A computer-implemented method for authorizing a user request from a user to perform an action with respect to one of at least one of the plurality of nodes and at least one of the plurality of packages of a cluster is disclosed. The user request is received from a host coupled to communicate with the cluster. The method includes consulting an authorization map to ascertain a role associated with the user. The authorization map is kept in a memory space in one of the plurality of nodes. The method further includes authorizing the user to perform the action if the role associated with the user includes a granted privilege that is higher than a privilege required to perform the user request.