Each service and sub-service in Hadoop must have its own principal. A principal name in a given realm consists of a primary name and an instance name, which in this case is the FQDN of the host that runs that service. As services do not login with a password to acquire their tickets, their principal's authentication credentials are stored in a keytab file, which is extracted from the Kerberos database and stored locally with the service principal on the service component host.
First you must create the principal, using mandatory naming conventions.
Then you must create the keytab file with that principal's information and copy the file to the keytab directory on the appropriate service host.
![]() | Note |
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Principals can be created either on the KDC machine itself or through the
network, using an “admin” principal. The following instructions assume you
are using the KDC machine and using the |
Open the
kadmin.localutility on the KDC machine/usr/sbin/kadmin.local
Create the service principals:
$kadmin.local addprinc -randkey $primary_name/$fully.qualified.domain.name@EXAMPLE.COM
The
-randkeyoption is used to generate the password.Note that in the example each service principal's primary name has appended to it the instance name, the FQDN of the host on which it runs. This provides a unique principal name for services that run on multiple hosts, like DataNodes and NodeManagers. The addition of the hostname serves to distinguish, for example, a request from DataNode A from a request from DataNode B. This is important for two reasons:
If the Kerberos credentials for one DataNode are compromised, it does not automatically lead to all DataNodes being compromised
If multiple DataNodes have exactly the same principal and are simultaneously connecting to the NameNode, and if the Kerberos authenticator being sent happens to have same timestamp, then the authentication would be rejected as a replay request.
The principal name must match the values in the table below:
Table IV.19.2. Service Principals
Service Component Mandatory Principal Name HDFS
NameNode nn/$FQDNHDFS
NameNode HTTP HTTP/$FQDNHDFS SecondaryNameNode nn/$FQDNHDFS SecondaryNameNode HTTP HTTP/$FQDNHDFS
DataNode dn/$FQDNMR2 History Server jhs/$FQDNMR2 History Server HTTP HTTP/$FQDNYARN ResourceManager rm/$FQDNYARN NodeManager nm/$FQDNOozie
Oozie Server oozie/$FQDNOozie
Oozie HTTP HTTP/$FQDNHive
Hive Metastore
HiveServer2
hive/$FQDNHive WebHCat HTTP/$FQDNHBase
MasterServer hbase/$FQDNHBase
RegionServer hbase/$FQDNZooKeeper
ZooKeeper zookeeper/$FQDNNagios Server Nagios nagios/$FQDNJournalNode Server[a] JournalNode jn/$FQDN[a] Only required if you are setting up NameNode HA.
For example: To create the principal for a DataNode service, issue this command:
$kadmin.local addprinc -randkey dn/$DataNode-Host@EXAMPLE.COM
In addition you must create four special principals for Ambari's own use.
![[Note]](../common/images/admon/note.png)
Note The names in table below can be customized in the Customize Services step of the Ambari Install Wizard. If this is the case in your installation, the principal names should match the customized names. For example, if the HDFS Service User has been set to
hdfs1, the respective principal for the Ambari HDFS User should also be created ashdfs1.These principals do not have the FQDN appended to the primary name:
Table IV.19.3. Ambari Principals
User Mandatory Principal Name Ambari User[a] ambariAmbari Smoke Test User ambari-qaAmbari HDFS User hdfsAmbari HBase User hbase[a] This principal is used with the JAAS configuration. See Setup Kerberos JAAS Configuration for Ambari for more information.
Once the principals are created in the database, you can extract the related keytab files for transfer to the appropriate host:
$kadmin.local xst -norandkey -k $keytab_file_name $primary_name/fully.qualified.domain.name@EXAMPLE.COM
You must use the mandatory names for the
$keytab_file_namevariable shown in this table.![[Note]](../common/images/admon/note.png)
Note Some older versions of Kerberos do not support the xst
-norandkeyoption. You can use the command without the-norandkeyflag, except in cases where you need to copy a principal from one keytab file to another keytab file on a host. This might be a requirement if the Hadoop configurations on a host have keytab path properties that point to different keytab locations but have corresponding principal name properties that have the same values.In situations like this, you can use the two step
kadmin/kutilprocedure. This description assumes MIT Kerberos. If you are using another version, please check your documentation.Extract the keytab file information:
$kadmin xst -k $keytab_file_name-temp1 $primary_name/fully.qualified.domain.name@EXAMPLE.COM xst -k $keytab_file_name-temp2 $primary_name/fully.qualified.domain.name@EXAMPLE.COM
Write the keytab to a file. :
$kutil kutil: rkt $keytab_file_name-temp1 kutil: rkt $keytab_file_name-temp2 kutil: wkt $keytab_file_name kutil: clear
Table IV.19.4. Service Keytab File Names
Component Principal Name Mandatory Keytab File Name NameNode
nn/$FQDNnn.service.keytabNameNode HTTP HTTP/$FQDNspnego.service.keytabSecondaryNameNode
nn/$FQDNnn.service.keytabSecondaryNameNode HTTP HTTP/$FQDNspnego.service.keytabDataNode dn/$FQDNdn.service.keytabMR2 History Server jhs/$FQDNnm.service.keytabMR2 History Server HTTP HTTP/$FQDNspnego.service.keytabYARN rm/$FQDNrm.service.keytabYARN nm/$FQDNnm.service.keytabOozie Server oozie/$FQDNoozie.service.keytabOozie HTTP HTTP/$FQDNspnego.service.keytabHive Metastore
HiveServer2
hive/$FQDNhive.service.keytabWebHCat HTTP/$FQDNspnego.service.keytabHBase Master Server
hbase/$FQDNhbase.service.keytabHBase RegionServer
hbase/$FQDNhbase.service.keytabZooKeeper
zookeeper/$FQDNzk.service.keytabNagios Server nagios/$FQDNnagios.service.keytabJournal Server[a] jn/$FQDNjn.service.keytabAmbari User[b] ambariambari.keytabAmbari Smoke Test User ambari-qasmokeuser.headless.keytabAmbari HDFS User hdfshdfs.headless.keytabAmbari HBase User hbasehbase.headless.keytab[a] Only required if you are setting up NameNode HA.
