CREATE ROLE

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The CREATE ROLE statement creates SQL roles, which are groups containing any number of roles and users as members. You can assign privileges to roles, and all members of the role (regardless of whether if they are direct or indirect members) will inherit the role's privileges.

You can use the keywords ROLE and USER interchangeably. CREATE USER is equivalent to CREATE ROLE, with one exception: CREATE ROLE sets the NOLOGIN role option, which prevents the new role from being used to log in to the database. You can use CREATE ROLE and specify the LOGIN role option to achieve the same result as CREATE USER.

Note:

The CREATE ROLE statement performs a schema change. For more information about how online schema changes work in CockroachDB, see Online Schema Changes.

Considerations

  • After creating a role, you must grant it privileges to databases and tables.
  • All privileges of a role are inherited by all of its members.
  • Users and roles can be members of roles.
  • Role options of a role are not inherited by any of its members.
  • There is no limit to the number of members in a role.
  • Membership loops are not allowed (direct: A is a member of B is a member of A or indirect: A is a member of B is a member of C ... is a member of A).

Required privileges

Unless a role is a member of the admin role, additional privileges are required to manage other roles.

  • To create other roles, a role must have the CREATEROLE role option.
  • To add the LOGIN capability for other roles so that they can log in as users, a role must also have the CREATELOGIN role option.
  • To be able to grant or revoke membership to a role for additional roles, a member of the role must be set as a role admin for that role.

Synopsis

CREATE ROLE USER IF NOT EXISTS role_spec opt_with role_options

Parameters

Parameter Description
name The name of the role to create.
WITH role_option Apply a role option to a role.

Role names

  • Are case-insensitive.
  • Must start with either a letter or underscore.
  • Must contain only letters, numbers, periods, or underscores.
  • Must be between 1 and 63 characters.
  • Cannot be none.
  • Cannot start with pg_ or crdb_internal. Object names with these prefixes are reserved for system catalogs.
  • User and role names share the same namespace and must be unique.

Role options

Role option Description
CANCELQUERY/NOCANCELQUERY Deprecated in v22.2: Use the CANCELQUERY system privilege. Allow or disallow a role to cancel queries and sessions of other roles. Without this role option, roles can only cancel their own queries and sessions. Even with the CANCELQUERY role option, non-admin roles cannot cancel admin queries or sessions. This option should usually be combined with VIEWACTIVITY so that the role can view other roles' query and session information.

By default, the role option is set to NOCANCELQUERY for all non-admin roles.
CONTROLCHANGEFEED/NOCONTROLCHANGEFEED Deprecated in v23.1: Use the CHANGEFEED privilege. Allow or disallow a role to run CREATE CHANGEFEED on tables they have SELECT privileges on.

By default, the role option is set to NOCONTROLCHANGEFEED for all non-admin roles.
CONTROLJOB/NOCONTROLJOB Allow or disallow a role to pause, resume, and cancel jobs. Non-admin roles cannot control jobs created by admin roles.

By default, the role option is set to NOCONTROLJOB for all non-admin roles.
CREATEDB/NOCREATEDB Allow or disallow a role to create or rename a database. The role is assigned as the owner of the database.

By default, the role option is set to NOCREATEDB for all non-admin roles.
CREATELOGIN/NOCREATELOGIN Allow or disallow a role to manage authentication using the WITH PASSWORD, VALID UNTIL, and LOGIN/NOLOGIN role options.

By default, the role option is set to NOCREATELOGIN for all non-admin roles.
CREATEROLE/NOCREATEROLE Allow or disallow the new role to create, alter, and drop other non-admin roles.

By default, the role option is set to NOCREATEROLE for all non-admin roles.
LOGIN/NOLOGIN Allow or disallow a role to log in with one of the client authentication methods. Setting the role option to NOLOGIN prevents the role from logging in using any authentication method.
MODIFYCLUSTERSETTING/NOMODIFYCLUSTERSETTING Allow or disallow a role to modify the cluster settings with the sql.defaults prefix.

By default, the role option is set to NOMODIFYCLUSTERSETTING for all non-admin roles.
PASSWORD password/PASSWORD NULL The credential the role uses to authenticate their access to a secure cluster. A password should be entered as a string literal. For compatibility with PostgreSQL, a password can also be entered as an identifier.

To prevent a role from using password authentication and to mandate certificate-based client authentication, set the password as NULL.
SQLLOGIN/NOSQLLOGIN Deprecated in v22.2: Use the NOSQLLOGIN system privilege. Allow or disallow a role to log in using the SQL CLI with one of the client authentication methods. The role option to NOSQLLOGIN prevents the role from logging in using the SQL CLI with any authentication method while retaining the ability to log in to DB Console. It is possible to have both NOSQLLOGIN and LOGIN set for a role and NOSQLLOGIN takes precedence on restrictions.

Without any role options all login behavior is permitted.
VALID UNTIL The date and time (in the timestamp format) after which the password is not valid.
VIEWACTIVITY/NOVIEWACTIVITY Deprecated in v22.2: Use the VIEWACTIVITY system privilege. Allow or disallow a role to see other roles' queries and sessions using SHOW STATEMENTS, SHOW SESSIONS, and the Statements and Transactions pages in the DB Console. VIEWACTIVITY also permits visibility of node hostnames and IP addresses in the DB Console. With NOVIEWACTIVITY, the SHOW commands show only the role's own data, and DB Console pages redact node hostnames and IP addresses.

By default, the role option is set to NOVIEWACTIVITY for all non-admin roles.
VIEWCLUSTERSETTING / NOVIEWCLUSTERSETTING Deprecated in v22.2: Use the VIEWCLUSTERSETTING system privilege. Allow or disallow a role to view the cluster settings with SHOW CLUSTER SETTING or to access the Cluster Settings page in the DB Console.

By default, the role option is set to NOVIEWCLUSTERSETTING for all non-admin roles.
VIEWACTIVITYREDACTED/NOVIEWACTIVITYREDACTED Deprecated in v22.2: Use the VIEWACTIVITYREDACTED system privilege. Allow or disallow a role to see other roles' queries and sessions using SHOW STATEMENTS, SHOW SESSIONS, and the Statements and Transactions pages in the DB Console. With VIEWACTIVITYREDACTED, a user will not have access to the usage of statements diagnostics bundle (which can contain PII information) in the DB Console, and will not be able to list queries containing constants for other users when using the listSessions endpoint through the Cluster API. It is possible to have both VIEWACTIVITY and VIEWACTIVITYREDACTED, and VIEWACTIVITYREDACTED takes precedence on restrictions. If the user has VIEWACTIVITY but doesn't have VIEWACTIVITYREDACTED, they will be able to see DB Console pages and have access to the statements diagnostics bundle.

By default, the role option is set to NOVIEWACTIVITYREDACTED for all non-admin roles.

Examples

To run the following examples, start a secure single-node cluster and use the built-in SQL shell:

$ cockroach sql --certs-dir=certs

> SHOW ROLES;

username | options | member_of
---------+---------+------------
admin    |         | {}
root     |         | {admin}
(2 rows)
Note:

The following statements are run by the root user that is a member of the admin role and has ALL privileges.

Create a role

Role names are case-insensitive; must start with a letter, number, or underscore; must contain only letters, numbers, periods, or underscores; and must be between 1 and 63 characters.

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE no_options;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

 username  | options | member_of
 ----------+---------+------------
admin      |         | {}
no_options | NOLOGIN | {}
root       |         | {admin}
(3 rows)

After creating roles, you must grant them privileges to databases.

Create a role that can log in to the database

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE can_login WITH LOGIN PASSWORD '$tr0nGpassW0rD' VALID UNTIL '2021-10-10';

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

 username  |                options                | member_of
-----------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin      |                                       | {}
can_login  | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
no_options | NOLOGIN                               | {}
root       |                                       | {admin}
(4 rows)

Prevent a role from using password authentication

The following statement prevents the role from using password authentication and mandates certificate-based client authentication:

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> CREATE ROLE no_password WITH PASSWORD NULL;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

 username  |                options                | member_of
-----------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin      |                                       | {}
can_login  | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
no_options | NOLOGIN                               | {}
no_password| NOLOGIN                               | {}
root       |                                       | {admin}
(5 rows)

Create a role that can create other roles and manage authentication methods for the new roles

The following example allows the role to create other users and manage authentication methods for them:

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE can_create_role WITH CREATEROLE CREATELOGIN;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

   username     |                options                | member_of
----------------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin           |                                       | {}
can_create_role | CREATELOGIN, CREATEROLE, NOLOGIN      | {}
can_login       | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
no_options      | NOLOGIN                               | {}
no_password     | NOLOGIN                               | {}
root            |                                       | {admin}
(6 rows)

Create a role that can create and rename databases

The following example allows the role to create or rename databases:

