docs/source/operations/external-iam/configure-ad-ldap-external-identity-management.rst

Configure MinIO for Authentication using Active Directory / LDAP

minio

Table of Contents

Overview

MinIO supports configuring a single Active Directory / LDAP Connect for external management of user identities.

The procedure on this page provides instructions for:

k8s

• Configuring a MinIO Tenant to use an external AD/LDAP provider
• Accessing the Tenant Console using AD/LDAP Credentials.
• Using the MinIO AssumeRoleWithLDAPIdentity Security Token Service (STS) API to generate temporary credentials for use by applications.

linux or macos or container or windows

• Configuring a MinIO cluster for an external AD/LDAP provider.
• Accessing the MinIO Console using AD/LDAP credentials.
• Using the MinIO AssumeRoleWithLDAPIdentity Security Token Service (STS) API to generate temporary credentials for use by applications.

This procedure is generic for AD/LDAP services. See the documentation for the AD/LDAP provider of your choice for specific instructions or procedures on configuration of user identities.

Prerequisites

k8s

MinIO Kubernetes Operator and Plugin

Active Directory / LDAP Compatible IDentity Provider

This procedure assumes an existing Active Directory or LDAP service. Instructions on configuring AD/LDAP are out of scope for this procedure.

k8s

• For AD/LDAP deployments within the same Kubernetes cluster as the MinIO Tenant, you can use Kubernetes service names to allow the MinIO Tenant to establish connectivity to the AD/LDAP service.
• For AD/LDAP deployments external to the Kubernetes cluster, you must ensure the cluster supports routing communications between Kubernetes services and pods and the external network. This may require configuration or deployment of additional Kubernetes network components and/or enabling access to the public internet.

MinIO requires a read-only access keys with which it binds <minio-external-identity-management-ad-ldap-lookup-bind> to perform authenticated user and group queries. Ensure each AD/LDAP user and group intended for use with MinIO has a corresponding policy <minio-external-identity-management-ad-ldap-access-control> on the MinIO deployment. An AD/LDAP user with no assigned policy and with membership in groups with no assigned policy has no permission to access any action or resource on the MinIO cluster.

k8s

MinIO Tenant

This procedure assumes your Kubernetes cluster has sufficient resources to deploy a new MinIO Tenant <minio-k8s-deploy-minio-tenant>.

You can also use this procedure as guidance for modifying an existing MinIO Tenant to enable AD/LDAP Identity Management.

linux or container or macos or windows

MinIO Deployment

This procedure assumes an existing MinIO cluster running the latest stable MinIO version <minio/releases/latest>. Defer to the minio-installation for more complete documentation on new MinIO deployments.

This procedure may work as expected for older versions of MinIO.

linux or container or macos or windows

Install and Configure mc with Access to the MinIO Cluster

This procedure uses mc for performing operations on the MinIO cluster. Install mc on a machine with network access to the cluster. See the mc Installation Quickstart <mc-install> for instructions on downloading and installing mc.

This procedure assumes a configured alias <mc alias> for the MinIO cluster.

k8s

linux or container or macos or windows

Procedure

1) Set the Active Directory / LDAP Configuration Settings

Configure the AD/LDAP provider using one of the following:

• MinIO Client
• Environment variables
• MinIO Console

All methods require starting/restarting the MinIO deployment to apply changes.

The following tabs provide a quick reference for the available configuration methods:

MinIO Client

MinIO supports specifying the AD/LDAP provider settings using mc idp ldap commands.

For distributed deployments, the mc idp ldap command applies the configuration to all nodes in the deployment.

The following example code sets all configuration settings related to configuring an AD/LDAP provider for external identity management.

The minimum required settings are:

• server_addr <identity_ldap.server_addr>
• lookup_bind_dn <identity_ldap.lookup_bind_dn>
• lookup_bind_password <identity_ldap.lookup_bind_password>
• user_dn_search_base_dn <identity_ldap.user_dn_search_base_dn>
• user_dn_search_filter <identity_ldap.user_dn_search_filter>

mc idp ldap add ALIAS server_addr="ldaps.example.net:636" lookup_bind_dn="CN=xxxxx,OU=xxxxx,OU=xxxxx,DC=example,DC=net" lookup_bind_password="xxxxxxxx" user_dn_search_base_dn="DC=example,DC=net" user_dn_search_filter="(&(objectCategory=user)(sAMAccountName=%s))" group_search_filter= "(&(objectClass=group)(member=%d))" group_search_base_dn="ou=MinIO Users,dc=example,dc=net" enabled="true" tls_skip_verify="off" server_insecure=off server_starttls="off" srv_record_name="" comment="Test LDAP server"

For more complete documentation on these settings, see mc idp ldap.

mc idp ldap recommended

mc idp ldap offers additional features and improved validation over mc admin config set runtime configuration settings. mc idp ldap supports the same settings as mc admin config and the identity_ldap configuration key.

