CREATE ROLE

Creates a cluster-wide database role used for access control to database resources, such as keyspaces, tables, functions. Use roles to:

Create login accounts for CQL users.
Define a set of permissions that can be assigned to other roles and mapped to external users.

The best practices for using internal authentication are to create separate roles for various access permissions and login accounts. See GRANT PERMISSION and for more information on assigning permissions to roles, and GRANT ROLE for information on assigning roles to other roles.

A full-access login account cassandra (password cassandra) is enabled by default; create your own full-access role and drop the cassandra account, to close a critical security risk.

Roles for externally authenticators users are mapped to the user’s group name. LDAP mapping is case sensitive.

Syntax

CREATE ROLE [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <role_name>
  ( WITH PASSWORD = '<role_password>'
  | WITH HASHED PASSWORD = '<hashed_role_password>'
  )
  [ ( WITH | AND ) [ SUPERUSER = ( true | false ) ]
  [ ( WITH | AND ) LOGIN = ( true | false ) ]
  [ [ WITH | AND ] OPTIONS = { <custom_options_map> } ] ] ;

Legend
Syntax conventions	Description
UPPERCASE	Literal keyword.
Lowercase	Not literal.
`< >`	Variable value. Replace with a user-defined value.
`[]`	Optional. Square brackets (`[]`) surround optional command arguments. Do not type the square brackets.
`( )`	Group. Parentheses ( `( )` ) identify a group to choose from. Do not type the parentheses.
`\|`	Or. A vertical bar (`\|`) separates alternative elements. Type any one of the elements. Do not type the vertical bar.
`...`	Repeatable. An ellipsis ( `...` ) indicates that you can repeat the syntax element as often as required.
`'<Literal string>'`	Single quotation (`'`) marks must surround literal strings in CQL statements. Use single quotation marks to preserve upper case.
`{ <key> : <value> }`	Map collection. Braces (`{ }`) enclose map collections or key value pairs. A colon separates the key and the value.
`<datatype2`	Set, list, map, or tuple. Angle brackets ( `< >` ) enclose data types in a set, list, map, or tuple. Separate the data types with a comma.
`<cql_statement>;`	End CQL statement. A semicolon (`;`) terminates all CQL statements.
`[--]`	Separate the command line options from the command arguments with two hyphens ( `--` ). This syntax is useful when arguments might be mistaken for command line options.
`' <<schema\> ... </schema\>> '`	Search CQL only: Single quotation marks (`'`) surround an entire XML schema declaration.
`@<xml_entity>='<xml_entity_type>'`	Search CQL only: Identify the entity and literal value to overwrite the XML element in the schema and solrConfig files.

Parameters

Parameter Description Default

role_name

Identifier of the role. CQL forces all names to lowercase. If you need to preserve case or use special characters in the role name, enclose <role_name> in quotes.

To automatically map external users to roles with DSE Unified Authenticator, the role name must exactly match the LDAP group name, including case.

role_password

Password for the role. Enclose the password in single quotes.

hashed_password

Hashed password for the role. Enclose the hashed password in single quotes.

SUPERUSER

Optional. Full read/write access to the database. Only create roles with SUPERUSER that require full access to the keyspaces and tables. Use true to create a superuser role.

false

LOGIN

Optional. Allows the role to log in. Only create roles with LOGIN that require login access. Use true to create login accounts.

false

OPTIONS = { <option_map> }

Optional. Map of custom options. Reserved for use with authentication plug-ins. Refer to the authenticator documentation for details.

Roles for users authenticated by an external directory, such as DSE Unified Authenticator, must have login enabled with no password or hatched password.

Examples

Create a role

Create a role named cycling_admin:

CREATE ROLE IF NOT EXISTS cycling_admin
  WITH PASSWORD = 'All4One2day!';

By default, a role has no permissions, cannot log in, and doesn’t have superuser status.

Permissions must be granted after creating a role. For an example, see Security quickstart.

Create a role named coach that has login privileges:

CREATE ROLE IF NOT EXISTS coach
WITH LOGIN = true
  AND PASSWORD = 'All4One2day!';

You can also create a role with login privileges using a hashed password:

CREATE ROLE IF NOT EXISTS coach
WITH LOGIN = true
  AND HASHED PASSWORD = '$2a$10$8ht4.R2aar38wyXdJxHzj.Ww8xDL5wBYGt1SJ2l46N34MBjLSyD.e';

Internal authentication requires the role to have a password or hashed password. The hashed password was generated with the DSE tool hash_password -p All4One2day!.

Verify that a role can log in

Use the LOGIN command to login as the specified role:

LOGIN coach;

When prompted, enter the password.

Once authenticated, the cqlsh prompt includes the role name:

coach@cqlsh>

Create a superuser role

Create a role with superuser status, which grants full access to all keyspaces and tables:

CREATE ROLE IF NOT EXISTS sys_admin
WITH SUPERUSER = true
  AND PASSWORD = 'changeme'
  AND LOGIN = true;

LOGIN isn’t required when SUPERUSER = true. LOGIN is only required if you want to be able to log in as that role.

CREATE ROLE

Syntax

Parameters

Examples

Create a role

Verify that a role can log in

Create a superuser role

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CREATE ROLE

Syntax

Parameters

Examples

Create a role

Create a login account

Verify that a role can log in

Create a superuser role

Was this helpful?