https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/User_Management
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User Management
Contents
Users
Authentication Realms
Two factor authentication
Permission Management
Command Line Tool
Real World Examples
Proxmox VE supports multiple authentication sources, e.g. Linux PAM, an integrated Proxmox VE authentication server, LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory.
By using the role based user- and permission management for all objects (VMs, storages, nodes, etc.) granular access can be defined.
Users
Proxmox VE stores user attributes in /etc/pve/user.cfg. Passwords are not stored here, users are instead associated with authentication realms described below. Therefore a user is internally often identified by its name and realm in the form <userid>@<realm>.
Each user entry in this file contains the following information:
First name
Last name
E-mail address
Group memberships
An optional Expiration date
A comment or note about this user
Whether this user is enabled or disabled
Optional two factor authentication keys
System administrator
The system’s root user can always log in via the Linux PAM realm and is an unconfined administrator. This user cannot be deleted, but attributes can still be changed and system mails will be sent to the email address assigned to this user.
Groups
Each user can be member of several groups. Groups are the preferred way to organize access permissions. You should always grant permission to groups instead of using individual users. That way you will get a much shorter access control list which is easier to handle.
Authentication Realms
As Proxmox VE users are just counterparts for users existing on some external realm, the realms have to be configured in /etc/pve/domains.cfg. The following realms (authentication methods) are available:
Linux PAM standard authentication
In this case a system user has to exist (e.g. created via the adduser command) on all nodes the user is allowed to login, and the user authenticates with their usual system password.
useradd heinz
passwd heinz
groupadd watchman
usermod -a -G watchman heinz
Proxmox VE authentication server
This is a unix like password store (/etc/pve/priv/shadow.cfg). Password are encrypted using the SHA-256 hash method. This is the most convenient method for small (or even medium) installations where users do not need access to anything outside of Proxmox VE. In this case users are fully managed by Proxmox VE and are able to change their own passwords via the GUI.
LDAP
It is possible to authenticate users via an LDAP server (e.g. openldap). The server and an optional fallback server can be configured and the connection can be encrypted via SSL.
Users are searched under a Base Domain Name (base_dn), with the user name found in the attribute specified in the User Attribute Name (user_attr) field.
For instance, if a user is represented via the following ldif dataset:
# user1 of People at ldap-test.com
dn: uid=user1,ou=People,dc=ldap-test,dc=com
objectClass: top
objectClass: person
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
uid: user1
cn: Test User 1
sn: Testers
description: This is the first test user.
The Base Domain Name would be ou=People,dc=ldap-test,dc=com and the user attribute would be uid.
If Proxmox VE needs to authenticate (bind) to the ldap server before being able to query and authenticate users, a bind domain name can be configured via the bind_dn property in /etc/pve/domains.cfg. Its password then has to be stored in /etc/pve/priv/ldap/<realmname>.pw (e.g. /etc/pve/priv/ldap/my-ldap.pw). This file should contain a single line containing the raw password.
Microsoft Active Directory
A server and authentication domain need to be specified. Like with ldap an optional fallback server, optional port, and SSL encryption can be configured.
Two factor authentication
Each realm can optionally be secured additionally by two factor authentication. This can be done by selecting one of the available methods via the TFA dropdown box when adding or editing an Authentication Realm. When a realm has TFA enabled it becomes a requirement and only users with configured TFA will be able to login.
Currently there are two methods available:
Time based OATH (TOTP)
This uses the standard HMAC-SHA1 algorithm where the current time is hashed with the user’s configured key. The time step and password length parameters are configured.
A user can have multiple keys configured (separated by spaces), and the keys can be specified in Base32 (RFC3548) or hexadecimal notation.
Proxmox VE provides a key generation tool (oathkeygen) which prints out a random key in Base32 notation which can be used directly with various OTP tools, such as the oathtool command line tool, the Google authenticator or FreeOTP Android apps.
YubiKey OTP
For authenticating via a YubiKey a Yubico API ID, API KEY and validation server URL must be configured, and users must have a YubiKey available. In order to get the key ID from a YubiKey, you can trigger the YubiKey once after connecting it to USB and copy the first 12 characters of the typed password into the user’s Key IDs field.
Please refer to the YubiKey OTP documentation for how to use the YubiCloud or host your own verification server.
Permission Management
In order for a user to perform an action (such as listing, modifying or deleting a parts of a VM configuration), the user needs to have the appropriate permissions.
Proxmox VE uses a role and path based permission management system. An entry in the permissions table allows a user or group to take on a specific role when accessing an object or path. This means an such an access rule can be represented as a triple of (path, user, role) or (path, group, role), with the role containing a set of allowed actions, and the path representing the target of these actions.
