Role-based access control (RBAC) restricts access to the capabilities of Rackspace Cloud services, including the Rackspace Cloud DNS API, to authorized users only. RBAC enables Rackspace Cloud customers to specify users have access to which Rackspace Cloud DNS API service capabilities, based on roles defined by Rackspace. The permissions to perform certain operations in Rackspace Cloud DNS API (create, read, update, delete) are assigned to specific roles. The account owner user assigns these roles, either global (multiproduct) or product-specific (for example, Rackspace Cloud DNS), to account users.
Assigning Roles to Account Users
The account owner (identity:user-admin) can create account users on the account and then assign roles to those users. The roles grant the account users specific permissions for accessing the capabilities of the Rackspace Cloud DNS service. Each account has only one account owner, and that role is assigned by default to any Rackspace Cloud account when the account is created.
See the Identity API guide for information about how to perform the following tasks:
The account owner (identity:user-admin) role cannot hold any additional roles because it already has full access to all capabilities.
Roles available for Rackspace Cloud DNS
The following table describes the roles that can be used to access the Rackspace Cloud DNS API.
Product roles and capabilities
| Role name | Role permissions |
|---|---|
| dnsaas:admin | This role provides Create, Read, Update, and Delete permissions in Rackspace Cloud DNS, where access is granted. |
| dnsaas:creator | This role provides Create, Read and Update permissions in Rackspace Cloud DNS, where access is granted. |
| dnsaas:observer | This role provides Read permission in Rackspace Cloud DNS, where access is granted. |
Multiproduct global roles and permissions
Additionally, two multiproduct roles apply to all products. Users with multiproduct roles inherit access to products when those products become RBAC-enabled. The following table describes these roles and their permissions.
Multiproduct roles and permissions
| Role name | Role permissions |
|---|---|
| admin | This role provides create, read, update, and delete permissions in all products, where access is granted. |
| observer | This role provides read permission in all products, where access is granted. |
Resolving conflicts between RBAC multiproduct and product-specific roles
The account owner can set roles for both multiproduct and Rackspace Cloud DNS scope, and it is important to understand how any potential conflicts between these roles are resolved. When two roles appear to conflict, the role that provides the more extensive permissions takes precedence. Therefore, admin roles take precedence over observer and creator roles, because admin roles provide more permissions.
The following table shows two examples of how potential conflicts between user roles in the Control Panel are resolved.
Example of resolving permissions
| Permission configuration | Control Panel permission view | Control Panel admin capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| User is assigned the following roles: multiproduct observer and Rackspace Cloud DNS admin | Appears that the user has only the multiproduct observer role | User can perform admin functions for Rackspace Cloud DNS only. The user has the observer role for the rest of the products. |
| User is assigned to the following roles: multiproduct admin and Rackspace Cloud DNS observer | Appears that the user has only the multiprodcut admin role | User can perform admin functions for all of the products. The Rackspace Cloud DNS observer role is ignored. |
RBAC permissions cross-reference to Rackspace Cloud DNS API operations
API operations for Rackspace Cloud DNS may or may not be available to all roles. To see which operations are permitted to invoke which calls, review the Permissions Matrix for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).