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docs(kubernetes): add RBAC reference page #1250

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71 changes: 71 additions & 0 deletions docs/kubernetes/rbac.mdx
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---
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025-2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
title: "Kubernetes RBAC"
sidebar-title: "RBAC"
description: "RBAC permissions created by the OpenShell Helm chart, including the namespaced Role for sandbox lifecycle and the ClusterRole for GPU node inspection."
keywords: "Generative AI, Cybersecurity, Kubernetes, RBAC, Role, ClusterRole, ServiceAccount, Helm, GPU"
position: 6
---

The OpenShell Helm chart creates a ServiceAccount, a namespaced Role, and a cluster-scoped ClusterRole. This page documents each permission, explains why the gateway needs it, and shows how to adjust or replace the defaults.

## What the chart creates

| Resource | Scope | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceAccount | Namespace | `openshell` |
| Role | Namespace | `openshell-sandbox` |
| RoleBinding | Namespace | `openshell-sandbox` |
| ClusterRole | Cluster | `openshell-node-reader` |
| ClusterRoleBinding | Cluster | `openshell-node-reader` |

## Namespaced Role

The `openshell-sandbox` Role is bound to the gateway ServiceAccount and covers the resources the gateway needs to manage sandbox workloads.

| API Group | Resource | Verbs | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| `agents.x-k8s.io` | `sandboxes` | create, delete, get, list, patch, update, watch | Sandbox lifecycle management |
| `agents.x-k8s.io` | `sandboxes/status` | create, delete, get, list, patch, update, watch | Sandbox status updates |
| `""` (core) | `events` | get, list, watch | Sandbox event observation |

## ClusterRole

The `openshell-node-reader` ClusterRole lets the gateway inspect node capacity. The gateway calls this when a sandbox requests GPU resources, to check allocatable GPU capacity across the cluster.

| API Group | Resource | Verbs | Scope | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `""` (core) | `nodes` | get, list, watch | Cluster | GPU capacity validation for GPU sandbox requests |

The chart binds this ClusterRole regardless of whether GPU sandboxes are enabled. If your cluster policy prohibits cluster-scoped roles, see the section below on disabling it.

## ServiceAccount

The chart creates a ServiceAccount named `openshell` in the release namespace by default. To use an existing ServiceAccount instead, set `serviceAccount.create` to `false` and provide the name:

```shell
helm upgrade --install openshell oci://ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/helm-chart \
--version <version> \
--namespace openshell \
--set serviceAccount.create=false \
--set serviceAccount.name=my-existing-sa
```

The ServiceAccount you provide must already have the Role and ClusterRole bindings described above, or the gateway fails to manage sandboxes.

## Restrict to namespace-only access

The current chart version does not provide a values flag to disable the ClusterRole. To remove the ClusterRole and ClusterRoleBinding, you need to patch the chart templates directly. File a feature request if your deployment requires namespace-only access without modifying chart templates.

## Multi-tenant clusters

In multi-tenant clusters, scope the gateway to a dedicated namespace and create the RBAC resources there. The chart deploys everything into the release namespace by default.

If sandbox pods run in a separate namespace from the gateway, bind the Role in that namespace as well, so the gateway ServiceAccount can manage sandbox resources there.

## Next Steps

- To deploy the gateway on Kubernetes, see [Get Started on Kubernetes](/kubernetes/setup).
- To configure OIDC or reverse-proxy authentication, see [Access Control](/kubernetes/access-control).
- To create your first sandbox, see [Manage Sandboxes](/sandboxes/manage-sandboxes).
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions docs/kubernetes/setup.mdx
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## Next Steps

- To review the RBAC permissions the chart creates, see [Kubernetes RBAC](/kubernetes/rbac).
- To enable automatic certificate rotation with cert-manager, see [Managing Certificates](/kubernetes/managing-certificates).
- To expose the gateway externally without port-forwarding, see [Ingress](/kubernetes/ingress).
- To configure OIDC or reverse-proxy authentication, see [Access Control](/kubernetes/access-control).
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