[b] This principal is used with the JAAS configuration. See Setup Kerberos JAAS Configuration for Ambari for more information.
For example: To create the keytab files for NameNode HTTP, issue this command:
$kadmin.local xst -norandkey -k spnego.service.keytab HTTP/<namenode-host>
![[Note]](../common/images/admon/note.png)
Note If you have a large cluster, you may want to create a script to automate creating your principals and keytabs. To help with that, you can download a CSV-formatted file of all the required principal names and keytab files from the Ambari Web GUI. Select Admin view->Security->Enable Security-> and run the Enable Security Wizard, using the default values. At the bottom of the third page, Create Principals and Keytabs, click Download CSV.
When the keytab files have been created, on each host create a directory for them and set appropriate permissions.
mkdir -p /etc/security/keytabs/ chown root:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs chmod 750 /etc/security/keytabs
Copy the appropriate keytab file to each host. If a host runs more than one component (for example, both NodeManager and DataNode), copy keytabs for both components. The Ambari Smoke Test User, the Ambari HDFS User, and the Ambari HBase User keytabs should be copied to the all hosts on the cluster.
![[Important]](../common/images/admon/important.png)
Important If you have customized service user names, replace the default values below with your appropriate service user, group, and keytab names.
Set appropriate permissions for the keytabs.
Optionally, if you have Setup Kerberos JAAS Configuration for Ambari on the Ambari server host:
chown ambari:ambari /etc/security/keytabs/ambari.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/ambari.keytab
On the HDFS NameNode and SecondaryNameNode hosts:
chown hdfs:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/nn.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/nn.service.keytab chown root:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab chmod 440 /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab
On the HDFS NameNode host, for the Ambari Test Users:
chown ambari-qa:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/smokeuser.headless.keytab chmod 440 /etc/security/keytabs/smokeuser.headless.keytab chown hdfs:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/hdfs.headless.keytab chmod 440 /etc/security/keytabs/hdfs.headless.keytab chown hbase:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/hbase.headless.keytab chmod 440 /etc/security/keytabs/hbase.headless.keytab
On each host that runs an HDFS DataNode:
chown hdfs:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/dn.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/dn.service.keytab
On the host that runs the MR2 History Server:
chown mapred:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/jhs.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/jhs.service.keytab chown root:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab chmod 440 /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab
On the host that runs the YARN ResourceManager:
chown yarn:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/rm.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/rm.service.keytab
On each host that runs a YARN NodeManager:
chown yarn:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/nm.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/nm.service.keytab
On the host that runs the Oozie Server:
chown oozie:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/oozie.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/oozie.service.keytab chown root:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab chmod 440 /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab
On the host that runs the Hive Metastore, HiveServer2 and WebHCat:
chown hive:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/hive.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/hive.service.keytab chown root:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab chmod 440 /etc/security/keytabs/spnego.service.keytab
On hosts that run the HBase MasterServer, RegionServer and ZooKeeper:
chown hbase:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/hbase.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/hbase.service.keytab chown zookeeper:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/zk.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/zk.service.keytab
On the host that runs the Nagios server:
chown nagios:nagios /etc/security/keytabs/nagios.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/nagios.service.keytab
On each host that runs a JournalNode, if you are setting up NameNode HA:
chown hdfs:hadoop /etc/security/keytabs/jn.service.keytab chmod 400 /etc/security/keytabs/jn.service.keytab
Verify that the correct keytab files and principals are associated with the correct service using the
klistcommand. For example, on the NameNode:klist –k -t /etc/security/keytabs/nn.service.keytab
Do this on each respective service in your cluster.

