User Roles and Privileges

Learn how to manage user access through the role-based security system in Operational Insights, with predefined roles and granular privileges.

Operational Insights uses Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to secure your data and operations. Use predefined roles for quick setup or assign specific privileges to create custom access patterns that match your organization’s security requirements.

Operational Insights provides predefined roles and privileges to manage user access control effectively.

RBAC metadata for Operational Insights is stored in the Metadata.Role, Metadata.AssignedRole, and Metadata.Privilege collections.

Privileges can be applied at different levels to control access granularity:

Database Level
Scope Level
Collection Level

A cluster containing 2 databases, each divided into a scope that contains a collection that contains a document. Diagram.

Available Roles

Operational Insights provides predefined roles categorized into administrative and non-administrative types to streamline user access management. Choose administrative roles for cluster management tasks or non-administrative roles for standard data access and operations.

Administrative Roles

The following administrative roles are available in Operational Insights:

Table 1. Administrative Roles
Role	Capabilities
Full Admin	Can manage all cluster features (including security). Can access the web console. Can read and write all data.
Read-Only Admin	Can view all cluster statistics. Can access the web console. Cannot read security related settings.
Security Admin	Can view all cluster statistics, manage certificates, and manage security related settings. Can access the web console. Cannot read data.
Local User Admin	Can view all cluster statistics and manage local user roles, but not grant Full Admin or Security Admin roles to other users or itself. Can access the web console. Cannot read data.
Local User Admin	Can view all cluster statistics and manage local user roles, but not grant Full Admin or Security Admin roles to other users or itself. Can access the web console. Cannot read data.
External User Admin	Can view all cluster statistics and manage external user roles, but not grant Full Admin or Security Admin roles to other users or itself. Can access the web console. Cannot read data.
Cluster Admin	Can manage all cluster features except security and users. Can access the web console. Cannot read data.
External Stats Reader	Access to /metrics endpoint for Prometheus integration. Can read all stats for all services. Cannot access the web console.
Operational Insights Admin	Can access Operational Insights service administrative APIs (i.e. <host>:8095/api/v1/*). Can assign and modify RBAC privileges. Can read and write all data.

Non-Administrative Roles

The following non-administrative roles are available in Operational Insights:

Table 2. Non-Administrative Roles
Role	Capabilities
Operational Insights Access	Provides access to Operational Insights metadata required to use the service. Can access the web console. Does not provide access to data.

Target Object Privileges

Target Object	Privileges
Database	create, drop
Scope	create, drop
Collection	select, insert, upsert, delete, analyze, create, drop
View	select, create, drop
Index	create, drop
Function	execute, create, drop
Link	connect, disconnect, copy to, copy from, create, drop, alter, describe
Role	create, drop
Synonym	create, drop

Target Object

Privileges

Database

create, drop

Scope

create, drop

Collection

select, insert, upsert, delete, analyze, create, drop

View

select, create, drop

Index

create, drop

Function

execute, create, drop

Link

connect, disconnect, copy to, copy from, create, drop, alter, describe

Role

create, drop

Synonym

create, drop

Users Function

The users() function is a SQL++ built-in function that returns a list the cluster’s current users.

Example:

If a user named user1 has been created and granted the analytics_access role, you can retrieve user information using the users() function as follows:

select * from `users()` u;

The output:

[
  {
    "u": {
      "id": "user1",
      "domain": "local",
      "roles": [
        {
          "role": "analytics_access",
          "origins": [
            {
              "type": "user"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "groups": [],
      "external_groups": [],
      "name": "",
      "uuid": "1b480a02-68d9-4fff-96bd-d87fd5ea5a1f",
      "password_change_date": "2025-08-06T21:32:11+05:30",
      "locked": false,
      "temporary_password": false
    }
  }
]

For AI agents:

User Roles and Privileges

Available Roles

Administrative Roles

Non-Administrative Roles

Target Object Privileges

Users Function

Example:

See Also