Chapter 11. Using service accounts in applications 11.1. Service accounts overview A service account is an OpenShift Container Platform account that allows a component to directly access the API. Service accounts are API objects that exist within each project. Service accounts provide a flexible way to control API access without sharing a regular user's credentials. When you use the OpenShift Container Platform CLI or web console, your API token authenticates you to the API. You can associate a component with a service account so that they can access the API without using a regular user's credentials. For example, service accounts can allow: Replication controllers to make API calls to create or delete pods. Applications inside containers to make API calls for discovery purposes. External applications to make API calls for monitoring or integration purposes. Each service account's user name is derived from its project and name: system:serviceaccount:<project>:<name> Every service account is also a member of two groups: Group Description system:serviceaccounts Includes all service accounts in the system. system:serviceaccounts:<project> Includes all service accounts in the specified project. Each service account automatically contains two secrets: An API token Credentials for the OpenShift Container Registry The generated API token and registry credentials do not expire, but you can revoke them by deleting the secret. When you delete the secret, a new one is automatically generated to take its place. 11.2. Default service accounts Your OpenShift Container Platform cluster contains default service accounts for cluster management and generates more service accounts for each project. 11.2.1. Default cluster service accounts Several infrastructure controllers run using service account credentials. The following service accounts are created in the OpenShift Container Platform infrastructure project ( openshift-infra ) at server start, and given the following roles cluster-wide: Service Account Description replication-controller Assigned the system:replication-controller role deployment-controller Assigned the system:deployment-controller role build-controller Assigned the system:build-controller role. Additionally, the build-controller service account is included in the privileged security context constraint to create privileged build pods. 11.2.2. Default project service accounts and roles Three service accounts are automatically created in each project: Service Account Usage builder Used by build pods. It is given the system:image-builder role, which allows pushing images to any imagestream in the project using the internal Docker registry. deployer Used by deployment pods and given the system:deployer role, which allows viewing and modifying replication controllers and pods in the project. default Used to run all other pods unless they specify a different service account. All service accounts in a project are given the system:image-puller role, which allows pulling images from any imagestream in the project using the internal container image registry. 11.3. Creating service accounts You can create a service account in a project and grant it permissions by binding it to a role. Procedure Optional: To view the service accounts in the current project: USD oc get sa Example output NAME SECRETS AGE builder 2 2d default 2 2d deployer 2 2d To create a new service account in the current project: USD oc create sa <service_account_name> 1 1 To create a service account in a different project, specify -n <project_name> . Example output serviceaccount "robot" created Optional: View the secrets for the service account: USD oc describe sa robot Example output Name: robot Namespace: project1 Labels: <none> Annotations: <none> Image pull secrets: robot-dockercfg-qzbhb Mountable secrets: robot-token-f4khf robot-dockercfg-qzbhb Tokens: robot-token-f4khf robot-token-z8h44 11.4. Using a service account's credentials externally You can distribute a service account's token to external applications that must authenticate to the API. To pull an image, the authenticated user must have get rights on the requested imagestreams/layers . To push an image, the authenticated user must have update rights on the requested imagestreams/layers . By default, all service accounts in a project have rights to pull any image in the same project, and the builder service account has rights to push any image in the same project. Procedure View the service account's API token: USD oc describe secret <secret_name> For example: USD oc describe secret robot-token-uzkbh -n top-secret Example output Name: robot-token-uzkbh Labels: <none> Annotations: kubernetes.io/service-account.name=robot,kubernetes.io/service-account.uid=49f19e2e-16c6-11e5-afdc-3c970e4b7ffe Type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token Data token: eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9... Log in using the token that you obtained: USD oc login --token=eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9... Example output Logged into "https://server:8443" as "system:serviceaccount:top-secret:robot" using the token provided. You don't have any projects. You can try to create a new project, by running USD oc new-project <projectname> Confirm that you logged in as the service account: USD oc whoami Example output system:serviceaccount:top-secret:robot

Commands:
system:serviceaccount:<project>:<name>
oc get sa
NAME SECRETS AGE builder 2 2d default 2 2d deployer 2 2d
oc create sa <service_account_name> 1
serviceaccount "robot" created
oc describe sa robot
Name: robot Namespace: project1 Labels: <none> Annotations: <none> Image pull secrets: robot-dockercfg-qzbhb Mountable secrets: robot-token-f4khf robot-dockercfg-qzbhb Tokens: robot-token-f4khf robot-token-z8h44
oc describe secret <secret_name>
oc describe secret robot-token-uzkbh -n top-secret
Name: robot-token-uzkbh Labels: <none> Annotations: kubernetes.io/service-account.name=robot,kubernetes.io/service-account.uid=49f19e2e-16c6-11e5-afdc-3c970e4b7ffe Type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token Data token: eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9
oc login --token=eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9
Logged into "https://server:8443" as "system:serviceaccount:top-secret:robot" using the token provided. You don't have any projects. You can try to create a new project, by running USD oc new-project <projectname>
oc whoami
system:serviceaccount:top-secret:robot