How to Remove Kerberos Authentication on Linux Server for Insights Looker Back-end?

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How can Kerberos authentication be removed from Insights on Linux Server?

Issue Description: To remove the Kerberos Authentication being used by the Linux server. For example, the current configuration is using a user profile whose credentials may have changed causing the user’s account to constantly lockout. Note, it is generally a good principle to use a Service Account.

Resolution:

  1. To verify that the Insights is indeed using a SQL authentication and not Kerberos, log into the Looker Admin Portal and navigate to the 'Database Connections'.
  1. Under 'Username', check the entry:
  1. If the username displays 'PLACEHOLDER', it indicates that Windows Authentication (Kerberos) is being used.
  1. Additionally, check the Insights Windows configuration file to verify the connection string is also using said SQL Authentication.
  1. Advance to the Linux Insight server to begin removing the Kerberos authentication
  1. Log in as 'ROOT' admin and locate the required files. These files should be located in the '/app/Insight' directory. The installation directory can vary based on your chosen location for installation.
  2. Remove the following files
    • adDetails.json
    • WINDOWS_AUTH_AD_KEYTAB
    • WINDOWS_AUTH_KRB5_CONFIG
    • WINDOWS_AUTH_VARS
    • kerbvars*
  3. Access the docker container using the following command: 
docker exec -it looker-container bash
  1. To remove files from within the docker container, use the command: rm filename (replace 'filename' with the correct file names to delete).
  1. Next, execute cat /app/refresh-kerberos-ticket.sh. The output should display the script used to update Kerberos settings
  1. Locate the '.kerbvars' file and delete it using the 'rm' command
  1. Finally, restart the Looker container using the following command.
docker restart looker-container