Setting Up LDAP Enterprise

To establish LDAP authentication, do the following on all coordinator nodes prior to deploying the Dremio cluster:

1. Configure Dremio to use LDAP authentication (via the dremio.conf file).
2. Configure LDAP (via the ad.json file).

note

See Granting Admin Privileges at Configuration Time for information about specifying a list of users or groups to be granted the ADMIN role during initial login for bootstraping.

After you configure Dremio to use authentication that involves LDAP, read Granting Privileges to configure user and group access to spaces, sources, folders, and datasets.

Once the cluster is configured and deployed in LDAP mode,

• Dremio uses the users and groups defined in LDAP. Administrators cannot create additional users within Dremio.

• The first user to login with valid LDAP credentials is marked as the Administrator. At this point, other groups/users can be assigned as administrators.

  note

  The LDAP configuration in the dremio.conf and ad.json files must exist and match on all coordinator nodes.

Configuring Dremio for LDAP

To configure Dremio for LDAP, edit the dremio.conf file, and add the following properties:

Configuration properties for LDAP

services: {
  coordinator.enabled: true,
  coordinator.web.auth.type: "ldap",
  coordinator.web.auth.config: "ad.json"
}

note

Ad.json Location: The location of the ad.json file is relative to the conf directory. In addition, the path to the file can be an absolute path; the file can live anywhere in the system.

The coordinator.web.auth.config configuration property replaces coordinator.web.auth.ldap_config, which is deprecated.

Configuring LDAP

To configure LDAP, edit the ad.json file and add your properties.

This file located under the Dremio configuration directory (same as dremio.conf path) and is specified in the dremio.conf file as a coordinator service.

Properties

Property	Required	Description
bindMethod	No	Authentication method: UNAUTHENTICATED/ANONYMOUS/SIMPLE_BIND. If this property is not specified, authentication defaults to SIMPLE_BIND mode. Default: SIMPLE_BIND. SIMPLE_BIND -- Connect and authenticate to LDAP server using bindDN and bindPassword. ANONYMOUS -- Connect anonymously to the LDAP server. Note: When authenticating to Dremio, empty passwords for users are not allowed. UNAUTHENTICATED -- Connect to LDAP server using an unauthenticated bind. bindDN is required.
bindDN	No	Credentials for the user who connects from the Dremio LDAP client to the LDAP server. If you are using ANONYMOUS mode, this property is not required. In particular, the following property must not be present: "CN=admin,DC=drem,DC=io"
bindPassword	No	Password credential for the user who connects from the Dremio LDAP client to the LDAP server. NOTE: In Dremio 24+, bindPassword can be encrypted using the dremio-admin encrypt CLI command. If you are using UNAUTHENTICATED or ANONYMOUS mode, this property must not be present.
baseDN	Yes	The root path for all searches. If userAttributes.baseDNs or groupAttributes.baseDNs are specified, they override baseDN for search purposes.
searchScope	No	Scope of user searches: SUB_TREE -- Searches subtrees below the specified baseDNs (default). ONE -- Searches immediate children below the specified baseDNs. BASE -- Match the exact entry.
userAttributes	No	A mapping of LDAP user attributes to Dremio user attributes. This should include firstname, lastname and email
userDNs	No	List of templates for user DNs.
id	No	If used with the userAttributes property, id is the attribute for the login name. Defaults to sAMAccountName If used with the groupAttibutes property, id is the attribute for the group name (default: CN).
firstname	No	Attribute for the first name.
lastname	No	Attribute for the last name.
email	No	Attribute for the email address.
userFilter	Yes	LDAP filter for validating users. Only users who fit the specific criteria are allowed to authenticate.
groupDNs	No	List of templates for group DNs.
groupAttributes	No	A mapping of LDAP group attributes to Dremio group attributes. The baseDNs, searchScope, id properties are used.
groupFilter	Yes	LDAP filter for groups.
userGroupRelationship	No	Determines whether you are implementing lists based on users or groups. USER_ENTRY_LISTS_GROUPS (Default) -- Specifies whether the user entry in LDAP lists the groups that they belong to. The group attribute in LDAP is configured by the groupMembership property. GROUP_ENTRY_LISTS_USERS -- Specifies whether the group entry in LDAP lists the users that belong to it.
groupMembership	No	memberOf value. This attribute specifies the groups that a user or a group belongs to.
groupRecursive	No	Attribute of a user or a group that lists transitive group membership.

