Add and edit roles with authorize.conf

You can add or modify roles by editing authorize.conf. Users are assigned to roles that determine their level of access and the tasks that they can perform. For more information about roles and capabilities, read About role-based user access.

Never edit or delete roles in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/default/authorize.conf. This could break your admin capabilities. Instead edit the local version at $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/, or your own custom application directory in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/.

You must reload authentication or restart Splunk Enterprise after making changes to authorize.conf. Otherwise, your new roles will not appear in the Role list. See Refresh the authentication scheme in this topic for instructions to refresh authentication without restarting the Splunk platform.

For more information, see

• authorize.conf
• About configuration files in the Admin Manual.

Note: Distributed search configurations have slightly different authorization needs. When you use search head clustering, you must make sure that the search heads and the search peers all use the same set of authorize.conf file(s). To make sure your authorization is properly set up for search pooling, see How authorization works in distributed searches.

Add roles

Here's the syntax for adding roles through $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/authorize.conf:

[role_<roleName>]
<setting> = <value>
<setting> = <value>
...

The <roleName> in the stanza header is the name you want to give your role. For example: security, compliance, ninja.

Role names must use lowercase characters only. They cannot contain spaces, colons, semicolons, or forward slashes.

You can include these settings in the role stanza:

Setting	Definition	Default	For more information
<capability> = enabled	You can add any number of capabilities to a role. To add a capability to a role, just set that capability to "enabled".	disabled	See About defining roles with capabilities.
importRoles = <role>;<role>;...	When set, the current role inherits the capabilities from <role>. Members assigned to multiple roles inherit properties from the role with the broadest permissions. If you enter multiple roles, separate them with semicolons.	No roles set.	See Role inheritance.
srchFilter = <search_string>	This setting lets you define detailed data access controls. Users with this role will have their searches filtered by this expression.	No filters are set.	See Search filter format.
srchTimeWin = <string>	The maximum time span in seconds allowed for a search executed by a user in this role.	Not set. Search times are not limited.
srchDiskQuota = <int>	The maximum amount of disk space (MB) that can be used by search jobs performed by a user assigned to this role.	100
cumulativeSrchJobsQuota = <number>	The maximum number of concurrently running historical searches that all members of this role can have. For this setting to apply, you must also set enable_cumulative_quota = true in limits.conf. When a user belongs to multiple roles, the user uses searches from the roles with the largest cumulative search quota first. When the quota for that role is completely used up, roles with lower quotas are used.	Not set.
cumulativeRTSrchJobsQuota = <number>	The maximum number of concurrently running real-time searches that all members of this role can have. For this setting to apply, you must also set enable_cumulative_quota = true in limits.conf. If the user belongs to multiple roles, the user uses searches from the roles with the largest cumulative search quota first. When the quota for that role is completely used up, roles with lower quotas are used.	Not set.
srchJobsQuota = <int>	The maximum number of concurrently running searches a member of this role can have.	3
rtSrchJobsQuota = <number>	The maximum number of concurrently running real-time searches a member of this role can have.	6
srchIndexesDefault = <string>	A semicolon-delimited list of default indexes to search when no index is specified. The list can include both event indexes and metric indexes. When the user runs an event search that does not specify an index, the search runs over the default event indexes. When the user runs a metrics search that does not specify an index, the search runs over the default metrics indexes. You can wildcard your entries. However, the wildcard '*' does not match internal indexes. To match internal indexes, start with '_'. All internal indexes are represented by '_*'.	Not set.
srchIndexesAllowed = <string>	A semicolon-delimited list of indexes this role is allowed to search. The list can include both event and metrics indexes. You can wildcard your entries. However the wildcard '*' will not match internal indexes. To match internal indexes, start with '_'. All internal indexes are represented by '_*'.	Not set.

Search filter format

The srchFilter field can include any of the following search terms:

• source=
• host= and host tags
• index= and index names
• eventtype= and event type tags
• sourcetype=
• search fields
• wildcards
• use OR to use multiple terms, or AND to make searches more restrictive.

The search terms cannot include:

• saved searches
• time operators
• regular expressions
• any fields or modifiers Splunk Web can overwrite

Example of creating a role in authorize.conf

This example creates the role "ninja", which inherits capabilities from the default "user" role. ninja has almost the same capabilities as the default "power" role, except it cannot schedule searches. In addition:

• The search filter limits ninja to searching on host=foo.
• ninja is allowed to search all public indexes (those that do not start with underscore) and will search the indexes mail and main if no index is specified in the search.
• ninja is allowed to run 8 search jobs and 8 real-time search jobs concurrently. (These counts are independent.)
• ninja is allowed to occupy up to 500MB total space on disk for all its jobs.

[role_ninja]
rtsearch = enabled
importRoles = user
srchFilter = host=foo
srchIndexesAllowed = *
srchIndexesDefault = mail;main
srchJobsQuota   = 8
rtSrchJobsQuota = 8
srchDiskQuota   = 500

Refresh the authentication scheme

After you make changes to authorize.conf, you must refresh the authentication scheme to have the changes take effect. You can do this with either Splunk Web or the CLI. Refreshing the authentication scheme doesn't log users off of the system.

A restart of the Splunk platform reloads authentication, but it also logs users off of the system, and there is no requirement to restart the platform to refresh authentication.

Refresh the authentication scheme using Splunk Web

1. From the system bar, click Settings > Access controls > Authentication method.
2. Click Reload authentication configuration. This refreshes the authentication caches but does not boot current users from the system.

Refresh the authentication scheme using the CLI

1. On the Splunk platform instance where you want to reload authentication, open a shell prompt or PowerShell window.
2. Switch to the $SPLUNK_HOME/bin directory.
3. Use the CLI command ./splunk reload auth:

./splunk reload auth

The authentication scheme cache resets immediately.