Authentication backends (LDAP, OAuth) in Apache Airflow - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Configure Authentication Backends in Apache Airflow

📖 Scenario: You are setting up Apache Airflow for your team. To keep it secure, you want to enable user login using an external authentication system. Your company supports LDAP and OAuth for user authentication.This project will guide you through configuring Airflow to use these authentication backends step-by-step.

🎯 Goal: By the end, you will have configured Airflow's airflow.cfg file to enable LDAP and OAuth authentication backends. You will also verify the configuration by printing the active authentication backend setting.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the exact variable names and values as instructed

Modify the airflow.cfg configuration settings as text variables

Print the final authentication backend setting exactly as specified

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Many companies use Apache Airflow to schedule and monitor workflows. Securing access with LDAP or OAuth is common to protect sensitive data and operations.

💼 Career

Understanding how to configure authentication backends in Airflow is important for DevOps engineers and data engineers managing secure workflow environments.

1

Create initial Airflow configuration dictionary

Create a dictionary called airflow_cfg with one key "webserver_config" set to an empty string.

Apache Airflow

# Create the airflow_cfg dictionary with 'webserver_config' key
# Your code here

Hint

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary and set the key 'webserver_config' to an empty string "".

2

Add LDAP authentication backend setting

Add a new key "auth_backend" to the airflow_cfg dictionary and set its value to "airflow.contrib.auth.backends.ldap_auth".

Apache Airflow

airflow_cfg = {"webserver_config": ""}
# Add 'auth_backend' key with LDAP backend value
# Your code here

Hint

Use the exact key 'auth_backend' and set it to the LDAP backend string.

3

Switch authentication backend to OAuth

Change the value of the "auth_backend" key in airflow_cfg to "airflow.contrib.auth.backends.oauth_auth".

Apache Airflow

airflow_cfg = {"webserver_config": "", "auth_backend": "airflow.contrib.auth.backends.ldap_auth"}
# Change 'auth_backend' value to OAuth backend
# Your code here

Hint

Assign the OAuth backend string exactly to the 'auth_backend' key.

4

Print the active authentication backend

Write a print statement to display the value of the "auth_backend" key from the airflow_cfg dictionary.

Apache Airflow

airflow_cfg = {"webserver_config": "", "auth_backend": "airflow.contrib.auth.backends.oauth_auth"}
# Print the current auth_backend value
# Your code here

Hint

Use print(airflow_cfg["auth_backend"]) to show the current authentication backend.