Re: Seeking practice recommendation: is there ever a use case to have two or more superusers?

On 11/21/22 9:40 AM, Bryn Llewellyn wrote:
>> adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com wrote:

> Then there’s this (from the doc):
>
>> It is good practice to create a role that has the CREATEDB and CREATEROLE privileges, but is not a superuser, and then use this role for all routine management of databases and roles. This approach avoids the dangers of operating as a superuser for tasks that do not really require it.
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> That, too, reads like a recommendation that intends to inform a security policy. But, I suppose, one could argue that saying something “is good practice” is very different from making a recommendation.
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> Consider this wording. It also uses “good practice”.
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> «
> It is good practice to limit the number of superuser roles that exist in a cluster to exactly one: the inevitable bootstrap superuser. This recognizes the fact that, once the initial configuration of a cluster has been done immediately after its creation (which configuration is done while still in self-imposed single-user mode), there are then very few, and infrequent, tasks that require the power of the superuser role.
> »
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> Nobody supports it!

I went back through the thread and don't anywhere when you made the
above statement, correct me if I am wrong. In that case there was
nothing to support or not support until now.

What people where responding to the title of the thread:

"Seeking practice recommendation: is there ever a use case to have two
or more superusers?"

That is a different ask.

>
> I’m puzzled why the good practice statement about a role with the CREATEDB and CREATEROLE attributes earns a place in the doc while nobody at all is prepared to make a practice statement about how many superusers is good. I’d like very much to understand the critical parts that I’m missing of the essential mental model in this general space.
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--
Adrian Klaver
adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com