[Lustre-devel] security: MGS connection

[Eric Mei <Eric.Mei@Sun.COM>]

Eric Barton wrote:
>> Here is an updated user interface proposal, please review:
>>
>> - MGS can be configured to "only allow RPC with certain level of 
>> security from certain node". The default is 'allow any'.
> 
> Fine.
> 
>> - Each node choose what security flavor to use to connect MGS when 
>> mounting target device or client, by mount option "mgssec=flavor". By 
>> default 'null' (no protection) is chosen.
> 
> Fine.
> 
>> - For MDT/OST, the option "mgssec=flavor" could also be written on disk, 
>> like other parameters, but will be override if mount option supplied.
> 
> How can "mgssec=flavor" apply to MDT/OST connections?  What mount option
> will override saved MDT/OST parameters?

Sorry I was not clear enough. I meant connection from MDT or OST to MGS. 
The "mgssec=flavor" could be specified as mount parameter, or stored on 
disk by mkfs.lustre or tune2fs. If both present, mount option wins. 
Anyway it's just some details.

> IMHO we have to make an extremely clear separation between MGS connection
> security (which can only be specified in the mount command) and lustre server
> connection security (which can be stored on the MGS).  Anything that blurs the
> distinction will be error prone.

Yes exactly, they're completely separated.

> 
>> - If flavor of GSS/Kerberos is specified, some pre-configured machine 
>> credential will be used, so no need to supply password or whatsoever.
> 
> Fine.
> 
>> - The flavor of MGS connection won't change until umount, no matter how 
>> rest of connection flavors change at runtime.
> 
> Fine.
> 
>> - If there's multiple mounts on one node, they must specify the same 
>> security flavor. For example, if we do:
>>    # mount -t lustre -o mgssec=krb5p /dev/sda1 /mnt/ost1
>>    # mount -t lustre -o mgssec=null /dev/sda1 /mnt/ost2
>> then the second mount will fail immediately.
> 
> Fine.

-- 
Eric