Defining Users

The following examples show how to define users.

Example: Using userDNs

In the following example, a list of templates for user DNs are specified. The placeholder {0} is replaced with the username entered by the user and that DN is used during LDAP bind. Dremio attempts binding to the provided userDNs in the order they are specified.

userDNs example

"userDNs": ["cn={0},dc=staticsecurity,dc=dremio,dc=com"],
"userAttributes": {
	"firstname": "givenName",
	"lastname": "sn",
	"email": "mail"
}

Example: Using userAttributes

In this example, you are mapping LDAP user attributes to Dremio user attributes.

userAttributes example

"userAttributes": {
	"baseDNs": [
		"OU=test,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io"
	],
	"searchScope": "SUB_TREE",
	"id": "sAMAccountName",
	"firstname": "givenName",
	"lastname": "sn",
	"email": "mail"
}

note

In the attribute-based approach, userDNs field must not be specified.

In the DN-based approach, the baseDNs, searchScope, id properties cannot be specified under userAttributes.

caution

Do not change the value of id in the ad.conf file after you start Dremio. Changing the value can result in lost user privileges.

Example: Using userFilter

The following example using the userFilter property to limit access to members of the engineering group.

userFilter example

"userFilter": "&(objectClass=user)(memberOf=cn=engineering,OU=Groups,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io)",

Defining Groups

The following examples show how to define groups.

Example: Using groupDNs

In the following example, a list of templates for group DNs are specified. The placeholder {0} is replaced with the group name entered by the user. Dremio attempts searching given groupDNs in the order they are specified.

groupDNs example

"groupDNs": ["cn={0},OU=engg,OU=test,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io"]

note

In the DN-based approach, the groupAttributes property must not be specified.

Example: Using groupAttributes

In this example, the groupAttributes property is used to specify a list of baseDNs and group name IDs. These properties map LDAP group attributes to Dremio group attributes. The baseDNs, searchScope, id properties are required.

groupAttributes example

"groupAttributes": {
    "baseDNs": ["dc=roles,dc=dremio,dc=com"],
    "searchScope": "SUB_TREE",
    "id": "CN"
 }

note

In the attribute-based approach, groupDNs field must not be specified.

Defining User-Group Relationships

The relationship between users and groups can be defined with one of the following methods:

• Group membership
• Group lists

Group Membership

This method implements user entries in LDAP that list their group membership. (The user entries in LDAP are configured to list their group membership via the internal field memberOf.) See Sample Group Membership Configuration for a full example with the properties in context.

To establish this user-group relationship:

• Specify groupMembership property.
• Specify (if applicable) the groupRecursive property.

For example, if Dan is part of the BI group and the BI group is part of the engineering group, groupMembership property will contain only the BI group but the groupRecursive property will contain the engineering group.

Example settings for groupMembership and groupRecursive properties

"groupMembership": "memberOf",
"groupRecursive": "transitive-memberOf",

note

If you include the groupRecursive key, make sure the value is the correct property for recursive lookups for your LDAP implementation. If you do not specify the correct property, Dremio skips recursive lookup and finds only the group membership. If you omit the groupRecursive key-value pair from your configuration, Dremio defaults to recursive lookup.

In addition, you can specify the "userGroupRelationship": "USER_ENTRY_LISTS_GROUPS" property-value, however, this property is optional since it is the default.

Group Lists

This method implements group entries in LDAP that lists users(by using the IDs of the users) that belong to that group . In the following sample, uid is the ID attribute that is used for the user entry and memberUid is the ID attribute that is used for the group entry.