The identity_ldap configuration key remains available for existing scripts and tools.

Environment Variables

MinIO supports specifying the AD/LDAP provider settings using environment variables <minio-server-envvar-external-identity-management-ad-ldap>.

The minio server process applies the specified settings on its next startup. For distributed deployments, specify these settings across all nodes in the deployment using the same values. Any differences in server configurations between nodes will result in startup or configuration failures.

The following example code sets all environment variables related to configuring an AD/LDAP provider for external identity management. The minimum required variable are:

• MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_SERVER_ADDR
• MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_LOOKUP_BIND_DN
• MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_LOOKUP_BIND_PASSWORD
• MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_USER_DN_SEARCH_BASE_DN
• MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_USER_DN_SEARCH_FILTER

export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_SERVER_ADDR="ldaps.example.net:636"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_LOOKUP_BIND_DN="CN=xxxxx,OU=xxxxx,OU=xxxxx,DC=example,DC=net"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_USER_DN_SEARCH_BASE_DN="dc=example,dc=net"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_USER_DN_SEARCH_FILTER="(&(objectCategory=user)(sAMAccountName=%s))"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_LOOKUP_BIND_PASSWORD="xxxxxxxxx"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH_FILTER="(&(objectClass=group)(member=%d))"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH_BASE_DN="ou=MinIO Users,dc=example,dc=net"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_TLS_SKIP_VERIFY="off"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_SERVER_INSECURE="off"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_SERVER_STARTTLS="off"
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_SRV_RECORD_NAME=""
export MINIO_IDENTITY_LDAP_COMMENT="LDAP test server"

For complete documentation on these variables, see minio-server-envvar-external-identity-management-ad-ldap

MinIO Console

MinIO supports specifying the AD/LDAP provider settings using the MinIO Console <minio-console>. For distributed deployments, configuring AD/LDAP from the Console applies the configuration to all nodes in the deployment.

2) Restart the MinIO Deployment

You must restart the MinIO deployment to apply the configuration changes.

If you configured AD/LDAP from the MinIO Console, no additional action is required. The MinIO Console automatically restarts the deployment after saving the new AD/LDAP configuration.

For MinIO Client and environment variable configuration, use the mc admin service restart command to restart the deployment:

mc admin service restart ALIAS

Replace ALIAS with the alias <alias> of the deployment to restart.

3) Use the MinIO Console to Log In with AD/LDAP Credentials

The MinIO Console supports the full workflow of authenticating to the AD/LDAP provider, generating temporary credentials using the MinIO minio-sts-assumerolewithldapidentity Security Token Service (STS) endpoint, and logging the user into the MinIO deployment.

You can access the Console by opening the root URL for the MinIO cluster. For example, https://minio.example.net:9000.

Once logged in, you can perform any action for which the authenticated user is authorized <minio-external-identity-management-ad-ldap-access-control>.

You can also create access keys <minio-idp-service-account> for supporting applications which must perform operations on MinIO. Access Keys are long-lived credentials which inherit their privileges from the parent user. The parent user can further restrict those privileges while creating the service account.

4) Generate S3-Compatible Temporary Credentials using AD/LDAP Credentials

MinIO requires clients to authenticate using AWS Signature Version 4 protocol <sig-v4-authenticating-requests.html> with support for the deprecated Signature Version 2 protocol. Specifically, clients must present a valid access key and secret key to access any S3 or MinIO administrative API, such as PUT, GET, and DELETE operations.

Applications can generate temporary access credentials as-needed using the minio-sts-assumerolewithldapidentity Security Token Service (STS) API endpoint and AD/LDAP user credentials. MinIO provides an example Go application ldap.go <minio/blob/master/docs/sts/ldap.go> that manages this workflow.

POST https://minio.example.net?Action=AssumeRoleWithLDAPIdentity
&LDAPUsername=USERNAME
&LDAPPassword=PASSWORD
&Version=2011-06-15
&Policy={}

• Replace the LDAPUsername with the username of the AD/LDAP user.

• Replace the LDAPPassword with the password of the AD/LDAP user.

• Replace the Policy with an inline URL-encoded JSON policy <minio-policy> that further restricts the permissions associated to the temporary credentials.

  Omit to use the policy whose name matches <minio-external-identity-management-ad-ldap-access-control> the Distinguished Name (DN) of the AD/LDAP user.

The API response consists of an XML document containing the access key, secret key, session token, and expiration date. Applications can use the access key and secret key to access and perform operations on MinIO.

See the minio-sts-assumerolewithldapidentity for reference documentation.

Disable a Configured Active Directory / LDAP Connection

RELEASE.2023-03-20T20-16-18Z

You can enable and disable the configured AD/LDAP connection as needed.

Use mc idp ldap disable to deactivate a configured connection. Use mc idp ldap enable to activate a previously configured connection.

You may also enable or disable AD/LDAP from the MinIO Console <minio-console>.