In Kubernetes, granting a role to an application-specific service account is a best practice to ensure that your application is operating in the scope that you have specified. Read more about service account permissions [in the official Kubernetes docs](https://kubernetes.io/docs/admin/authorization/rbac/#service-account-permissions). Bitnami also has a fantastic guide for [configuring RBAC in your cluster](https://docs.bitnami.com/kubernetes/how-to/configure-rbac-in-your-kubernetes-cluster/) that takes you through RBAC basics.
In Kubernetes, granting a role to an application-specific service account is a best practice to ensure that your application is operating in the scope that you have specified. Read more about service account permissions [in the official Kubernetes docs](https://kubernetes.io/docs/admin/authorization/rbac/#service-account-permissions).
Bitnami also has a fantastic guide for [configuring RBAC in your cluster](https://docs.bitnami.com/kubernetes/how-to/configure-rbac-in-your-kubernetes-cluster/) that takes you through RBAC basics.
This guide is for users who want to restrict tiller's capabilities to install resources to certain namespaces, or to grant a helm client running access to a tiller instance.
## Tiller and Role-based Access Control
You can add a service account to Tiller using the `--service-account <NAME>` flag while you're configuring helm. As a prerequisite, you'll have to create a role binding which specifies a [role](https://kubernetes.io/docs/admin/authorization/rbac/#role-and-clusterrole) and a [service account](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-service-account/) name that have been set up in advance.
Once you have satisfied the pre-requisite and have a service account with the correct permissions, you'll run a command like this: `helm init --service-account <NAME>`
## Example: Service account with cluster-admin role
### Example: Service account with cluster-admin role
@@ -38,10 +46,13 @@ _Note: The cluster-admin role is created by default in a Kubernetes cluster, so
```console
$ kubectl create -f rbac-config.yaml
serviceaccount "tiller" created
clusterrolebinding "tiller" created
$ helm init --service-account tiller
```
## Example: Service account restricted to a namespace
### Example: Deploy tiller in a namespace, restricted to deploying resources only in that namespace
In the example above, we gave Tiller admin access to the entire cluster. You are not at all required to give Tiller cluster-admin access for it to work. Instead of specifying a ClusterRole or a ClusterRoleBinding, you can specify a Role and RoleBinding to limit Tiller's scope to a particular namespace.
$HELM_HOME has been configured at /Users/awesome-user/.helm.
...
...
@@ -110,30 +125,124 @@ NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
wayfaring-yak-alpine 0/1 ContainerCreating 0 0s
```
# Helm and Service Accounts
In order for a helm client to talk to a tiller, it will need certain privileges to be granted.
### Example: Deploy tiller in a namespace, restricted to deploying resources in another namespace
In the example above, we gave Tiller admin access to the namespace it was deployed inside. Now, let's limit Tiller's scope to deploy resources in a different namespace!
For example, let's install tiller in the namespace `myorg-system` and allow tiller to deploy resources in the namespace `myorg-users`.
When running a helm client in a pod, in order for the helm client to talk to a tiller instance, it will need certain privileges to be granted. Specifically, the helm client will need to be able to create pods, forward ports and be able to list pods in the namespace where tiller is running (so it can find tiller).
### Example: Deploy Helm in a namespace, talking to Tiller in another namespace
In this example, we will assume tiller is running in a namespace called `tiller-world` and that the helm client is running in a namespace called `helm-world`. By default, tiller is running in the `kube-system` namespace.
In `helm-user.yaml`:
```yaml
apiVersion:v1
kind:ServiceAccount
metadata:
name:helm-user-serviceaccount
name:helm
namespace:helm-world
---
apiVersion:rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind:Role
metadata:
name:helm-user-role
name:tiller-user
namespace:tiller-world
rules:
-apiGroups:
...
...
@@ -152,19 +261,21 @@ rules:
apiVersion:rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind:RoleBinding
metadata:
name:helm-user-role-binding
name:tiller-user-binding
namespace:tiller-world
roleRef:
apiGroup:rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind:Role
name:helm-user-role
name:tiller-user
subjects:
-kind:ServiceAccount
name:helm-user-serviceaccount
name:helm
namespace:helm-world
```
Please note that the `role` and `rolebinding` must be placed in the namespace
that tiller is running in, while the service account must be in the namespace
that the helm client is to be run in. (the pod using the helm client must