Group lists example

"userGroupRelationship": "GROUP_ENTRY_LISTS_USERS",
  "groupEntryListsUsers": {
    "userEntryUserIdAttribute: "uid",
    "groupEntryUserIdAttribute": "memberUid"
  }

For example, Dan's ID is 1234 and is represented by the attribute uid in Dan's LDAP records. Dan is part of the BI group and the LDAP entry for group BI lists memberUid = 1234. This indicates that Dan is a valid member of the group.

Encrypting the LDAP Bind Password

When configuring Dremio, you might want to provide credentials to access third-party services. A common service that requires credential entry is the LDAP provider, which may request a password in order to bind Dremio to an LDAP external server for the purpose of obtaining user details during login. For customers with security standards and requirements, the use of password encryption offers a secure way to communicate key information with the LDAP service.

This is accomplished using the CLI command dremio-admin encrypt. Upon entering the command, Dremio then prompts for the entry of a string for use as the secret. The output URI may then be copied and pasted directly to the Dremio configuration file.

Example

This example goes through the process of LDAP encryption using the bind password.

To begin, run the following command as the dremio service user. Replace <yourSecret> with the secret Dremio should use for authenticaton purposes:

LDAP encryption command

sudo su - dremio bin/dremio-admin encrypt <yourSecret>

If it is not possible to run the command as the dremio service user, change the owner and group of the $DREMIO_HOME/data/security folder and underlying files to the dremio service user.

Dremio then outputs a series of characters:

LDAP encryption command output

secret:1.FxLevnDdoHx58x7VZmBpNExUiM76_u7XAXo1SJ8mCJxzeC1SirK2Jm5aBRR-h2_r8iypOAcRYSzH4uyP33Vg6Fh94bV6evuQ.wENZ7fgdJBw92wy4DiPhpJRzNP07wBaVpspv8KygjMfYV2en3YPFZw==

You would then copy the entire output via ad.json bindPassword.

Regarding schemes, you may set this to either env or file. For env scheme, the bindPassword could be env:ldap with the env variable set to export ldap <secret> where <secret> is the output. For the file scheme, the bindPassword could be set to file:///tmp/test.file where the file specified contains the output secret. For both of these methods, this only applies to the local node. If you are using a multi-coordinator configuration, you need to do this for each coordinator node. However, this method contains the raw secret in both the env scheme and file.

Another scheme you may use is data, where the secret is in base64 format. You would use the same process above for establishing the secret, but with the bindPassword set to data:text/plain;base64,SGVsbG8sIFdvcmxkIQ==.

note

The data, env, and file schemes all do not have encryption capabilities. Only secret may encrypt.

note

Dremio still accepts the old style bin password format.

Securing the Connection

The LDAP connection can be secured by specifying either ANY_SSL or TRUSTED_SSL. The default, PLAIN, is an unencrypted connection.

To set up TRUSTED_SSL mode, do the following:

• Update ad.json with the connectionMode set to TRUSTED_SSL.
• Update dremio.conf with javax.net.ssl settings for trustStore and trustStorePassword.

Set up TRUSTED_SSL mode

// ad.json entry for TRUSTED_SSL mode
"connectionMode": "TRUSTED_SSL",


// dremio.conf entry for TRUSTED_SSL mode with a self-signed certificate**
javax.net.ssl {
    trustStore: "<path/to/truststore/jks/file>",
    trustStorePassword: "trustStorePassword"
    }

note

Unencrypted Connections: If you want an unencrypted connection, the connectionMode property is set to PLAIN: "connectionMode": "PLAIN",

Sample Group List Configuration

In the following example, the group list method is being implemented. You are defining the user-group relationship where the group entry lists the users that belong to that group).

To establish this user-group relationship:

• Set userGroupRelationship to GROUP_ENTRY_LISTS_USERS.
• Specify the groupEntryListsUsers property and it's sub-properties, userEntryUserIdAttribute and groupEntryUserIdAttribute.

