vault Installation Guide Installation Guide

vault is a free and open-source secrets management and data protection platform. Developed by HashiCorp, Vault provides enterprise-grade secrets management, encryption as a service, and privileged access management, serving as an open-source alternative to AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or CyberArk

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores recommended

RAM: 1GB minimum (2GB+ for production)

Storage: 10GB for installation and data

Network: HTTPS connectivity for clients

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 8200 (default vault port)

Port 8201 for cluster communication

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install vault
sudo dnf install -y vault

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now vault

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8200/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install vault
sudo apt install -y vault

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now vault

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8200

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Install vault
sudo pacman -S vault

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now vault

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Install vault
apk add --no-cache vault

# Enable and start service
rc-update add vault default
rc-service vault start

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Install vault
sudo zypper install -y vault

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now vault

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8200/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install vault

# Start service
brew services start vault

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install vault

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'vault_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service vault start

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install vault

# Or using Scoop
scoop install vault

# Verify installation
vault --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/vault

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
vault --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable vault

# Start service
sudo systemctl start vault

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop vault

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart vault

# Check status
sudo systemctl status vault

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u vault -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add vault default

# Start service
rc-service vault start

# Stop service
rc-service vault stop

# Restart service
rc-service vault restart

# Check status
rc-service vault status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'vault_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service vault start

# Stop service
service vault stop

# Restart service
service vault restart

# Check status
service vault status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start vault
brew services stop vault
brew services restart vault

# Check status
brew services list | grep vault

powershell

# Start service
net start vault

# Stop service
net stop vault

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service vault
Stop-Service vault
Restart-Service vault

# Check status
Get-Service vault

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream vault_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8200;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name vault.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name vault.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/vault.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/vault.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://vault_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName vault.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://vault.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName vault.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/vault.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/vault.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8200/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8200/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend vault_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/vault.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend vault_backend

backend vault_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server vault1 127.0.0.1:8200 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R vault:vault /etc/vault
sudo chmod 750 /etc/vault

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8200/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status vault

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u vault -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep vault)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/vault"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/vault-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/vault /var/lib/vault

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/vault-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop vault

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/vault/vault-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start vault

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u vault -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/vault/vault.log

# Check configuration
vault --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/vault

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8200

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8200

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep vault)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep vault)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8200

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  vault:
    image: vault:latest
    ports:
      - "8200:8200"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/vault
      - ./data:/var/lib/vault
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update vault

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade vault

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu vault

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade vault

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update vault

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade vault

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/vault-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/vault

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart vault

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/vault

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/vault -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/vault

Official Documentation: https://docs.vault.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/vault/vault

Community Forum: https://forum.vault.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.vault.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources