createUser¶

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Definition¶

createUser¶

Creates a new user on the database where you run the command. The createUser command returns a duplicate user error if the user exists. The createUser command uses the following syntax:

{ createUser: "<name>",
  pwd: "<cleartext password>",
  customData: { <any information> },
  roles: [
    { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
    ...
  ],
  writeConcern: { <write concern> }
}

createUser has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`createUser`	string	The name of the new user.
`pwd`	string	The user’s password. The `pwd` field is not required if you run `createUser` on the `$external` database to create users who have credentials stored externally to MongoDB.
`customData`	document	Optional. Any arbitrary information. This field can be used to store any data an admin wishes to associate with this particular user. For example, this could be the user’s full name or employee id.
`roles`	array	The roles granted to the user. Can specify an empty array `[]` to create users without roles.
`digestPassword`	boolean	Optional. When `true`, the `mongod` instance will create the hash of the user password; otherwise, the client is responsible for creating the hash of the password. Defaults to `true`.
`writeConcern`	document	Optional. The level of write concern for the creation operation. The `writeConcern` document takes the same fields as the `getLastError` command.

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

To specify a role that exists in the same database where createUser 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.

Behavior¶

Encryption¶

createUser sends password to the MongoDB instance in cleartext. To encrypt the password in transit, use TLS/SSL.

External Credentials¶

Users created on the $external database should have credentials stored externally to MongoDB, as, for example, with MongoDB Enterprise installations that use Kerberos.

`local` Database¶

You cannot create users on the local database.

Required Access¶

To create a new user in a database, you must have the createUser action on that database resource.
To grant roles to a user, you must have the grantRole action on the role’s database.

The userAdmin and userAdminAnyDatabase built-in roles provide createUser and grantRole actions on their respective resources.

Example¶

The following createUser command creates a user accountAdmin01 on the products database. The command gives accountAdmin01 the clusterAdmin and readAnyDatabase roles on the admin database and the readWrite role on the products database:

db.getSiblingDB("products").runCommand( { createUser: "accountAdmin01",
                                          pwd: "cleartext password",
                                          customData: { employeeId: 12345 },
                                          roles: [
                                                   { role: "clusterAdmin", db: "admin" },
                                                   { role: "readAnyDatabase", db: "admin" },
                                                   "readWrite"
                                                 ],
                                          writeConcern: { w: "majority" , wtimeout: 5000 }
                                       } )

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