Deploy Ranger with Kubernetes #

This topic covers deploying a minimally customized Ranger instance with the Ranger Helm chart. Ranger optionally provides RBAC to SEP.

Overview #

Global access control in Starburst Enterprise platform (SEP) allows you to create, manage, and store access control policies for objects that SEP has access to, including:

• Catalogs
• Schemas
• Views
• Tables
• Columns
• Rows
• Procedures
• Session properties

Ranger access control policies can grant or revoke access to any of the above mentioned objects, and are stored in a backing PostgreSQL database.

Ranger is deployed via a separate Kubernetes (K8s) Helm chart. You can configure multiple Starburst clusters to use the same Ranger instance. Once deployed, Ranger is available within the cluster and can be accessed internally using http://ranger:6080. External access is controlled via the DNS configured for Ranger ingress.

Configure Ranger #

There are several top-level nodes in the Ranger Helm chart that you must modify for a minimum Ranger configuration:

• admin:
• usersync:
• database:

If you are using TLS, this must also be considered. This section covers getting started with these four configuration steps. Our reference documentation provides details about the content of the Ranger Helm chart, including yaml sections not discussed here.

As with SEP, we strongly suggest that you initially deploy Ranger with the minimum configuration described in this topic, and ensure that it deploys and is accessible before making any additional customizations described in our reference documentation.

Before you begin #

Get the latest starburst-ranger Helm chart as described in our installation guide with the configured registry access.

Configure the Ranger administration container #

The following values must be defined in the admin: node of the Ranger Helm chart:

• CPU resources for requests and limits - The defaults are sufficient for most environments; however, they must work with the instance type you are using.
• Memory resources for requests and limits - The defaults are sufficient for most environments; however, they must work with the instance type you are using.
• Passwords - You must supply all passwords in the passwords: node.

You can read more about the admin: top-level node in our reference documentation.

Configure Usersync #

Usersync automates the process of adding users to Ranger for policy enforcement by allowing the synchronization of users and groups from LDAP, including Active Directory.

At a minimum, the env: properties in the top-level usersync: node must be defined correctly for your environment. The following snippet uses example values:

  env:
    # Use RANGER__<property_name> variables to set Ranger install properties.
    RANGER__SYNC_LDAP_URL: "ldap://ranger-ldap:389"
    RANGER__SYNC_LDAP_BIND_DN: "cn=admin,dc=ldap,dc=example,dc=org"
    RANGER__SYNC_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD: "xx999xx999x"
    RANGER__SYNC_LDAP_SEARCH_BASE: "dc=ldap,dc=example,dc=org"
    RANGER__SYNC_LDAP_USER_SEARCH_BASE: "ou=users,dc=ldap,dc=example,dc=org"
    RANGER__SYNC_LDAP_USER_OBJECT_CLASS: "person"
    RANGER__SYNC_GROUP_SEARCH_ENABLED: "true"
    RANGER__SYNC_GROUP_USER_MAP_SYNC_ENABLED: "true"
    RANGER__SYNC_GROUP_SEARCH_BASE: "ou=groups,dc=ldap,dc=example,dc=org"
    RANGER__SYNC_GROUP_OBJECT_CLASS: "groupOfNames"

For all Ranger Helm chart usersync properties, see our reference documentation.

Configure the PostgreSQL backing database #

The configuration properties for the PostgreSQL database which stores policy information are found in the database: top-level node. As a minimal customization, you must ensure that the following are set correctly for your environment:

database:
  type: "internal"
  internal:
    port: 5432
    databaseName: "ranger"
    databaseUser: "ranger"
    databasePassword: "RangerPass123"
    databaseRootUser: "rangeradmin"
    databaseRootPassword: "RangerAdminPass123"

You may also configure volume: persistence and resources, as well as the resources: for the backing database itself in the database: node. For a complete list of available backing database properties, see our reference documentation.

Configure TLS (optional) #

If your organization uses TLS, you must enable and configure Ranger to work with it. The most straightforward way to handle TLS is to terminate TLS at the load balancer or ingress, using a signed certificate. We strongly suggest this method, which method requires no additional configuration in Ranger. Ranger can also be configured to listen on HTTPS directly.

If you choose not handle TLS using those methods, you can instead configure it in the usersync: and expose: top-level nodes of the Ranger Helm chart. The following snippets show the nodes of each of these sections:

usersync:
    tls:
    # optional truststore containing CA certificate for ldap server
    truststore:
      # existing secret containing truststore.jks key
      secret:
      # password to truststore
      password:

expose:
  type: "[clusterIp|nodePort|loadBalancer|ingress]"

You must refer to our reference documentation for full details on configuring each of these types. The default expose: type is clusterIp. However, this is not suitable for production environments. If you need help choosing which type is best, refer to the expose: documentation for SEP.

Deploy Ranger #

When Ranger is configured, run the following command to deploy it. In this example, the minimal values YAML file with the registry credentials named registry-access.yaml is used along with the ranger-values.yaml containing the Ranger customizations:

$ helm upgrade ranger starburst/starburst-ranger \
    --install \
    --values ./registry-access.yaml \
    --values ./ranger-values.yaml

Next steps #

• Read about SEP and Ranger
• Complete your Ranger configuration