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE can_create_db WITH CREATEDB;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

      username        |                options                | member_of
----------------------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin                 |                                       | {}
can_create_db         | CREATEDB, NOLOGIN                     | {}
can_create_role       | CREATELOGIN, CREATEROLE, NOLOGIN      | {}
can_login             | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
no_options            | NOLOGIN                               | {}
no_password           | NOLOGIN                               | {}
root                  |                                       | {admin}
(7 rows)

Create a role that can pause, resume, and cancel non-admin jobs

The following example allows the role to pause, resume, and cancel jobs:

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE can_control_job WITH CONTROLJOB;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

      username        |                options                | member_of
----------------------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin                 |                                       | {}
can_control_job       | CONTROLJOB, NOLOGIN                   | {}
can_create_db         | CREATEDB, NOLOGIN                     | {}
can_create_role       | CREATELOGIN, CREATEROLE, NOLOGIN      | {}
can_login             | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
manage_auth_for_roles | CREATELOGIN, NOLOGIN                  | {}
no_options            | NOLOGIN                               | {}
no_password           | NOLOGIN                               | {}
root                  |                                       | {admin}
(8 rows)

Create a role that can see and cancel non-admin queries and sessions

The following example allows the role to cancel queries and sessions for other non-admin roles:

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE can_manage_queries WITH CANCELQUERY VIEWACTIVITY;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

      username        |                options                | member_of
----------------------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin                 |                                       | {}
can_control_job       | CONTROLJOB, NOLOGIN                   | {}
can_create_db         | CREATEDB, NOLOGIN                     | {}
can_create_role       | CREATELOGIN, CREATEROLE, NOLOGIN      | {}
can_login             | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
can_manage_queries    | CANCELQUERY, NOLOGIN, VIEWACTIVITY    | {}
no_options            | NOLOGIN                               | {}
no_password           | NOLOGIN                               | {}
root                  |                                       | {admin}
(9 rows)

Create a role that can control changefeeds

The following example allows the role to run CREATE CHANGEFEED:

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE can_control_changefeed WITH CONTROLCHANGEFEED;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

       username        |                options                | member_of
-----------------------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin                  |                                       | {}
can_control_changefeed | CONTROLCHANGEFEED, NOLOGIN            | {}
can_control_job        | CONTROLJOB, NOLOGIN                   | {}
can_create_db          | CREATEDB, NOLOGIN                     | {}
can_create_role        | CREATELOGIN, CREATEROLE, NOLOGIN      | {}
can_login              | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
can_manage_queries     | CANCELQUERY, NOLOGIN, VIEWACTIVITY    | {}
no_options             | NOLOGIN                               | {}
no_password            | NOLOGIN                               | {}
root                   |                                       | {admin}
(10 rows)

Create a role that can modify cluster settings

The following example allows the role to modify cluster settings:

root@:26257/defaultdb> CREATE ROLE can_modify_cluster_setting WITH MODIFYCLUSTERSETTING;

root@:26257/defaultdb> SHOW ROLES;

         username          |                options                | member_of
---------------------------+---------------------------------------+------------
admin                      |                                       | {}
can_control_changefeed     | CONTROLCHANGEFEED, NOLOGIN            | {}
can_control_job            | CONTROLJOB, NOLOGIN                   | {}
can_create_db              | CREATEDB, NOLOGIN                     | {}
can_create_role            | CREATELOGIN, CREATEROLE, NOLOGIN      | {}
can_login                  | VALID UNTIL=2021-10-10 00:00:00+00:00 | {}
can_manage_queries         | CANCELQUERY, NOLOGIN, VIEWACTIVITY    | {}
can_modify_cluster_setting | MODIFYCLUSTERSETTING, NOLOGIN         | {}
no_options                 | NOLOGIN                               | {}
no_password                | NOLOGIN                               | {}
root                       |                                       | {admin}
(11 rows)

Set the SUBJECT role option for certificate based authentication

You can associate an X.509 certificate's Subject with a role as shown below. Note that the Subject fields in the certificate have to be an exact match with what you pass in via the SQL statement. By exact match, we mean that the order of attributes passed in via the SQL statement must match the order of attributes in the certificate.

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CREATE ROLE maxroach WITH SUBJECT 'CN=myName,OU=myOrgUnit,O=myOrg,L=myLocality,ST=myState,C=myCountry' LOGIN;

New in v24.1: If you manage your own Certificate Authority (CA) infrastructure, CockroachDB supports mapping between the Subject field of your X.509 certificates and SQL roles. For more information, see Certificate-based authentication using multiple values from the X.509 Subject field.

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