brooklyn.properties

The file ~/.brooklyn/brooklyn.properties is read when Brooklyn starts to load server configuration values. A different properties file can be specified either additionally or instead through CLI options.

A template brooklyn.properties file is available, with abundant comments.

Quick Setup

The most common properties set in this file are for access control. Without this, Brooklyn will bind only to localhost or will create a random password written to the log for use on other networks. The simplest way to specify users and passwords is:

brooklyn.webconsole.security.users=admin,bob
brooklyn.webconsole.security.user.admin.password=AdminPassw0rd
brooklyn.webconsole.security.user.bob.password=BobPassw0rd

The properties file must have permissions 600 (i.e. readable and writable only by the file’s owner), for some security.

In many cases, it is preferable instead to use an external credentials store such as LDAP or at least to have passwords in this file. Information on configuring these is below.

If coming over a network it is highly recommended additionally to use https. This can be configured with:

brooklyn.webconsole.security.https.required=true

More information, including setting up a certificate, is described further below.

Camp YAML Expressions

Values in brooklyn.properties can use the Camp YAML syntax. Any value starting $brooklyn: is parsed as a Camp YAML expression.

This allows externalized configuration to be used from brooklyn.properties. For example:

brooklyn.location.jclouds.aws-ec2.identity=$brooklyn:external("vault", "aws-identity")
brooklyn.location.jclouds.aws-ec2.credential=$brooklyn:external("vault", "aws-credential")

If for some reason one requires a literal value that really does start with $brooklyn: (i.e. for the value to not be parsed), then this can be achieved by using the syntax below. This example returns the property value $brooklyn:myexample:

example.property=$brooklyn:literal("$brooklyn:myexample")

Locations

Information on defining locations in the brooklyn.properties file is available here.

Java

Arbitrary data can be set in the brooklyn.properties. This can be accessed in java using ManagementContext.getConfig(KEY).

Authentication

Security Providers are the mechanism by which different authentication authorities are plugged in to Brooklyn. These can be configured by specifying brooklyn.webconsole.security.provider equal to the name of a class implementing SecurityProvider. An implementation of this could point to Spring, LDAP, OpenID or another identity management system.

The default implementation, ExplicitUsersSecurityProvider, reads from a list of users and passwords which should be specified as configuration parameters e.g. in brooklyn.properties. This configuration could look like:

brooklyn.webconsole.security.users=admin
brooklyn.webconsole.security.user.admin.salt=OHDf
brooklyn.webconsole.security.user.admin.sha256=91e16f94509fa8e3dd21c43d69cadfd7da6e7384051b18f168390fe378bb36f9

The users line should contain a comma-separated list. The special value * is accepted to permit all users.

To generate this, the brooklyn CLI can be used:

brooklyn generate-password --user admin

Enter password: 
Re-enter password: 

Please add the following to your brooklyn.properies:

brooklyn.webconsole.security.users=admin
brooklyn.webconsole.security.user.admin.salt=OHDf
brooklyn.webconsole.security.user.admin.sha256=91e16f94509fa8e3dd21c43d69cadfd7da6e7384051b18f168390fe378bb36f9

Alternatively, in dev/test environments where a lower level of security is required, the syntax brooklyn.webconsole.security.user.<username>=<password> can be used for each <username> specified in the brooklyn.webconsole.security.users list.

Other security providers available include:

No one

brooklyn.webconsole.security.provider=org.apache.brooklyn.rest.security.provider.BlackholeSecurityProvider will block all logins (e.g. if not using the web console)

No security

brooklyn.webconsole.security.provider=org.apache.brooklyn.rest.security.provider.AnyoneSecurityProvider will allow logins with no credentials (e.g. in secure dev/test environments)

LDAP

brooklyn.webconsole.security.provider=org.apache.brooklyn.rest.security.provider.LdapSecurityProvider will cause Brooklyn to call to an LDAP server to authenticate users; The other things you need to set in brooklyn.properties are:

  • brooklyn.webconsole.security.ldap.url - ldap connection url
  • brooklyn.webconsole.security.ldap.realm - ldap dc parameter (domain)
  • brooklyn.webconsole.security.ldap.ou optional, by default it set to Users - ldap ou parameter

brooklyn.properties example configuration:

brooklyn.webconsole.security.provider=org.apache.brooklyn.rest.security.provider.LdapSecurityProvider brooklyn.webconsole.security.ldap.url=ldap://localhost:10389/????X-BIND-USER=uid=admin%2cou=system,X-BIND-PASSWORD=secret,X-COUNT-LIMIT=1000 brooklyn.webconsole.security.ldap.realm=example.com

After you setup the brooklyn connection to your LDAP server, you can authenticate in brooklyn using your cn (e.g. John Smith) and your password. org.apache.brooklyn.rest.security.provider.LdapSecurityProvider searches in the LDAP tree in LDAP://cn=John Smith,ou=Users,dc=example,dc=com

If you want to customize the ldap path or something else which is particular to your LDAP setup you can extend LdapSecurityProvider class or implement from scratch the SecurityProvider interface.

Entitlements

In addition to login access, fine-grained permissions – including seeing entities, creating applications, seeing sensors, and invoking effectors – can be defined on a per-user and per-target (e.g. which entity/effector) basis using a plug-in Entitlement Manager.

This can be set globally with the property:

brooklyn.entitlements.global=<class>

The default entitlement manager is one which responds to per-user entitlement rules, and understands:

  • root: full access, including to the Groovy console
  • readonly: read-only access to almost all information
  • minimal: access only to server stats, for use by monitoring systems

These keywords are also understood at the global level, so to grant full access to admin but limited access to other authenticated users and `readonly, you can write:

brooklyn.entitlements.global=readonly
brooklyn.entitlements.perUser.admin=root
brooklyn.entitlements.perUser.support=readonly
brooklyn.entitlements.perUser.metrics=minimal

Under the covers this invokes the PerUserEntitlementManager, with a default set (and if not specified default defaults to minimal); so the above can equivalently be written:

brooklyn.entitlements.global=org.apache.brooklyn.core.mgmt.entitlement.PerUserEntitlementManager
brooklyn.entitlements.perUser.default=readonly
brooklyn.entitlements.perUser.admin=root
brooklyn.entitlements.perUser.support=readonly
brooklyn.entitlements.perUser.metrics=minimal

For more information, see Java: Entitlements. or EntitlementManager (javadoc, src) .

HTTPS Configuration

To enable https, you will need a server certificate in a java keystore. To create a self-signed certificate, you can use the following command:

% keytool -genkey -keyalg RSA -alias brooklyn -keystore <path-to-keystore-directory>/server.key -storepass mypassword -validity 360 -keysize 2048

You will then be prompted to enter you name and organization details. This will create a keystore with the password mypassword - you should use your own secure password, which will be the same password used in your brooklyn.properties (below). You will also need to replace <path-to-keystore-directory> with the full path of the folder where you wish to store your keystore.

The certificate generated will be a self-signed certificate and will not have a CN field identifying the website server name, which will cause a warning to be displayed by the browser when viewing the page. For production servers, a valid signed certificate from a trusted certifying authority should be used instead

To enable HTTPS in Brooklyn, add the following to your brooklyn.properties:

brooklyn.webconsole.security.https.required=true
brooklyn.webconsole.security.keystore.url=<path-to-keystore-directory>/server.key
brooklyn.webconsole.security.keystore.password=mypassword
brooklyn.webconsole.security.keystore.certificate.alias=brooklyn