Use an LDAP Service

This document describes how to use an LDAP service as an external identity provider, which allows you to authenticate users against the LDAP service.

Prerequisites

• You need to deploy a Kubernetes cluster and install KubeSphere in the cluster. For details, see Installing on Linux and Installing on Kubernetes.
• You need to obtain the manager distinguished name (DN) and manager password of an LDAP service.

Procedure

1. Log in to KubeSphere as admin, move the cursor to in the lower-right corner, click kubectl, and run the following command to edit ks-installer of the CRD ClusterConfiguration:

   kubectl -n kubesphere-system edit cc ks-installer
   

   Example:

   spec:
     authentication:
       jwtSecret: ''
       maximumClockSkew: 10s
       multipleLogin: true
       oauthOptions:
         accessTokenMaxAge: 1h
         accessTokenInactivityTimeout: 30m
         identityProviders:
         - name: LDAP
           type: LDAPIdentityProvider
           mappingMethod: auto
           provider:
             host: 192.168.0.2:389
             managerDN: uid=root,cn=users,dc=nas
             managerPassword: ********
             userSearchBase: cn=users,dc=nas
             loginAttribute: uid
             mailAttribute: mail
   

2. Configure fields other than oauthOptions:identityProviders in the spec:authentication section. For details, see Set Up External Authentication.

3. Configure fields in oauthOptions:identityProviders section.

   • name: User-defined LDAP service name.
   • type: To use an LDAP service as an identity provider, you must set the value to LDAPIdentityProvider.
   • mappingMethod: Account mapping method. The value can be auto or lookup.
     • If the value is auto (default), you need to specify a new username. KubeSphere automatically creates a user according to the username and maps the user to an LDAP user.
     • If the value is lookup, you need to perform step 4 to manually map an existing KubeSphere user to an LDAP user.
   • provider:
     • host: Address and port number of the LDAP service.
     • managerDN: DN used to bind to the LDAP directory.
     • managerPassword: Password corresponding to managerDN.
     • userSearchBase: User search base. Set the value to the DN of the directory level below which all LDAP users can be found.
     • loginAttribute: Attribute that identifies LDAP users.
     • mailAttribute: Attribute that identifies email addresses of LDAP users.

4. If mappingMethod is set to lookup, run the following command and add the labels to map a KubeSphere user to an LDAP user. Skip this step if mappingMethod is set to auto.

   kubectl edit user <KubeSphere username>
   

   labels:
     iam.kubesphere.io/identify-provider: <LDAP service name>
     iam.kubesphere.io/origin-uid: <LDAP username>
   

5. After the fields are configured, save your changes, and wait until the restart of ks-installer is complete.

   Note

   The KubeSphere web console is unavailable during the restart of ks-installer. Please wait until the restart is complete.

6. If you are using KubeSphere 3.2.0, run the following command after configuring LDAP and wait until ks-installer is up and running:

   kubectl -n kubesphere-system set image deployment/ks-apiserver *=kubesphere/ks-apiserver:v3.2.1
   

   Note

   If you are using KubeSphere 3.2.1, skip this step.

7. Go to the KubeSphere login page and enter the username and password of an LDAP user to log in.

   Note

   The username of an LDAP user is the value of the attribute specified by loginAttribute.

Thanks for the feedback. If you have a specific question about how to use KubeSphere, ask it on Slack. Open an issue in the GitHub repo if you want to report a problem or suggest an improvement.