Question 1

How does OPAL compare to using OPA alone?

Accepted Answer

OPAL adds real-time updates via WebSocket Pub/Sub, automatically pushing policy and data changes to OPA agents, eliminating manual reloads. This is crucial for dynamic applications where authorization state changes frequently, unlike basic OPA which requires polling or manual updates.

Question 2

Can OPAL work with policy agents other than OPA?

Accepted Answer

Yes, OPAL is designed to support various policy agents in parallel, though it is optimized for OPA. The README states it can be extended for other agents, but this may require custom development and isn't as seamless as OPA integration.

Question 3

How to set up a custom data source fetch provider in OPAL?

Accepted Answer

You implement a new fetch provider in Python by following the documented HOW-TO, leveraging OPAL's extensible architecture with typed Python and Pydantic. This allows pulling data from proprietary SaaS services, databases, or APIs into the authorization layer.

Question 4

What are the performance impacts of OPAL on my system?

Accepted Answer

OPAL doesn't replace the policy engine's direct queries, so authorization performance depends on OPA. The Pub/Sub channel handles hundreds of events per second in production, but scalability relies on the backbone pub/sub system like Redis or Kafka, and data size can affect OPA cache limits.

Question 5

Is OPAL good for large-scale authorization like Google Zanzibar?

Accepted Answer

No, the README explicitly states OPAL is not meant for global-scale FGA with >100GB data in one layer. It can complement such systems by managing updates to sharded agents, but isn't a drop-in replacement for Zanzibar-like solutions.

Question 6

How to trigger data updates from my app to OPAL?

Accepted Answer

OPAL accepts data update notifications via a REST API. You can send updates when application state changes, and OPAL will propagate them in real-time to subscribed clients through the WebSocket channel, keeping authorization data current.

OPAL (Open Policy Administration Layer)

What is OPAL (Open Policy Administration Layer)?

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