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db.createRole()

Definition

db.createRole(role, writeConcern)

Creates a role in a database. You can specify privileges for the role by explicitly listing the privileges or by having the role inherit privileges from other roles or both. The role applies to the database on which you run the method.

The db.createRole() method accepts the following arguments:

Parameter Type Description
role document A document containing the name of the role and the role definition.
writeConcern document Optional. The level of write concern to apply to this operation. The writeConcern document uses the same fields as the getLastError command.

The role document has the following form:

{
  role: "<name>",
  privileges: [
     { resource: { <resource> }, actions: [ "<action>", ... ] },
     ...
  ],
  roles: [
     { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
      ...
  ],
  authenticationRestrictions: [
    {
      clientSource: ["<IP>" | "<CIDR range>", ...],
      serverAddress: ["<IP>" | "<CIDR range>", ...]
    },
    ...
  ]
}

The role document has the following fields:

Field Type Description
role string The name of the new role.
privileges array

The privileges to grant the role. A privilege consists of a resource and permitted actions. For the syntax of a privilege, see the privileges array.

You must include the privileges field. Use an empty array to specify no privileges.

roles array

An array of roles from which this role inherits privileges.

You must include the roles field. Use an empty array to specify no roles to inherit from.

authenticationRestrictions array

Optional.

The authentication restrictions the server enforces on the role. Specifies a list of IP addresses and CIDR ranges users granted this role are allowed to connect to and/or which they can connect from.

New in version 3.6.

The db.createRole() method wraps the createRole command.

Roles

In the roles field, you can specify both built-in roles and user-defined roles.

To specify a role that exists in the same database where db.createRole() runs, you can either specify the role with the name of the role:

"readWrite"

Or you can specify the role with a document, as in:

{ role: "<role>", db: "<database>" }

To specify a role that exists in a different database, specify the role with a document.

Authentication Restrictions

New in version 3.6.

The authenticationRestrictions document can contain only the following fields. The server throws an error if the authenticationRestrictions document contains an unrecognized field:

Field Name Value Description
clientSource Array of IP addresses and/or CIDR ranges If present, when authenticating a user, the server verifies that the client’s IP address is either in the given list or belongs to a CIDR range in the list. If the client’s IP address is not present, the server does not authenticate the user.
serverAddress Array of IP addresses and/or CIDR ranges A list of IP addresses or CIDR ranges to which the client can connect. If present, the server will verify that the client’s connection was accepted via an IP address in the given list. If the connection was accepted via an unrecognized IP address, the server does not authenticate the user.

Important

If a user inherits multiple roles with incompatible authentication restrictions, that user becomes unusable.

For example, if a user inherits one role in which the clientSource field is ["198.51.100.0"] and another role in which the clientSource field is ["203.0.113.0"] the server is unable to authenticate the user.

For more information on authentication in MongoDB, see Authentication.

Behavior

Replica set

If run on a replica set, db.createRole() is executed using majority write concern by default.

Scope

Except for roles created in the admin database, a role can only include privileges that apply to its database and can only inherit from other roles in its database.

A role created in the admin database can include privileges that apply to the admin database, other databases or to the cluster resource, and can inherit from roles in other databases as well as the admin database.

The db.createRole() method returns a duplicate role error if the role already exists in the database.

Required Access

To create a role in a database, you must have:

Built-in roles userAdmin and userAdminAnyDatabase provide createRole and grantRole actions on their respective resources.

To create a role with authenticationRestrictions specified, you must have the setAuthenticationRestriction action on the database resource which the role is created.

Example

The following db.createRole() method creates the myClusterwideAdmin role on the admin database:

use admin
db.createRole(
   {
     role: "myClusterwideAdmin",
     privileges: [
       { resource: { cluster: true }, actions: [ "addShard" ] },
       { resource: { db: "config", collection: "" }, actions: [ "find", "update", "insert", "remove" ] },
       { resource: { db: "users", collection: "usersCollection" }, actions: [ "update", "insert", "remove" ] },
       { resource: { db: "", collection: "" }, actions: [ "find" ] }
     ],
     roles: [
       { role: "read", db: "admin" }
     ]
   },
   { w: "majority" , wtimeout: 5000 }
)