Role-based access control (RBAC)
Role-based access control (RBAC) restricts access to the capabilities of Rackspace Cloud services, including the Rackspace Metrics API API, to authorized users only. RBAC enables Rackspace Cloud customers to specify users have access to which Rackspace Metrics API API service capabilities, based on roles defined by Rackspace. The permissions to perform certain operations in Rackspace Metrics API 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 Metrics API), 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 Metrics API 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:
Note
The account owner (identity:user-admin) role cannot hold any additional roles because it already has full access to all capabilities.
The following table describes the roles that can be used to access the Rackspace Metrics API API.
Product roles and capabilities
Role name Role permissions
cloudmetrics:admin - This role provides Create, Read, Update, and Delete permissions in Rackspace Metrics API, where access is granted.
cloudmetrics:creator - This role provides Create, Read and Update permissions in Rackspace Metrics API, where access is granted.
cloudmetrics:observer - This role provides Read permission in Rackspace Metrics API, where access is granted.
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.
The account owner can set roles for both multiproduct and Rackspace Metrics API 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 Metrics API admin
Appears that the user has only the multiproduct observer role
User can perform admin functions for Rackspace Metrics API only. The user has the observer role for the rest of the products.
User is assigned to the following roles: multiproduct admin and Rackspace Metrics API observer
Appears that the user has only the multiprodcut admin role
User can perform admin functions for all of the products. The Rackspace Metrics API observer role is ignored.
API operations for Rackspace Metrics API 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).