GRANT Statement (Impala 2.0 or higher only)

The GRANT statement grants a privilege on a specified object to a role, to a user, or to a group. The statement is also used to grant a role to a group.

Syntax:

The following syntax are supported in Impala through Ranger to manage authorization.

GRANT ROLE TO GROUP

For GRANT ROLE TO GROUP, only Ranger administrative users can grant roles to a group. 

GRANT ROLE role_name TO GROUP group_name

GRANT privilege ON object TO PRINCIPAL

For GRANT privilege ON object TO principal (a user, a group, or a role), Ranger administrative users can use this statement. If the privilege is granted with the clause of WITH GRANT OPTION, the grantee (the user, the users belonging to the group, or the users belonging to the group granted the role) is able to grant the privilege to other principals. 

GRANT privilege ON object_type object_name
   TO USER user_name
GRANT privilege ON object_type object_name
   TO GROUP group_name
  GRANT privilege ON object_type object_name
  TO ROLE role_name
  
privilege ::= ALL | ALTER | CREATE | DROP | INSERT | REFRESH | SELECT | SELECT(column_name)
object_type ::= SERVER | URI | DATABASE | TABLE

Typically, the object_name is an identifier. For URIs, it is a string literal.

Required privileges:

Only administrative users for Ranger can use this statement.

Only Ranger administrative users can grant roles to a group.

The WITH GRANT OPTION clause allows members of the specified role to issue GRANT and REVOKE statements for those same privileges. Hence, if a role has the ALL privilege on a database and the WITH GRANT OPTION set, users granted that role can execute GRANT/REVOKE statements only for that database or child tables of the database. This means a user could revoke the privileges of the user that provided them the GRANT OPTION.

The ability to grant or revoke SELECT privilege on specific columns is available in Impala 2.3 and higher. See the documentation for Apache Sentry for details.

Usage notes:

You can only grant the ALL privilege to the URI object. Finer-grained privileges mentioned below on a URI are not supported.

The table below lists the minimum level of privileges and the scope required to execute SQL statements in Impala 3.0 and higher. The following notations are used:
  • The SERVER resource type in Ranger implies all databases, all tables, all columns, all UDFs, and all URIs.
  • ANY denotes the SELECT, INSERT, CREATE, ALTER, DROP, or REFRESH privilege.
  • ALL privilege denotes the SELECT, INSERT, CREATE, ALTER, DROP, and REFRESH privileges.
  • The owner of an object effectively has the ALL privilege on the object.
  • The parent levels of the specified scope are implicitly supported where a scope refers to the specific level in the object hierarchy that the privilege is granted. For example, if a privilege is listed with the TABLE scope, the same privilege granted on DATABASE and SERVER will allow the user to execute the specified SQL statement.
SQL Statement Privileges Object Type /

Resource Type
SELECT SELECT TABLE
WITH SELECT SELECT TABLE
EXPLAIN SELECT SELECT TABLE
INSERT INSERT TABLE
EXPLAIN INSERT INSERT TABLE
TRUNCATE INSERT TABLE
LOAD INSERT TABLE
ALL URI
CREATE DATABASE CREATE SERVER
CREATE DATABASE LOCATION CREATE SERVER
ALL URI
CREATE TABLE CREATE DATABASE
CREATE TABLE LIKE CREATE DATABASE
SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
CREATE TABLE AS SELECT CREATE DATABASE
INSERT DATABASE
SELECT TABLE
EXPLAIN CREATE TABLE AS SELECT CREATE DATABASE
INSERT DATABASE
SELECT TABLE
CREATE TABLE LOCATION CREATE TABLE
ALL URI
CREATE VIEW CREATE DATABASE
SELECT TABLE
ALTER DATABASE SET OWNER ALL WITH GRANT DATABASE
ALTER TABLE ALTER TABLE
ALTER TABLE SET LOCATION ALTER TABLE
ALL URI
ALTER TABLE RENAME CREATE DATABASE
ALL TABLE
ALTER TABLE SET OWNER ALL WITH GRANT TABLE
ALTER VIEW ALTER TABLE
SELECT TABLE
ALTER VIEW RENAME CREATE DATABASE
ALL TABLE
ALTER VIEW SET OWNER ALL WITH GRANT VIEW
DROP DATABASE DROP DATABASE
DROP TABLE DROP TABLE
DROP VIEW DROP TABLE
CREATE FUNCTION CREATE DATABASE
ALL URI
DROP FUNCTION DROP DATABASE
COMPUTE STATS ALTER and SELECT TABLE
DROP STATS ALTER TABLE
INVALIDATE METADATA REFRESH SERVER
INVALIDATE METADATA <table> REFRESH TABLE
REFRESH <table> REFRESH TABLE
REFRESH AUTHORIZATION REFRESH SERVER
REFRESH FUNCTIONS REFRESH DATABASE
COMMENT ON DATABASE ALTER DATABASE
COMMENT ON TABLE ALTER TABLE
COMMENT ON VIEW ALTER TABLE
COMMENT ON COLUMN ALTER TABLE
DESCRIBE DATABASE SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH DATABASE
DESCRIBE <table/view> SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
If the user has the SELECT privilege at the COLUMN level, only the columns the user has access will show. SELECT COLUMN
USE ANY TABLE
SHOW DATABASES ANY TABLE
SHOW TABLES ANY TABLE
SHOW FUNCTIONS SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH DATABASE
SHOW PARTITIONS SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
SHOW TABLE STATS SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
SHOW COLUMN STATS SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
SHOW FILES SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
SHOW CREATE TABLE SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
SHOW CREATE VIEW SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
SHOW CREATE FUNCTION SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH DATABASE
SHOW RANGE PARTITIONS (Kudu only) SELECT, INSERT, or REFRESH TABLE
UPDATE (Kudu only) ALL TABLE
EXPLAIN UPDATE (Kudu only) ALL TABLE
UPSERT (Kudu only) ALL TABLE
WITH UPSERT (Kudu only) ALL TABLE
EXPLAIN UPSERT (Kudu only) ALL TABLE
DELETE (Kudu only) ALL TABLE
EXPLAIN DELETE (Kudu only) ALL TABLE

Compatibility:

  • The Impala GRANT and REVOKE statements are available in Impala 2.0 and later.
  • In general, Impala can make use of any roles and privileges specified by the GRANT and REVOKE statements in Hive, when your system is configured to use the Ranger service instead of the file-based policy mechanism.
  • Currently, each Impala GRANT or REVOKE statement can only grant or revoke a single privilege to or from a single role.

Cancellation: Cannot be cancelled.

HDFS permissions: This statement does not touch any HDFS files or directories, therefore no HDFS permissions are required.

Kudu considerations:

Access to Kudu tables must be granted to and revoked from principal with the following considerations:
  • Only users with the ALL privilege on SERVER can create external Kudu tables.
  • The ALL privileges on SERVER is required to specify the kudu.master_addresses property in the CREATE TABLE statements for managed tables as well as external tables.
  • Access to Kudu tables is enforced at the table level and at the column level.
  • The SELECT- and INSERT-specific permissions are supported.
  • The DELETE, UPDATE, and UPSERT operations require the ALL privilege.

Related information:

Impala Authorization, REVOKE Statement (Impala 2.0 or higher only), CREATE ROLE Statement (Impala 2.0 or higher only), DROP ROLE Statement (Impala 2.0 or higher only), SHOW Statement