not managing the entire StackState installation, but do need to configure StackState for their team(s).
Guests have access to view, as you can see below:

subject           permission            resource
----------------  --------------------  ----------
stackstate-guest  read-settings         system
stackstate-guest  access-explore        system
stackstate-guest  perform-custom-query  system
stackstate-guest  read-permissions      system
stackstate-guest  update-visualization  system
stackstate-guest  access-view           everything

The default names for these roles as mentioned above can be overriden, this mechanism can also be used to add extra roles that will have the same permissions. Here an example of how to do this for both Kubernetes and Linux instalaltions.

Include this YAML snippet in an authentication.yaml when customizing the authentication configuration to replace the default role names with these custom role names.

stackstate:
  authentication:
    roles:
      guest: ["custom-guest-role"]
      powerUser: ["custom-power-user-role"]
      admin: ["custom-admin-role"]

Of course it is also possible to leave the defaults in place, for example the guestGroups would then have an array with 2 entries: ["stackstate-guest", "custom-guest-role"].

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

helm upgrade \
  --install \
  --namespace stackstate \
  --values values.yaml \
  --values authentication.yaml \
stackstate \
stackstate/stackstate

Edit the existing keys in the authentication section (nested in stackstate.api) in the configuration file like in the example to replace the default role names with these custom role names. Restart StackState to make the change take effect.

  guestGroups = ["custom-guest-role"]
  powerUserGroups = ["custom-power-user-role"]
  adminGroups = ["custom-admin-role"]
}

Of course it is also possible to leave the defaults in place, for example the guestGroups would then have an array with 2 entries: ["stackstate-guest", "custom-guest-role"].

List of all permissions in StackState

Permission

Purpose

Guest

Power-user

Administrator

access-explore

Access the Explore page

✅

update-visualization

Change visualization settings

✅

perform-custom-query

Access the topology filter

✅

read-permissions

List all granted permissions across the entire system via the CLI

✅

execute-component-actions

Execute component actions

✅

create-views

Create views

✅

access-analytics

Access the Analytics page

✅

execute-scripts

Execute a query in the Analytics page

✅

read-settings

Access the Settings page

✅

update-settings

Update settings

✅

import-settings

Import settings

✅

export-settings

Export settings

✅

manage-topology-elements

Create/update/delete topology elements

✅

manage-stackpacks

Install/upgrade/uninstall StackPacks

✅

manage-annotations

Persist and fetch Anomaly annotations in StackState

✅

save-view

Save views

✅

access-view

Access a specific view (when granted on a view) or all views (when granted on the everything subject)

✅

delete-view

Delete views

✅

manage-telemetry-streams

Edit or create new streams for components via the UI

✅

access-log-data

Access StackState logs via the CLI

✅

access-topic-data

Access StackState receiver data via the CLI

✅

execute-component-templates

Invoke a component template API extension (internal use only)

✅

execute-node-sync

Reset or delete a synchronization

✅

access-admin-api

Access the administrator API

✅

update-permissions

Grant/revoke permissions or modify subjects

✅

upload-stackpacks

Upload new (versions of) StackPacks

✅

UI elements and permissions

Pages permissions

Analytics page - requires access-analytics permission. Without this permission, Analytics section is hidden in the UI, and it is not accessible via URL.
StackPacks page - requires manage-stackpacks system permission. Without this permission, StackPacks section is hidden in the UI and it is not accessible via URL.
Settings page - requires read-settings system permission. Without this permission, Settings section is hidden in the UI and it is not accessible via URL.
Explore Mode page - requires access-explore system permission. Without this permission, Explore Mode section is hidden in the UI and it is not accessible via URL.
Saved views page - Requires access-view permission and a resource. It is possible to grant access for specific views by adding accesss-view permission with a specific view ID or (as it is for the Administrator role) with Everything resource, allowing to see all views.
Import Settings Page - requires import-settings system permission. Without this permission, Import Settings is removed from Settings Menu.
Export Settings page - requires export-settings system permission. Without this permission, Export Settings is removed from Settings Menu.
Admin API - requires access-admin-api system permission. Without this permission, Admin API is removed from Settings Menu.

Create a view - requires create-views system permission. If not granted, save buttons are not present for the user.
Save as... - requires save-view permission. It's dependant on Everything or the specific view permissions.
Edit a view - requires save-view permission. It's dependant on Everything or the specific view permissions.
Delete a view - requires delete-view permission. It's dependant on Everything or the specific view permissions.
Sidebar access - requires save-view, delete-view or both of them to access these options in the sidebar.

Topology capabilities permissions

Basic and Advanced filtering - perform-custom-query is required to access filtering tools. Filtering options are hidden for users without this permission.
Component pane - requires system permissions: manage-topology-elements, perform-custom-query, and read-settings. Component pane is hidden for users without this set of permissions.
Visualization Settings - requires update-visualization system permission. Visualization settings are hidden for users without this permission.

Topology views permissions

Drag and drop components - requires manage-topology-elements system permission.
Access to a node actions menu - requires execute-component-actions permission.
Create relations between topology elements - requires system permissions: manage-topology-elements, perform-custom-query, and read-settings.

Analytics Page permissions

Executing scripts - requires execute scripts system permission. Execute button will not be present for users without this permission.

Element Details permissions

Data streams actions - requires manage-topology-elements system permission. Without this permission only "Inspect" action is available.
Add data streams - requires manage-topology-elements system permission. Without this permission, user cannot see the Add button.
Health check - requires manage-topology-elements system permission. Without this permission, user cannot see any actions.
Add health check - requires manage-topology-elements system permission. Without that permission, user cannot see the Add button.
Delete element - requires manage-topology-elements system permission. Delete button is not present if the user does not have this permission.
Edit element (also edit element template) - requires manage-topology-elements, perform-custom-query, and read-settings system permissions.

Settings permissions

Below capabilities are shared across all settings pages.

Add New capability - requires update-settings system permission. It unlocks Add... buttons on all Settings Pages.
Edit capability - requires update-settings system permission. Three dots menu (kebab menu) is not displayed for the users without that permission.
Delete capability - requires update-settings system permission. Delete option is not displayed for the users without this permission.
Export capability - requires export-settings system permission. Checkboxes are not available for the user without this permission.
Delete and Reset synchronization capabilities - requires execute-node-sync system permission.

Examples

Important note: all permissions in StackState are case sensitive.

List all permissions:

sts permission list

Provide a subject with permission to open a view:

sts permission grant [subject-handle] access-view [view-name]

Revoke permissions for a subject to open a view:

sts permission revoke [subject-handle] access-view [view-name]

Provide a subject with system permission to check StackState settings:

sts permission grant [subject-handle] read-settings system

Provide a subject with system permission to create (save) views:

sts permission grant [subject-handle] create-views system

UI of a user without any permissions:

PreviousRole-based Access Control NextRoles

Last updated 3 years ago