Connecting to the cluster using keytab

A keytab is a file containing pairs of Kerberos principals and encrypted keys. These keys are derived from the Kerberos password. You can use this file to log into Kerberos without being prompted for a password. The most common use of keytab files is to allow scripts to authenticate to Kerberos without human interaction, or to store a password in a plain text file.

Using a keytab, the user which executes the Talend Job doesn't have to do a 'kinit'. In addition, depending on the keytab content, the user which executes the Talend Job can impersonate another user. For this reason, keytab should only be transferred securely on the file system, and access should be limited to only those processes that require it.

Below is a sample setup to generate a keytab and to use it in a Talend Job to load data.