[[mapping-roles]]
=== Mapping Users and Groups to Roles

If you authenticate users with an `esusers` realm, you can assign roles when you <<esusers-add,add a user>> and use the <<esusers-roles,`roles`>> command to add or remove roles. 

For other types of realms, you configure role mappings for users and groups in a YAML file. By default, role mappings are stored in `config/shield/role_mapping.yml`. You can specify
the name and location of the mapping file by configuring the appropriate `role_mapping` setting in `elasticsearch.yml`:

 `shield.authc.ldap.files.role_mapping` :: The location of the role mapping file for LDAP realms.
 `shield.authc.active_directory.files.role_mapping` :: The location of the role mapping file for Active Directory realms.
 `shield.authc.pki.files.role_mapping` :: The location of the role mapping file for PKI realms.

Within the role mapping file, Elasticsearch roles are keys and groups
and users are values. The mapping can have a many-to-many relationship.
When you map roles to groups, the roles of a user in that group are the combination of the
roles assigned to that group and the roles assigned to that user.

To map users and groups to a role, you create a mapping file and copy it to each node in the cluster. Tools like Puppet or Chef can help with this.

[[ldap-role-mapping]]
.Example LDAP Role Mapping File
[source, yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------
# Example LDAP group mapping configuration:
# roleA: <1>
#  - groupA-DN <2>
#  - groupB-DN
#  - user1-DN <3>
monitoring:
  - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com"
user:
  - "cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"
  - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com"
  - "cn=John Doe,cn=contractors,dc=example,dc=com"
------------------------------------------------------------
<1> The name of the Elasticsearch role found in the <<defining-roles, roles file>>
<2> Example specifying the distinguished name of a LDAP group
<3> Example specifying the distinguished name of a LDAP user added[1.1.0]


[[ad-role-mapping]]
.Example Active Directory Role Mapping File
[source, yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------
# Example Active Directory group mapping configuration:
# roleA: <1>
#  - groupA-DN <2>
#  - groupB-DN
#  - user1-DN <3>
monitoring:
  - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com"
user:
  - "cn=users,dc=example,dc=com"
  - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com"
  - "cn=John Doe,cn=contractors,dc=example,dc=com"
------------------------------------------------------------
<1> The name of a Shield role defined in the <<defining-roles, roles file>>
<2> Example specifying the distinguished name of a Active Directory group
<3> Example specifying the distinguished name of a Active Directory user

[[pki-role-mapping]]
.Example PKI Role Mapping File
[source, yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------
# Example user mapping configuration:
# roleA: <1>
#  - user1-DN <2>
monitoring:
  - "cn=Admin,ou=example,o=com"
user:
  - "cn=John Doe,ou=example,o=com"
------------------------------------------------------------
<1> The name of a Shield role defined in the <<defining-roles, roles file>>
<2> Example specifying the distinguished name of a PKI user

NOTE: For PKI realms, only the DN of a user can be mapped as there is no concept of a group in PKI