Roles
A role is simply a list of privileges. Proxmox VE comes with a number of predefined roles which satisfies most needs.
Administrator: 擁有所有特權
NoAccess: 沒有特權 (used to forbid access)
PVEAdmin: can do most things, but miss rights to modify system settings (Sys.PowerMgmt, Sys.Modify, Realm.Allocate).
PVEAuditor: read only access
PVEDatastoreAdmin: create and allocate backup space and templates
PVEDatastoreUser: allocate backup space and view storage
PVEPoolAdmin: allocate pools
PVESysAdmin: User ACLs, audit, system console and system logs
PVETemplateUser: view and clone templates
PVEUserAdmin: user administration
PVEVMAdmin: 完全管理 VM
PVEVMUser: view, backup, config CDROM, VM console, VM power management
You can see the whole set of predefined roles on the GUI.
Adding new roles can be done via both GUI and the command line, like this:
pveum roleadd PVE_Power-only -privs "VM.PowerMgmt VM.Console"
pveum roleadd Sys_Power-only -privs "Sys.PowerMgmt Sys.Console"
Privileges
A privilege is the right to perform a specific action. To simplify management, lists of privileges are grouped into roles, which can then be used in the permission table. Note that privileges cannot directly be assigned to users and paths without being part of a role.
We currently use the following privileges:
Node / System related privileges
Permissions.Modify: modify access permissions
Sys.PowerMgmt: Node power management (start, stop, reset, shutdown, …)
Sys.Console: console access to Node
Sys.Syslog: view Syslog
Sys.Audit: view node status/config, Corosync cluster config and HA config
Sys.Modify: create/remove/modify node network parameters
Group.Allocate: create/remove/modify groups
Pool.Allocate: create/remove/modify a pool
Realm.Allocate: create/remove/modify authentication realms
Realm.AllocateUser: assign user to a realm
User.Modify: create/remove/modify user access and details.
Virtual machine related privileges
VM.Allocate: create/remove new VM to server inventory
VM.Migrate: migrate VM to alternate server on cluster
VM.PowerMgmt: power management (start, stop, reset, shutdown, …)
VM.Console: console access to VM
VM.Monitor: access to VM monitor (kvm)
VM.Backup: backup/restore VMs
VM.Audit: view VM config
VM.Clone: clone/copy a VM
VM.Config.Disk: add/modify/delete Disks
VM.Config.CDROM: eject/change CDROM
VM.Config.CPU: modify CPU settings
VM.Config.Memory: modify Memory settings
VM.Config.Network: add/modify/delete Network devices
VM.Config.HWType: modify emulated HW type
VM.Config.Options: modify any other VM configuration
VM.Snapshot: create/remove VM snapshots
Storage related privileges
Datastore.Allocate: create/remove/modify a data store, delete volumes
Datastore.AllocateSpace: allocate space on a datastore
Datastore.AllocateTemplate: allocate/upload templates and iso images
Datastore.Audit: view/browse a datastore
Objects and Paths
Access permissions are assigned to objects, such as a virtual machines, storages or pools of resources. We use file system like paths to address these objects. These paths form a natural tree, and permissions of higher levels (shorter path) can optionally be propagated down within this hierarchy.
Paths can be templated. When an API call requires permissions on a templated path, the path may contain references to parameters of the API call. These references are specified in curly braces. Some parameters are implicitly taken from the API call’s URI. For instance the permission path /nodes/{node} when calling /nodes/mynode/status requires permissions on /nodes/mynode, while the path {path} in a PUT request to /access/acl refers to the method’s path parameter.
Some examples are:
/nodes/{node}: Access to Proxmox VE server machines
/vms: Covers all VMs
/vms/{vmid}: Access to specific VMs
/storage/{storeid}: Access to a storages
/pool/{poolname}: Access to VMs part of a pool
/access/groups: Group administration
/access/realms/{realmid}: Administrative access to realms
Inheritance
As mentioned earlier, object paths form a file system like tree, and permissions can be inherited down that tree (the propagate flag is set by default). We use the following inheritance rules:
Permissions for individual users always replace group permissions.
Permissions for groups apply when the user is member of that group.
Permissions replace the ones inherited from an upper level.
Pools
Pools can be used to group a set of virtual machines and data stores. You can then simply set permissions on pools (/pool/{poolid}), which are inherited to all pool members. This is a great way simplify access control.
What permission do I need?
