Creating a REST API User for MaxScale with MaxCtrl

Overview

MaxScale has a REST API, which can be configured to require authentication. When it is first installed, it has a single default admin user (admin) and password (mariadb). However, this user can be deleted, and other users can be created.

MaxCtrl is a command-line utility that can perform administrative tasks using MaxScale's REST API. It can be used to create a user for the REST API.

User Types

There are two types of users:

User Type

Description

Basic

The user has read-only access

Admin

The user can change global MaxScale parameters and reconfigure modules.

Creating a Basic User

  1. Configure the REST API if the default configuration is not sufficient.

  2. Use MaxCtrl to execute the create user command:

    $ maxctrl --secure \
   --user=admin \
   --password=mariadb \
   --hosts=192.0.2.100:8443
   --tls-key=/certs/client-key.pem \
   --tls-cert=/certs/client-cert.pem \
   --tls-ca-cert=/certs/ca.pem \
   create user "maxscale_rest" "maxscale_rest_password"

    Replace maxscale_rest and maxscale_rest_password with the desired user and password.

Creating an Admin User

  1. Configure the REST API if the default configuration is not sufficient.

  2. Use MaxCtrl to execute the create user command with the --type=admin option:

    $ maxctrl --secure \
   --user=admin \
   --password=mariadb \
   --hosts=192.0.2.100:8443
   --tls-key=/certs/client-key.pem \
   --tls-cert=/certs/client-cert.pem \
   --tls-ca-cert=/certs/ca.pem \
   create user "maxscale_rest_admin" "maxscale_rest_admin_password" --type=admin

    Replace maxscale_rest_admin and maxscale_rest_admin_password with the desired user and password.