Grant access to Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager resources with Azure role-based access control

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Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) is an authorization system built on Azure Resource Manager that provides fine-grained access management to Azure resources.

This article provides an overview of the various built-in Azure RBAC roles that you can use to access Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager (Kubernetes Fleet) resources.

Control plane

This role grants access to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Fleet resources and subresources, and is applicable both Kubernetes Fleet resource with and without a hub cluster.

Role name Description Usage
Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager Contributor This role grants read and write access to Azure resources provided by Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager, including fleets, fleet members, fleet update strategies, fleet update runs, and more. You can use this role to grant Contributor permissions that apply solely to Kubernetes Fleet resources and subresources. For example, this role can be given to an Azure administrator tasked with defining and maintaining Fleet resources.

Data plane

These roles grant access to Fleet hub Kubernetes objects, and are therefore only applicable to Kubernetes Fleet resources with a hub cluster.

You can assign data plane roles at the Fleet hub cluster scope, or at an individual Kubernetes namespace scope by appending /namespace/<namespace> to the role assignment scope.

Role name Description Usage
Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager RBAC Reader Grants read-only access to most Kubernetes resources within a namespace in the fleet-managed hub cluster. It doesn't allow viewing roles or role bindings. This role doesn't allow viewing Secrets, since reading the contents of Secrets enables access to ServiceAccount credentials in the namespace, which would allow API access as any ServiceAccount in the namespace (a form of privilege escalation). Applying this role at cluster scope gives access across all namespaces. You can use this role to grant the capability to read selected nonsensitive Kubernetes objects at either namespace or cluster scope. For example, you can grant this role for review purposes.
Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager RBAC Writer Grants read and write access to most Kubernetes resources within a namespace in the fleet-managed hub cluster. This role doesn't allow viewing or modifying roles or role bindings. However, this role allows accessing Secrets as any ServiceAccount in the namespace, so it can be used to gain the API access levels of any ServiceAccount in the namespace. Applying this role at cluster scope gives access across all namespaces. You can use this role to grant the capability to write selected Kubernetes objects at either namespace or cluster scope. For example, for use by a project team responsible for objects in a given namespace.
Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager RBAC Admin Grants read and write access to Kubernetes resources within a namespace in the fleet-managed hub cluster. Provides write permissions on most objects within a namespace, except for ResourceQuota object and the namespace object itself. Applying this role at cluster scope gives access across all namespaces. You can use this role to grant the capability to administer selected Kubernetes objects (including roles and role bindings) at either namespace or cluster scope. For example, for use by a project team responsible for objects in a given namespace.
Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager RBAC Cluster Admin Grants read/write access to all Kubernetes resources in the fleet-managed hub cluster. You can use this role to grant access to all Kubernetes objects (including CRDs) at either namespace or cluster scope.

Example role assignments

You can grant Azure RBAC roles using the Azure CLI. For example, to create a role assignment at the Kubernetes Fleet hub cluster scope:

IDENTITY=$(az ad signed-in-user show --output tsv --query id)
FLEET_ID=$(az fleet show --resource-group $GROUP --name $FLEET --output tsv --query id)

az role assignment create --role 'Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager RBAC Reader' --assignee "$IDENTITY" --scope "$FLEET_ID"

You can also scope role assignments to an individual Kubernetes namespace. For example, to create a role assignment for a Kubernetes Fleet hub's default Kubernetes namespace:

IDENTITY=$(az ad signed-in-user show --output tsv --query id)
FLEET_ID=$(az fleet show --resource-group $GROUP --name $FLEET --output tsv --query id)

az role assignment create --role 'Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager RBAC Reader' --assignee "$IDENTITY" --scope "$FLEET_ID/namespaces/default"