Authenticating with LDAP (AEN 4.2.0)#

Anaconda Enterprise Notebooks performs local authentication against accounts in the AEN database by default.

To configure AEN to authenticate against accounts in an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server, follow the instructions below.

Installing OpenLDAP libraries

The system needs OpenLDAP libraries to be installed and accessible by AEN. AEN uses the OpenLDAP libraries to establish an LDAP connection to your LDAP servers.

To install OpenLDAP on CentOS or Redhat:

sudo yum install openldap

To install OpenLDAP on Ubuntu or Debian, follow the official OpenLDAP installation instructions.

Configuring OpenLDAP

  1. Open the /opt/wakari/wakari-server/etc/wakari/wk-server-config.json file.

  2. Add the following LDAP settings:

    {
    "accounts":"wk_server.plugins.accounts.ldap2",
    "LDAP" : {
        "URI": "ldap://openldap.EXAMPLE.COM",
        "BIND_DN": "cn=Bob Jones,ou=Users,DC=EXAMPLE,DC=COM",
        "BIND_AUTH": "secretpass",
        "USER_SEARCH": {"base": "DC=EXAMPLE,DC=COM",
                        "filter": "(| (& (ou=Payroll)
                                         (uid=%(username)s))
                                      (& (ou=Facilities)
                                         (uid=%(username)s)))"
                        },
        "KEY_MAP": {"email": "mail",
                    "name": "cn"
        }
    }
}

    • URI—The IP address or hostname of your OpenLDAP server. For SSL/TLS, use the ldaps:// prefix and specify a TLS_CACERT as described in the SSL/TLS configuration section below.

    • BIND_DN—The full directory path of the user you want AEN server to bind as.

    • BIND_AUTH—The password of the BIND_DN user.

    • USER_SEARCH:

      • base—The level at which you want to start the search.
      • filter—The default is to search for the sAMAccountName attribute, and use its value for the AEN server username field.

    • KEY_MAP—Maps user attributes in AEN server to LDAP user attributes.

      EXAMPLE: The mail attribute in LDAP maps to the email attribute in AEN server.

  3. As soon as LDAP is installed, LDAP authentication takes over, so you need to add your admin account again:

/opt/wakari/wakari-server/bin/wk-server-admin superuser --add "jsmith"

Configuring Active Directory

Microsoft Active Directory is a server program that provides directory services and uses the open industry standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

To enable Active Directory support:

  1. Open the /opt/wakari/wakari-server/etc/wakari/wk-server-config.json file.

  2. Add the following LDAP settings:

    {
    "accounts":"wk_server.plugins.accounts.ldap2",
    "LDAP" : {
        "URI": "ldap://<ad.EXAMPLE.COM>",
        "BIND_DN": "CN=Bind User,CN=Users,DC=EXAMPLE,DC=COM",
        "BIND_AUTH": "secretpass",
        "USER_SEARCH": {"base": "CN=Users,DC=EXAMPLE,DC=COM",
                        "filter": "sAMAccountName=%(username)s"
        },
        "KEY_MAP": {"email": "mail",
                    "name": "cn"
        }
    }
}

    • URI—The IP address or hostname of your Active Directory server. Replace <ad.EXAMPLE.COM> with the actual URI. For SSL/TLS, use the ldaps:// prefix and specify a TLS_CACERT as described in the SSL/TLS configuration section below.

    • BIND_DN—The full directory path of the user you want AEN server to bind as.

    • BIND_AUTH—The password of the BIND_DN user.

    • USER_SEARCH:

      • base—the level at which you want to start the search.
      • filter—default is to search for the sAMAccountName attribute, and use its value for the AEN server username field.

    • KEY_MAP—Maps user attributes in AEN server to LDAP user attributes.

      EXAMPLE: The mail attribute in LDAP maps to the email attribute in AEN server.

  3. As soon as LDAP is installed, LDAP authentication takes over, so you need to add your admin account again:

/opt/wakari/wakari-server/bin/wk-server-admin superuser --add "jsmith"

Configuring SSL/TLS

AEN uses system-wide LDAP settings, including SSL/TLS support.

  • On Redhat/CentOS systems, these settings are located in the /etc/openldap/ldap.conf file.
  • On Ubuntu/Debian systems, these settings are located in the /etc/ldap/ldap.conf file.

Typically, the only configuration necessary is updating the file to read:

TLS_CACERT /path/to/CA.cert

NOTE: CA.cert is the Certificate Authority used to sign the LDAP server’s SSL certificate. In the case of a self-signed SSL certificate, this is the path to the SSL certificate itself.

Testing LDAP configuration

Test your LDAP configuration using flask-ldap-login-check:

/opt/wakari/wakari-server/bin/flask-ldap-login-check \
    wk_server.wsgi:app \
    -u [username] \
    -p [password]

NOTE: username is the username of a valid user and password is that user’s BIND_AUTH password.