Apache Ranger Integration

Apache Ranger enables administrators to centrally manage permission policies for various data resources. When we are talking about integrating Ranger with Alluxio the integration could vary depending on the specific use case:

• Ranger as authorization of HDFS: Alluxio communicates with HDFS normally, and Ranger enforces accesses on HDFS without additional configuration from Alluxio side.

• Ranger enfoces policies for Compute Engines like Spark and Trino: Ranger enforces policies within the compute engines themselves; no extra configuration is required in Alluxio.

• Ranger as authorization of Alluxio Namespace: Direct integration of Ranger as authorization at the Alluxio namespace is currently not supported in DA 3.2.

Ranger as authorization of HDFS

When Alluxio interacts with HDFS mounted as a UFS, it communicates directly using HDFS RPCs. Apache Ranger continues to enforce policies on HDFS independently. From Alluxio's perspective, no configuration changes are necessary. The permissions and attributes provided by Ranger for HDFS are automatically inherited by Alluxio, ensuring seamless access control.

Allowing Alluxio Access to Ranger-Enabled HDFS

To enable Alluxio to access a Ranger-enabled HDFS, you can configure a Ranger policy for the Alluxio process user (e.g., alluxio), granting the necessary permissions.

Summary: When Ranger enforces policies on HDFS, Alluxio operates as usual without requiring any special configuration. HDFS manages permission enforcement, and Alluxio interacts with HDFS in its normal capacity.

Ranger with Compute Engines (Spark, Trino)

Compute engines like Spark and Trino integrate with Ranger to enforce access control policies internally:

• Trino: The Trino coordinator checks and enforces policies defined in Ranger before executing queries, ensuring that users have the appropriate permissions.

• Spark: Spark can be configured to integrate with Ranger, and it will enforce access policies accordingly.

Alluxio acts as a data caching layer and does not enforce table-level or schema-level policies. Since Alluxio is table-agnostic, it does not interact directly with data at the schema level or enforce table-specific policies.

Summary: When compute engines like Spark and Trino are integrated with Ranger, they handle access policy enforcement internally. Alluxio does not require additional configuration in these scenarios because it focuses on data caching rather than access control at the table or schema level.

Ranger Enforcement at the Alluxio Namespace Level

The Alluxio namespace provides a unified view and organization of data, potentially federating multiple underlying storage systems. Direct integration for managing and enforcing policies at the Alluxio namespace level is not available in current Alluxio DA-3.2 .