Role-based access control (RBAC)

Role-based access control (RBAC) restricts access to the capabilities of Rackspace Cloud services, including the Rackspace CDN API, to authorized users only. RBAC enables Rackspace Cloud customers to specify users have access to which Rackspace CDN API service capabilities, based on roles defined by Rackspace. The permissions to perform certain operations in Rackspace CDN 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 CDN), 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 CDN 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:

• Add account users

• Add role to user

• Delete global role from user

Note

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 CDN

The following table describes the roles that can be used to access the Rackspace CDN API.

Product roles and capabilities

Role name	Role permissions
cdn:admin	This role provides Create, Read, Update, and Delete permissions in Rackspace CDN, where access is granted.
cdn:creator	This role provides Create, Read, and Update permissions in Rackspace CDN, where access is granted.
cdn:observer	This role provides Read permission in Rackspace CDN, 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 CDN 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 CDN admin	Appears that the user has only the multiproduct observer role	User can perform admin functions for Rackspace CDN only. The user has the observer role for the rest of the products.
User is assigned to the following roles: multiproduct admin and Rackspace CDN observer	Appears that the user has only the multiprodcut admin role	User can perform admin functions for all of the products. The Rackspace CDN observer role is ignored.

RBAC permissions cross-reference to Rackspace CDN API operations

API operations for Rackspace CDN 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).