Configuration and authentication in Tools¶

When Nessie is integrated into a broader data processing environment, authentication settings need to be provided in a way specific to the tool used.

Common Nessie client configuration options¶

Java 11 connection pool options¶

The Java 11 HTTP client can be configured using Java system properties. Since Java’s HttpClient API does not support the configuration of these properties programmatically, Nessie cannot expose those via its configuration mechanism.

Spark¶

When Nessie is used in Spark-based environments (either with Iceberg or Delta Lake) the Nessie authentication settings are configured via Spark session properties (Replace <catalog_name> with the name of your catalog).

// local spark instance, assuming NONE authentication
conf.set("spark.sql.catalog.<catalog_name>", "org.apache.iceberg.spark.SparkCatalog")
    .set("spark.sql.catalog.<catalog_name>.authentication.type", "NONE")
    .set(...);
spark = SparkSession.builder()
                    .master("local[2]")
                    .config(conf)
                    .getOrCreate();

# local spark instance, assuming NONE authentication
spark = SparkSession.builder \
        .config("spark.sql.catalog.<catalog_name>", "org.apache.iceberg.spark.SparkCatalog") \
        .config("spark.sql.catalog.<catalog_name>.authentication.type", "NONE") \
        .config(...) 
        .getOrCreate()

Flink¶

When Nessie is used in Flink with Iceberg, the Nessie authentication settings are configured when creating the Nessie catalog in Flink (Replace <catalog_name> with the name of your catalog):

table_env.execute_sql(
        """CREATE CATALOG <catalog_name> WITH (
        'type'='iceberg',
        'catalog-impl'='org.apache.iceberg.nessie.NessieCatalog',
        'authentication.type'='NONE')""")

Hive¶

When Nessie is used in Hive with Iceberg, the Nessie authentication settings are configured through Hive Shell (Replace <catalog_name> with the name of your catalog):

SET iceberg.catalog.<catalog_name>.catalog-impl=org.apache.iceberg.nessie.NessieCatalog
SET iceberg.catalog.<catalog_name>.authentication.type=NONE

Property Prefixes¶

The spark.sql.catalog.<catalog_name> prefix identifies properties for the Nessie catalog. The <catalog_name> part is just the name of the catalog in this case (not to be confused with the Nessie project name).

Multiple Nessie catalogs can be configured in the same Spark environment, each with its own set of configuration properties and its own property name prefix.

Authentication Settings¶

The sections below discuss specific authentication settings. The property names are shown without environment-specific prefixes for brevity. Nonetheless, in practice the property names should be given appropriate prefixes (as in the example above) for them to be recognized by the tools and Nessie code.

The value of the authentication.type property can be one of the following:

• NONE (default)
• BEARER
• OAUTH2
• AWS
• BASIC (deprecated)

Authentication Type NONE¶

For the Authentication Type NONE only the authentication.type property needs to be set.

This is also the default authentication type if nothing else is configured.

Authentication Type BEARER¶

For the BEARER Authentication Type the authentication.token property should be set to a valid OpenID token.

This authentication type is recommended only when the issued access token has a lifespan large enough to cover the duration of the entire Nessie client’s session. Once the token is expired, the Nessie client will not be able to refresh it and will have to be restarted, with a different token. If the token needs to be refreshed periodically, then the OAUTH2 authentication type should be preferred to this one.

Authentication Type OAUTH2¶

The OAUTH2 Authentication Type is able to authenticate against an OAuth2 server and obtain a valid access token. Only Bearer access tokens are currently supported. The access token is then used to authenticate against Nessie. The client will automatically refresh the access token. This authentication type is recommended when the access token has a lifespan shorter than the Nessie client’s session lifespan.

Note that the Nessie server must be configured to accept OAuth2 tokens from the same server. For example, if the OAuth2 server is Keycloak, this can be done by defining the following properties in the application.properties file of the Nessie server:

nessie.server.authentication.enabled=true
quarkus.oidc.auth-server-url=https://<keycloak-server>/realms/<realm-name>

The following properties are available for the OAUTH2 authentication type:

• authentication.oauth2.token-endpoint: the URL of the OAuth2 token endpoint; this should include not only the OAuth2 server’s address, but also the path to the token REST resource, if any. For Keycloak, this is typically https://<keycloak-server>/realms/<realm-name>/protocol/openid-connect/token. Required.

• authentication.oauth2.grant-type: the grant type to use when authenticating against the OAuth2 server. Valid values are: client_credentials or password. Optional, defaults to client_credentials. For both grant types, a client ID and secret must be provided and will be used to authenticate the client against the OAuth2 server. When using the “password” grant type, a username and password must also be provided, and are used to authenticate the user. Both client and user must be properly configured with appropriate permissions in the OAuth2 server for the authentication to succeed.

• authentication.oauth2.client-id: the client ID to use when authenticating against the OAuth2 server. Required.

• authentication.oauth2.client-secret: the client secret to use when authenticating against the OAuth2 server. Required.

• authentication.oauth2.username: the username to use when authenticating against the OAuth2 server. Required if using the “password” grant type.

• authentication.oauth2.password: the password to use when authenticating against the OAuth2 server. Required if using the “password” grant type.

• authentication.oauth2.default-access-token-lifespan: the default access token lifespan; if the OAuth2 server returns an access token without specifying its expiration time, this value will be used. Optional, defaults to PT1M (1 minute). Must be a valid ISO-8601 duration.

• authentication.oauth2.default-refresh-token-lifespan: the default refresh token lifespan; if the OAuth2 server returns a refresh token without specifying its expiration time, this value will be used. Optional, defaults to PT30M (30 minutes). Must be a valid ISO-8601 duration.

• authentication.oauth2.refresh-safety-window: the refresh safety window to use; a new token will be fetched when the current token’s remaining lifespan is less than this value. Optional, defaults to PT10S (10 seconds). Must be a valid ISO-8601 duration.

• authentication.oauth2.client-scopes: space-separated list of scopes to include in each request to the OAuth2 server. Optional, defaults to empty (no scopes). The scope names will not be validated by the Nessie client; make sure they are valid according to RFC 6749 Section 3.3.

• authentication.oauth2.token-exchange-enabled: if set to true, the Nessie client will attempt to exchange access tokens for refresh tokens whenever appropriate. This, however, can only work if the OAuth2 server supports token exchange. Optional, defaults to true (enabled). Note that recent versions of Keycloak support token exchange, but it is disabled by default. See Using token exchange for more information and how to enable this feature.

Authentication Type AWS¶

For the AWS Authentication Type the authentication.aws.region property should be set to the AWS region where the Nessie Server endpoint is located.

Additional AWS authentication configuration should be provided via standard AWS configuration files.

Authentication Type BASIC¶

For the BASIC Authentication Type the authentication.username and authentication.password properties should be set.

Note: the BASIC authentication type is considered insecure and Nessie Servers do not support it in production mode. This authentication type can only be used when the Nessie Server runs in test or “development” mode.