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updateRole

Definition

updateRole

Updates a user-defined role. The updateRole command must run on the role’s database.

Tip

In the mongo Shell, this command can also be run through the db.updateRole helper method.

Helper methods are convenient for mongo users, but they may not return the same level of information as database commands. In cases where the convenience is not needed or the additional return fields are required, use the database command.

An update to a field completely replaces the previous field’s values. To grant or remove roles or privileges without replacing all values, use one or more of the following commands:

Warning

An update to the privileges or roles array completely replaces the previous array’s values.

The updateRole command uses the following syntax. To update a role, you must provide the privileges array, roles array, or both:

{
  updateRole: "<role>",
  privileges:
      [
        { resource: { <resource> }, actions: [ "<action>", ... ] },
        ...
      ],
  roles:
      [
        { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
        ...
      ],
  authenticationRestrictions:
      [
        {
          clientSource: ["<IP>" | "<CIDR range>", ...],
          serverAddress: ["<IP>", ...]
        },
        ...
      ]
  writeConcern: <write concern document>
}

The updateRole command has the following fields:

Field Type Description
updateRole string The name of the user-defined role role to update.
privileges array Optional. Required if you do not specify roles array. The privileges to grant the role. An update to the privileges array overrides the previous array’s values. For the syntax for specifying a privilege, see the privileges array.
roles array Optional. Required if you do not specify privileges array. The roles from which this role inherits privileges. An update to the roles array overrides the previous array’s values.
authenticationRestrictions array

Optional.

The authentication restrictions the server enforces on the role. Specifies a list of IP addresses and CIDR ranges users granted this role are allowed to connect to and/or which they can connect from.

New in version 3.6.

writeConcern document Optional. The level of write concern for the update operation. The writeConcern document takes the same fields as the getLastError command.

Roles

In the roles field, you can specify both built-in roles and user-defined roles.

To specify a role that exists in the same database where updateRole runs, you can either specify the role with the name of the role:

"readWrite"

Or you can specify the role with a document, as in:

{ role: "<role>", db: "<database>" }

To specify a role that exists in a different database, specify the role with a document.

Authentication Restrictions

New in version 3.6.

The authenticationRestrictions document can contain only the following fields. The server throws an error if the authenticationRestrictions document contains an unrecognized field:

Field Name Value Description
clientSource Array of IP addresses and/or CIDR ranges If present, when authenticating a user, the server verifies that the client’s IP address is either in the given list or belongs to a CIDR range in the list. If the client’s IP address is not present, the server does not authenticate the user.
serverAddress Array of IP addresses and/or CIDR ranges A list of IP addresses or CIDR ranges to which the client can connect. If present, the server will verify that the client’s connection was accepted via an IP address in the given list. If the connection was accepted via an unrecognized IP address, the server does not authenticate the user.

Important

If a user inherits multiple roles with incompatible authentication restrictions, that user becomes unusable.

For example, if a user inherits one role in which the clientSource field is ["198.51.100.0"] and another role in which the clientSource field is ["203.0.113.0"] the server is unable to authenticate the user.

For more information on authentication in MongoDB, see Authentication.

Behavior

A role’s privileges apply to the database where the role is created. The role can inherit privileges from other roles in its database. A role created on the admin database can include privileges that apply to all databases or to the cluster and can inherit privileges from roles in other databases.

Required Access

You must have the revokeRole action on all databases in order to update a role.

You must have the grantRole action on the database of each role in the roles array to update the array.

You must have the grantRole action on the database of each privilege in the privileges array to update the array. If a privilege’s resource spans databases, you must have grantRole on the admin database. A privilege spans databases if the privilege is any of the following:

  • a collection in all databases
  • all collections and all database
  • the cluster resource

You must have the setAuthenticationRestriction action on the database of the target role to update a role’s authenticationRestrictions document.

Example

The following is an example of the updateRole command that updates the myClusterwideAdmin role on the admin database. While the privileges and the roles arrays are both optional, at least one of the two is required:

db.adminCommand(
   {
     updateRole: "myClusterwideAdmin",
     privileges:
         [
           {
             resource: { db: "", collection: "" },
             actions: [ "find" , "update", "insert", "remove" ]
           }
         ],
     roles:
         [
           { role: "dbAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }
         ],
     writeConcern: { w: "majority" }
   }
)

To view a role’s privileges, use the rolesInfo command.