Interconnecting ClickHouse With OpenLDAP for Authentication

ClickHouse can be interconnected with OpenLDAP. You can manage accounts and permissions in a centralized manner by adding the OpenLDAP server configuration and creating users on ClickHouse. You can use this method to import users from the OpenLDAP server to ClickHouse in batches.

This section applies only to MRS 3.1.0 or later.

Prerequisites

The MRS cluster and ClickHouse instances are running properly, and the ClickHouse client has been installed.
OpenLDAP has been installed and is running properly.

Creating a ClickHouse User for Interconnecting with the OpenLDAP Server

Log in to Manager and choose Cluster > Services > ClickHouse. Click the Configurations tab and then All Configurations.

Choose ClickHouseServer(Role) > Customization, and add the following OpenLDAP configuration parameters to the clickhouse-config-customize configuration item. See Figure 1.

**Table 1** OpenLDAP parameters
Parameter	Description	Example Value
ldap_servers.ldap_server_name.host	OpenLDAP server host name or IP address. This parameter cannot be empty.	localhost
ldap_servers.ldap_server_name.port	OpenLDAP server port number. If enable_tls is set to true, the default port number is 636. Otherwise, the default port number is 389.	636
ldap_servers.ldap_server_name.auth_dn_prefix	Prefix and suffix used to construct the DN to bind to. The generated DN will be constructed as a string in the following format: auth_dn_prefix + escape(user_name) + auth_dn_suffix. Use a comma (,) as the first non-space character of auth_dn_suffix.	uid=
ldap_servers.ldap_server_name.auth_dn_suffix		,ou=Group,dc=node1,dc=com
ldap_servers.ldap_server_name.enable_tls	A tag to trigger the use of the secure connection to the OpenLDAP server. Set it to no for the plaintext (ldap://) protocol (not recommended). Set it to yes for the LDAP over SSL/TLS (ldaps://) protocol.	yes
ldap_servers.ldap_server_name.tls_require_cert	SSL/TLS peer certificate verification behavior. The value can be never, allow, try, or require.	allow

For details about other parameters, see <ldap_servers> Parameters.

Figure 1 OpenLDAP configuration
Click to enlarge

After the configuration is complete, click Save. In the displayed dialog box, click OK. After the configuration is saved, click Finish.
On Manager, click Instance, select a ClickHouseServer instance, and choose More > Restart Instance. In the displayed dialog box, enter the password and click OK. In the displayed Restart instance dialog box, click OK. Confirm that the instance is restarted successfully as prompted and click Finish.
Log in to the ClickHouseServer instance node and go to the ${BIGDATA_HOME}/FusionInsight_ClickHouse_Version number/x_x_ClickHouseServer/etc directory.

cd ${BIGDATA_HOME}/FusionInsight_ClickHouse_*/x_x_ClickHouseServer/etc
Run the following command to view the config.xml configuration file and check whether the OpenLDAP parameters are configured successfully:

cat config.xml
Log in to the node where the ClickHouseServer instance is located as user root.
Run the following command to obtain the path of the clickhouse.keytab file:

ls ${BIGDATA_HOME}/FusionInsight_ClickHouse_*/install/FusionInsight-ClickHouse-*/clickhouse/keytab/clickhouse.keytab
Log in to the node where the client is installed as the client installation user.
Run the following command to go to the ClickHouse client installation directory:

cd /opt/client
Run the following command to configure environment variables:

source bigdata_env
Run the following command to connect to the ClickHouseServer instance:
- If Kerberos authentication is enabled for the current cluster, use clickhouse.keytab to connect to the ClickHouseServer instance.
  clickhouse client --host IP address of the node where the ClickHouseServer instance is located --user clickhouse/hadoop.<System domain name> --password clickhouse.keytab path obtained in 8 --port ClickHouse port number
  
  The default system domain name is hadoop.com. Log in to FusionInsight Manager and choose System > Permission > Domain and Mutual Trust. The value of Local Domain is the system domain name. Change the letters to lowercase letters when running a command.
- If Kerberos authentication is not enabled for the current cluster, connect to the ClickHouseServer instance as the ClickHouse administrator.
  clickhouse client --host IP address of the node where the ClickHouseServer instance is located --user clickhouse --port ClickHouse port number
Create a common user of OpenLDAP.

Run the following statement to create user testUser in cluster default_cluster and set ldap_server to the OpenLDAP server name in the <ldap_servers> tag in 6. In this example, the name is ldap_server_name.

CREATE USER testUser ON CLUSTER default_cluster IDENTIFIED WITH ldap_server BY 'ldap_server_name';

testUser indicates an existing username in OpenLDAP. Change it based on the site requirements.
Log out of the client, and then log in to the client as the new user to check whether the configuration is successful.

exit;

clickhouse client --host IP address of the ClickHouseServer instance --user testUser --password --port ClickHouse port number

Enter the password of testUser.

<ldap_servers> Parameters

host
OpenLDAP server host name or IP address. This parameter is mandatory and cannot be empty.

port
Port number of the OpenLDAP server. If enable_tls is set to true, the default value is 636. Otherwise, the value is 389.

auth_dn_prefix, auth_dn_suffix
Prefix and suffix used to construct the DN to bind to.

The generated DN will be constructed as a string in the following format: auth_dn_prefix + escape(user_name) + auth_dn_suffix.

Note that you should use a comma (,) as the first non-space character of auth_dn_suffix.

enable_tls
A tag to trigger the use of the secure connection to the OpenLDAP server.

Set it to no for the plaintext (ldap://) protocol (not recommended).

Set it to yes for LDAP over SSL/TLS (ldaps://) protocol (recommended and default).

tls_minimum_protocol_version
Minimum protocol version of SSL/TLS.

The value can be ssl2, ssl3, tls1.0, tls1.1, or tls1.2 (default).