How to Add Multiple Users to Rancher Projects as Owners or Members Simultaneously

A Kubernetes cluster provisioned by the RKE2 CLI or Rancher v2.x

To grant a user access to a project in Rancher, you typically navigate to Cluster > Cluster and Project Members > Project Membership, select the project, and assign a role. However, the UI allows adding only one user at a time, which can be inefficient for bulk additions. To streamline this process, you can use kubectl and project role bindings to add multiple users at once

By using kubectl, you can batch-create project members/owner efficiently. This process requires retrieving three key pieces of information:

1. User IDs
2. Cluster and Project IDs
3. Project Role Binding Configuration

Follow these steps:

Step 1: Retrieve User IDs

Run the following command to list all user IDs and their associated usernames:

$ kubectl get users.management.cattle.io -o json | jq -r '.items[] | [.metadata.name, .username] | @tsv' | column -t -s $'\t' -N "USER_ID,USERNAME"

Sample Output:
USER_ID     USERNAME
u-9cwlc     alice
u-8cqxc     bob

Step 2: Retrieve Cluster Names and IDs

To get the cluster names and their corresponding IDs, execute:

$ kubectl get clusters.management.cattle.io -o custom-columns="ID:.metadata.name,NAME:.spec.displayName" --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp

Sample Output:
ID               NAME
c-m-269t6qvf     Production-Cluster
c-m-jk4s8dlt     Staging-Cluster

Step 3: Retrieve Project Names and IDs

To retrieve project names, IDs, and their associated clusters, use:

$ kubectl get clusters.management.cattle.io -o json | jq -r '.items[] | {clusterId: .metadata.name, clusterName: .spec.displayName}' > clusters.json && echo -e "ClusterName\tProjectID\tProjectName" && kubectl get projects.management.cattle.io -A -o json | jq -r --slurpfile clusters clusters.json '.items[] | {projectId: .metadata.name, projectName: .spec.displayName, clusterId: .metadata.namespace} as $project | $clusters[] | select(.clusterId == $project.clusterId) | "\(.clusterName)\t\($project.projectId)\t\($project.projectName)"' | column -t -s $'\t' -o "    "

Sample Output:

ClusterName         ProjectID       ProjectName
Production-Cluster  p-7twvb         Default
Staging-Cluster     p-8ytwn         Development



Step 4: Create a YAML File for Multiple Users

Using the gathered data, create a ProjectRoleTemplateBinding YAML file. Replace the placeholders with actual values for each user and project.

apiVersion: management.cattle.io/v3
kind: ProjectRoleTemplateBinding
metadata:
  name: alice-binding
  namespace: p-7twvb     # Project ID
roleTemplateName: project-member
userName: u-9cwlc         # User ID
projectName: c-m-269t6qvf:p-7twvb   # Cluster ID:Project ID
---
apiVersion: management.cattle.io/v3
kind: ProjectRoleTemplateBinding
metadata:
  name: bob-binding
  namespace: p-7twvb     # Project ID
roleTemplateName: project-member
userName: u-8cqxc         # User ID
projectName: c-m-269t6qvf:p-7twvb   # Cluster ID:Project ID

Step 5: Apply the YAML File

Apply the YAML file to add all users to the project at once:
kubectl apply -f project-role-bindings.yaml

Notes:

• All commands must be executed on the local cluster.
• This method is particularly useful for bulk operations but requires basic familiarity with kubectl and YAML.