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6. User Management in Jenkins with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

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Kiran Pawar
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Table of contents

Introduction

In Jenkins, user management with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) allows you to define specific permissions for users and groups. This helps control who can access certain features, run jobs, or make changes to configurations. In this tutorial, we'll demonstrate how to manage users and assign roles using Jenkins.

1. Create a New User in Jenkins

Step 1: Create a New User

To start with, you need to create a user. Here’s how you can create a new user:

  1. Go to Manage Jenkins → Manage Users.

  2. Click Create User and provide the following details:

    • Username: ram

    • Full Name: Ram

    • Password: [Choose a password]

    • Confirm Password: [Confirm the password]

    • Email Address: [Provide email address]

  3. Click Create User to save the new user.

2. Install the Role-Based Authorization Strategy Plugin

Now, to enable Role-Based Authorization, you need to install the Role-Based Authorization Strategy plugin.

Step 1: Install the Plugin

  1. Go to Manage Jenkins → Manage Plugins.

  2. In the Available tab, search for Role-Based Authorization Strategy.

  3. Select the plugin and click Install without restart.

Once the plugin is installed, Jenkins will be able to support role-based user management.

3. Configure Role-Based Authorization

After installing the plugin, we need to configure the roles and assign them to users.

Step 1: Set Authorization Strategy

  1. Go to Manage Jenkins → Configure Global Security.

  2. Scroll down to Authorization and select Role-Based Strategy.

  3. Save the changes.

Step 2: Configure Roles

  1. Go to Manage Jenkins → Manage and Assign Roles → Manage Roles.

  2. Here, you can create roles for different users based on your requirements. For example:

    • Admin Role: Can access all configurations and execute all jobs.

    • User Role: Can only execute jobs but cannot modify configurations.

  3. To create a new role, click Add Role and provide a name (e.g., admin or user).

  4. Assign the appropriate permissions to each role (e.g., Job/Build, Job/Configure, Job/Read).

4. Assign Roles to Users

Once the roles are created, you can assign them to users.

Step 1: Assign Roles to Users

  1. Go to Manage Jenkins → Manage and Assign Roles → Assign Roles.

  2. You will see the list of users created in Jenkins. Here, you can assign a role to each user.

  3. For example, assign the admin role to the user ram to give full access or assign user role for limited access.

Login with User ram

Ram is unable to access dashboard because we have set authenticated user job read option

Go to manage roles and give ram user overall read access

Now Ram will be able to see jenkins dashboard

5. Conclusion

By setting up Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), you can efficiently manage user permissions in Jenkins. This helps improve security by ensuring that users have the right access level based on their responsibilities.

🚀 Next Steps:

  • Add more roles and permissions as required for different projects and users.

  • Regularly review and update roles and permissions as your Jenkins setup evolves.

  • Consider integrating LDAP or Active Directory for centralized user management.

Let me know if you need further adjustments or if you'd like to add more details!