In the following example, uid is the ID attribute that is used for the user entry and memberUid is the ID attribute that is used for the group entry.

Sample group list configuration

{
    "connectionMode": "PLAIN",
    "servers": [
        {
            "hostname": "host_ip",
            "port": 389
        }
    ],
    "names": {
        "bindDN": "CN=admin,DC=drem,DC=io",
        "bindMethod": "UNAUTHENTICATED",
        "bindPassword": "admin",
        "baseDN": "dc=drem,dc=io",
        "userFilter": "&(objectClass=posixAccount)",
        "userAttributes": {
            "baseDNs": [
                "OU=Users,OU=ldaptest,DC=drem,DC=io",
            ],
            "id": "uid",
            "firstname": "givenName",
            "lastname": "sn",
            "email": "mail"
        },
        "userGroupRelationship": "GROUP_ENTRY_LISTS_USERS",
        "groupEntryListsUsers": {
            "userEntryUserIdAttribute": "uid",
            "groupEntryUserIdAttribute": "memberUid"
        },
        "groupDNs": ["cn={0},OU=test,OU=ldaptest,DC=drem,DC=io",
                     "cn={0},OU=dev,OU=ldaptest,DC=drem,DC=io"],
        "groupFilter": "|(objectClass=posixGroup)(objectClass=sub)",
        "autoAdminFirstUser": false
    }
}

Sample Group Membership Configuration

The following sample is a Microsoft Entra ID configuration that illustrates the group membership method (the user entry lists the groups containing the user).

Sample group membership configuration

{
	"connectionMode": "PLAIN",
	"servers": [
		{
			"hostname": "<LDAP_HOST>",
			"port": 389
		}
	],
	"names": {
		"bindDN": "CN=Admin,OU=Users,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io",
		"bindPassword": "password",
		"baseDN": "dc=dremio,dc=io",
		"userFilter": "&(objectClass=user)(|(memberOf=CN=QA,OU=temps,OU=test,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io)(memberOf=CN=qa,OU=engg,OU=test,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io))",
		"userAttributes": {
			"baseDNs": [
				"OU=test,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io"
			],
			"searchScope": "SUB_TREE",
			"id": "sAMAccountName",
			"firstname": "givenName",
			"lastname": "sn",
			"email": "mail"
		},
		"groupMembership": "memberOf",
		"groupRecursive": "transitive-memberOf",
		"groupDNs": ["cn={0},OU=engg,OU=test,OU=ad,DC=drem,DC=io"],
		"groupFilter": "(objectClass=group)",
		"autoAdminFirstUser": true
	}
}

Granting Admin Privileges at Configuration Time

By default, the first valid LDAP user to log in to Dremio is given the Admin role. This is done via the autoAdminFirstUser: true property in the ad.json file. The assignment of the first valid user to Admin occurs during initial login.

Alternatively, you can specify a list of users and/or groups to be given the Admin role. This is valid only during initial login; it is used for boot-strapping only.

caution

When you set autoAdminFirstUser to false, then you must specify users/groups in a bootstrap-admin-users.json file. Otherwise, an administrator won't be a specified.

To specify users/groups as administrators up-front, during initial login:

1. In the ad.json file, set autoAdminFirstUser to false.

   Set autoAdminFirstUser to false

   autoAdminFirstUser: false

2. Create a file called bootstrap-admin-users.json under the Dremio configuration directory.

3. In bootstrap-admin-users.json, add the users and groups arrays and specify the names of the users and groups that should belong to the ADMIN role. Use the Common Name (CN) for each user and group that you list in the arrays.

   Example settings for users and groups properties

   {
   users: ["joe", "bob"],
   groups: ["marketers", "sales wizards"]
   }

note

The users/groups specified in the bootstrap-admin-users.json file are used only during initial login and only when autoAdminFirstUser is set to false.
To add other Users/Groups to the Admin role after the initial login, use the Dremio UI.

Deleting Users

note

When deleting users from LDAP, ensure that all Personal Access Tokens (PATs) are also deleted.