Enable and Disable Authentication Without Downtime

Authentication is the process where login accounts and their passwords are verified, and the user is allowed access into the database. Authentication is done internally within ScyllaDB and is not done with a third party. Users and passwords are created with :doc:roles </operating-scylla/security/authorization> using a CREATE ROLE statement. This procedure enables Authentication on the ScyllaDB servers using a transit state, allowing clients to work with or without Authentication at the same time. In this state, you can update the clients (application using ScyllaDB/Apache Cassandra drivers) one at the time. Once all the clients are using Authentication, you can enforce Authentication on all ScyllaDB nodes as well. If you would rather perform a faster authentication procedure where all clients (application using ScyllaDB/Apache Cassandra drivers) will stop working until they are updated to work with Authentication, refer to :doc:Enable Authentication </operating-scylla/security/runtime-authentication>.

Enable Authentication Without Downtime ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This procedure allows you to enable authentication on a live ScyllaDB cluster without downtime.

Procedure

#. Update the authenticator parameter in scylla.yaml for all the nodes in the cluster: Change authenticator: AllowAllAuthenticator to authenticator: com.scylladb.auth.TransitionalAuthenticator.

.. code-block:: yaml

   authenticator:  com.scylladb.auth.TransitionalAuthenticator

#. Run the :doc:nodetool drain </operating-scylla/nodetool-commands/drain> command (ScyllaDB stops listening to its connections from the client and other nodes).

#. Restart the nodes one by one to apply the effect.

.. include:: /rst_include/scylla-commands-restart-index.rst

#. Login over the maintenance socket and create an authenticated user with strong password.

See :ref:Setting Up a Superuser Using the Maintenance Socket <create-superuser-using-maintenance-socket> for instructions.

.. code-block:: cql

   cqlsh /path/to/maintenance/socket/cql.m

   cassandra@cqlsh> CREATE ROLE scylla WITH PASSWORD = '123456' AND LOGIN = true AND SUPERUSER = true;
   cassandra@cqlsh> LIST ROLES;

   name      |super
   ----------+-------
   scylla    |True

Optionally, assign the role to your user. For example:

.. code-block:: cql

  cassandra@cqlsh> GRANT scylla TO myuser

#. Update the authenticator parameter in scylla.yaml for all the nodes in the cluster: Change authenticator: com.scylladb.auth.TransitionalAuthenticator to authenticator: PasswordAuthenticator.

 .. code-block:: yaml

    authenticator: PasswordAuthenticator

#. Restart the nodes one by one to apply the effect.

.. include:: /rst_include/scylla-commands-restart-index.rst

#. Verify that all the client applications are working correctly with authentication enabled.

Disable Authentication Without Downtime ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This procedure allows you to disable authentication on a live ScyllaDB cluster without downtime. Once disabled, you will have to re-enable authentication where required.

Procedure

#. Update the authenticator parameter in scylla.yaml for all the nodes in the cluster: Change authenticator: PasswordAuthenticator to authenticator: com.scylladb.auth.TransitionalAuthenticator.

 .. code-block:: yaml

    authenticator: com.scylladb.auth.TransitionalAuthenticator

#. Restart the nodes one by one to apply the effect.

.. code-block:: shell

  sudo systemctl restart scylla-server

.. code-block:: yaml

  authenticator: AllowAllAuthenticator

#. Restart the nodes one by one to apply the effect.

.. include:: /rst_include/scylla-commands-restart-index.rst

#. Verify that all the client applications are working correctly with authentication disabled.