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Managing service access

Managing service access

App Configuration uses IBM Cloud® Identity and Access Management (IAM) to perform authorization and authentication.

Access to App Configuration service instances for users in your account is controlled by IBM Cloud® Identity and Access Management (IAM). Every user in your account who needs access to App Configuration, must be assigned with an IAM role with specific access policy. The access policy determines what actions that a user can perform within the context of the service or instance that you select. The allowable actions are customized and defined by the IBM Cloud service as operations that are allowed to be performed on the service. The actions are then mapped to IAM user roles.

Policies help you to grant access at different levels. Some of the options are:

  • Access across all instances of the service in your account.
  • Access to an individual service instance in your account.
  • Access to specific Feature flags & Properties only within a Collection. See tutorial.
  • Access to all Feature flags & Properties within a specific Environment. See tutorial.

Roles and permissions

With IBM Cloud IAM, you can manage and define access for users and resources in your account. App Configuration service aligns with IBM Cloud IAM roles so that each user has a different view of the service, according to the role assigned.

Roles define the actions that a user or service ID can run. The following types of roles are in IBM Cloud:

  • Platform management roles enable users to perform tasks on service resources at the platform level, for example assign user access for the service, create or delete service IDs, create instances, assign policies for your service to other users, or bind instances to applications.
  • Service access roles enable users to be assigned varying levels of permission for calling the service's API.

App Configuration uses both the Platform and Service management roles. You can set policies about who can create an instance at the platform level, and then use the service roles to manage interaction with the instance itself. As the creator of an instance, you do not need to set any IAM policies to view or work with your App Configuration entities.

For complete IAM documentation, see Managing access in IBM Cloud.

Review the platform and service roles available and the actions that are mapped to each to help you assign access. If you're using the API to assign access, use apprapp for the service name.

IAM user roles
Use the tab buttons to change the context of the table. This table has row and column headers. The row headers provide the platform role name and the column headers identify the specific information available about each role.
Role Description
Viewer As a viewer, you can view service instances, but you can't modify them.
Administrator As an administrator, you can perform all platform actions based on the resource this role is being assigned, including assigning access policies to other users.
Operator As an operator, you can perform platform actions that are required to configure and operate service instances, such as viewing a service's dashboard.
Editor As an editor, you can perform all platform actions except for managing the account and assigning access policies.
IAM service access roles
Use the tab buttons to change the context of the table. This table has row and column headers. The row headers provide the service role name and the column headers identify the specific information available about each role.
Role Description
Manager As a manager, you have permissions beyond the writer role to complete privileged actions as defined by the service. In addition, you can create and edit service-specific resources.
Reader As a reader, you can perform read-only actions within a service such as viewing service-specific resources.
Writer As a writer, you have permissions beyond the reader role, including creating and editing service-specific resources.
Config Operator As a Config Operator, you can toggle the feature state.
Client SDK As a Client SDK role, you have permissions to perform evaluation of feature flags and properties in your application integrated with client SDK.

Actions

The following table details actions that are mapped to service access roles. Service access roles enable users access to App Configuration as well as the ability to call the App Configuration API.

Granular IAM action descriptions.
Action ID Roles Description
apprapp.dashboard.view Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader View App Configuration dashboard
apprapp.collections.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader, ClientSDK The ability to view collections.
apprapp.collections.create Manager The ability to create collections.
apprapp.collections.update Manager The ability to edit or update existing collections.
apprapp.collections.delete Manager The ability to delete existing collections.
apprapp.environments.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view environments.
apprapp.environments.create Manager The ability to create environments.
apprapp.environments.update Manager The ability to update or edit existing environments.
apprapp.environments.delete Manager The ability to delete existing environments.
apprapp.features.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view feature flags.
apprapp.features.create Manager The ability to create feature flags.
apprapp.features.update Manager The ability to update or edit existing feature flags.
apprapp.features.delete Manager The ability to delete existing feature flags.
apprapp.features.patch Writer The ability to partially update or edit existing feature flags.
apprapp.features.toggle Manager, Writer, Config Operator The ability to enable or disable existing feature flags.
apprapp.properties.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view properties.
apprapp.properties.create Manager The ability to create properties.
apprapp.properties.update Manager The ability to update or edit existing properties.
apprapp.properties.delete Manager The ability to delete existing properties.
apprapp.properties.patch Writer The ability to partially update or edit existing properties.
apprapp.segments.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view segments.
apprapp.segments.create Manager, Writer The ability to create segments.
apprapp.segments.update Manager, Writer The ability to update or edit existing segments.
apprapp.segments.delete Manager, Writer The ability to delete existing segments.
apprapp.gitconfigs.view Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view Git configurations.
apprapp.gitconfigs.create Manager The ability to create Git configurations.
apprapp.gitconfigs.update Manager The ability to update or edit existing Git configurations.
apprapp.gitconfigs.delete Manager The ability to delete existing Git configurations.
apprapp.integrations.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view integrations existing between App Configuration service and external services such as Key Protect, HPCS & Event Notifications.
apprapp.integrations.create Manager The ability to create integrations between App Configuration service and external services such as Key Protect, HPCS and Event Notifications.
apprapp.integrations.delete Manager The ability to delete the existing integrations between App Configuration service and an external services such as Key Protect, HPCS & Event Notifications.
apprapp.originconfigs.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view allowlisted origin URLs.
apprapp.originconfigs.update Manager The ability to add or update origin URLs to the allowlist.
apprapp.workflowconfigs.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view workflow configurations.
apprapp.workflowconfigs.create Manager The ability to create workflow configurations.
apprapp.workflowconfigs.update Manager The ability to update or edit existing workflow configurations.
apprapp.workflowconfigs.delete Manager The ability to delete existing workflow configurations.
apprapp.changerequest.create Manager The ability to send ServiceNow change request events to App Configuration instance.
apprapp.config.export Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader, ClientSDK The ability to get the JSON export of entire App Configuration instance resources such as collections, environments, feature flags, properties & segments.
apprapp.config.import Manager The ability to import resources such as collections, environments, feature flags, properties & segments into App Configuration instance.
apprapp.config.action Manager The ability to promote or restore the existing Git configurations.
apprapp.sse.view Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader, ClientSDK The ability for a EventSource to subscribe to server-sent events. This action is used by App Configuration Client SDKs only.
apprapp.usage.create Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader, ClientSDK The ability to submit feature flags & properties evaluation metrics back to App Configuration.
apprapp.configaggregatorsettings.update Manager The ability to enable configuration aggregator.
apprapp.configaggregatorsettings.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to verify configuration aggregator is enabled or not.
apprapp.configaggregatorstatus.list Manager, Writer, Config Operator, Reader The ability to view last configuration collection operation status and time.
apprapp.configaggregator.query Configuration Aggregator Reader The ability to list the IBM cloud resources with their configurations.