The required API permissions are documented for each individual method, and can be found at http://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/api-viewer/
The permissions are specified as a list which can be interpreted as a tree of logic and access-check functions:
["and", <subtests>...] and ["or", <subtests>...]
Each(and) or any(or) further element in the current list has to be true.
["perm", <path>, [ <privileges>... ], <options>...]
The path is a templated parameter (see Objects and Paths). All (or , if the any option is used, any) of the listed privileges must be allowed on the specified path. If a require-param option is specified, then its specified parameter is required even if the API call’s schema otherwise lists it as being optional.
["userid-group", [ <privileges>... ], <options>...]
The caller must have any of the listed privileges on /access/groups. In addition there are two possible checks depending on whether the groups_param option is set:
groups_param is set: The API call has a non-optional groups parameter and the caller must have any of the listed privileges on all of the listed groups.
groups_param is not set: The user passed via the userid parameter must exist and be part of a group on which the caller has any of the listed privileges (via the /access/groups/<group> path).
["userid-param", "self"]
The value provided for the API call’s userid parameter must refer to the user performing the action. (Usually in conjunction with or, to allow users to perform an action on themselves even if they don’t have elevated privileges.)
["userid-param", "Realm.AllocateUser"]
The user needs Realm.AllocateUser access to /access/realm/<realm>, with <realm> referring to the realm of the user passed via the userid parameter. Note that the user does not need to exist in order to be associated with a realm, since user IDs are passed in the form of <username>@<realm>.
["perm-modify", <path>]
The path is a templated parameter (see Objects and Paths). The user needs either the Permissions.Modify privilege, or, depending on the path, the following privileges as a possible substitute:
/storage/...: additionally requires 'Datastore.Allocate`
/vms/...: additionally requires 'VM.Allocate`
/pool/...: additionally requires 'Pool.Allocate`
If the path is empty, Permission.Modify on /access is required.
Command Line Tool
Most users will simply use the GUI to manage users. But there is also a full featured command line tool called pveum (short for “Proxmox VE User Manager”). Please note that all Proxmox VE command line tools are wrappers around the API, so you can also access those function through the REST API.
Here are some simple usage examples. To show help type:
pveum
or (to show detailed help about a specific command)
pveum help useradd
Create a new user:
pveum useradd testuser@pve -comment "Just a test"
Set or Change the password (not all realms support that):
pveum passwd testuser@pve
Disable a user:
pveum usermod testuser@pve -enable 0
Create a new group:
pveum groupadd testgroup
Create a new role:
pveum roleadd PVE_Power-only -privs "VM.PowerMgmt VM.Console"
Real World Examples
Administrator Group
One of the most wanted features was the ability to define a group of users with full administrator rights (without using the root account).
Define the group:
pveum groupadd admin -comment "System Administrators"
Then add the permission:
pveum aclmod / -group admin -role Administrator
You can finally add users to the new admin group:
pveum usermod testuser@pve -group admin
Auditors
You can give read only access to users by assigning the PVEAuditor role to users or groups.
Example1: Allow user joe@pve to see everything
pveum aclmod / -user joe@pve -role PVEAuditor
Example1: Allow user joe@pve to see all virtual machines
pveum aclmod /vms -user joe@pve -role PVEAuditor
Delegate User Management
If you want to delegate user management to user joe@pve you can do that with:
pveum aclmod /access -user joe@pve -role PVEUserAdmin
User joe@pve can now add and remove users, change passwords and other user attributes. This is a very powerful role, and you most likely want to limit that to selected realms and groups. The following example allows joe@pve to modify users within realm pve if they are members of group customers:
pveum aclmod /access/realm/pve -user joe@pve -role PVEUserAdmin
pveum aclmod /access/groups/customers -user joe@pve -role PVEUserAdmin
Note The user is able to add other users, but only if they are members of group customers and within realm pve.
Pools
An enterprise is usually structured into several smaller departments, and it is common that you want to assign resources to them and delegate management tasks. A pool is simply a set of virtual machines and data stores. You can create pools on the GUI. After that you can add resources to the pool (VMs, Storage).
You can also assign permissions to the pool. Those permissions are inherited to all pool members.
Lets assume you have a software development department, so we first create a group
pveum groupadd developers -comment "Our software developers"
Now we create a new user which is a member of that group
pveum useradd developer1@pve -group developers -password
Note The -password parameter will prompt you for a password
I assume we already created a pool called “dev-pool” on the GUI. So we can now assign permission to that pool:
pveum aclmod /pool/dev-pool/ -group developers -role PVEAdmin
Our software developers can now administrate the resources assigned to that pool.
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This page was last edited on 16 May 2018, at 11:07.
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