1. Terms and Definitions

The following basic terms help describe the key concepts associated with Ambari Administration.

Term

Definition

Ambari Admin

Specific privilege granted to a user that enables the user to administer Ambari. The default user admin created by Ambari is flagged as an “Ambari Admin”. Users with the Ambari Admin privilege can grant, or revoke this privilege on other users.

Account

User name, password and privileges.

Cluster

Installation of a Hadoop cluster, based on a particular Stack, that is managed by Ambari.

Group

Unique group of users in Ambari.

Group Type

Local and LDAP. Local groups are maintained in the Ambari database. LDAP groups are imported (and synchronized) with an external LDAP (if configured).

Permissions

Represents the permission that can be granted to a principal (user or group) on a particular resource. For example, cluster resources support Operator and Read-Only permissions.

Principal

User or group that can be authenticated by Ambari.

Privilege

Represents the mapping of a principal to a permission and a resource. For example: the user admin is granted the permission Operator on cluster DevCluster.

Resource

Represents the resource available and managed in Ambari. Ambari supports two types of resources: cluster and view. An Ambari Admin assigns permissions for a resource for users and groups.

User

Unique user in Ambari.

User Type

Local and LDAP. Local users are maintained in the Ambari database and authentication is performed against the Ambari database. LDAP users are imported (and synchronized) with an external LDAP (if configured).

Version

Represents a Stack version, which includes a set of repositories to install that version on a cluster. For more information about Stack versions, see Manage Stack and Versions.

View

Defines a user interface component that is available to Ambari.