» Helm Chart
The Vault Helm chart is the recommended way to install and configure Vault on Kubernetes. In addition to running Vault itself, the Helm chart is the primary method for installing and configuring Vault to integrate with other services such as Consul for High Availability deployments.
This page assumes general knowledge of Helm and how to use it. Using Helm to install Vault will require that Helm is properly installed and configured with your Kubernetes cluster.
Important: The Helm chart is new and
may still change significantly over time. Please always run Helm with
--dry-run
before any install or upgrade to verify changes.
Security Warning: By default, the chart will install an insecure configuration of Vault. This provides a less complicated out-of-box experience for new users, but is not appropriate for a production setup. It is highly recommended to use a properly secured Kubernetes cluster. See the architecture reference for a Vault Helm production deployment checklist.
» Using the Helm Chart
To use the Helm chart, you must download or clone the vault-helm GitHub repository and run Helm against the directory. We plan to transition to using a real Helm repository soon. When running Helm, we highly recommend you always checkout a specific tagged release of the chart to avoid any instabilities from master.
Prior to this, you must have Helm installed and configured both in your Kubernetes cluster and locally on your machine. The steps to do this are out of the scope of this document. Please refer to the Helm documentation for more information.
Example chart usage:
# Clone the chart repo
$ git clone https://github.com/hashicorp/vault-helm.git
$ cd vault-helm
# Checkout a tagged version
$ git checkout v0.2.1
# Run Helm
$ helm install --dry-run ./
» Configuration (Values)
The chart is highly customizable using Helm configuration values. Each value has a default tuned for an optimal getting started experience with Vault. Before going into production, please review the parameters below and consider if they're appropriate for your deployment.
global
- These global values affect multiple components of the chart.enabled
(boolean: true
) - The master enabled/disabled configuration. If this is true, most components will be installed by default. If this is false, no components will be installed by default and manually opting-in is required, such as by settingserver.enabled
to true.image
(string: "vault:latest"
) - The name of the Docker image (including any tag) for the containers running Vault. This should be pinned to a specific version when running in production. Otherwise, other changes to the chart may inadvertently upgrade your Vault version.imagePullPolicy
(string: "IfNotPresent"
) - The pull policy for container images. The default pull policy isIfNotPresent
which causes the Kubelet to skip pulling an image if it already exists.imagePullSecrets
(string: ""
) - Defines secrets to be used when pulling images from private registries.name
: (string: required
) - Name of the secret containing files required for authentication to private image registries.
tlsDisable
(boolean: true
) - When set totrue
, changes URLs fromhttps
tohttp
(such as theVAULT_ADDR=http://127.0.0.1:8200
environment variable set on the Vault pods).
server
- Values that configure running a Vault server within Kubernetes.resources
(string: null
) - The resource requests and limits (CPU, memory, etc.) for each of the server. This should be a multi-line string mapping directly to a Kubernetes ResourceRequirements object. If this isn't specified, then the pods won't request any specific amount of resources. Setting this is highly recommended.
# Resources are defined as a formatted multi-line string: resources: | requests: memory: "10Gi" limits: memory: "10Gi"
ingress
- Values that configure Ingress services for Vault.enabled
(boolean: false
) - When set totrue
, an Ingress service will be created.annotations
(string
) - This value defines additional annotations to add to the Ingress service. This should be formatted as a multi-line string.annotations: | kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx kubernetes.io/tls-acme: "true"
hosts
- Values that configure the Ingress host rules.host
: Name of the host to use for Ingress.paths
: This value defines the types of host rules for the Ingress service.
paths: - backend: serviceName: service2 servicePort: 80
tls
- Values that configure the Ingress TLS rules.hosts
: Name of the hosts defined in the Common Name of the TLS Certificate. This should be formated as a multi-line string.secretName
: Name of the secret containing the required TLS files such as certificates and keys.
hosts: - sslexample.foo.com - sslexample.bar.com secretName: testsecret-tls
authDelegator
- Values that configure the Cluster Role Binding attached to the Vault service account.enabled
(boolean: false
) - When set totrue
, a Cluster Role Binding will be bound to the Vault service account. This Cluster Role Binding has the necessary privileges for Vault to use the Kubernetes Auth Method.extraEnvironmentVars
(string: null
) - The extra environment variables to be applied to the Vault server. This should be a multi-line key/value string.
# Extra Environment Variables are defined as key/value strings. extraEnvironmentVars: GOOGLE_REGION: global GOOGLE_PROJECT: myproject GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS: /vault/userconfig/myproject/myproject-creds.json
extraSecretEnvironmentVars
(string: null
) - The extra environment variables populated from a secret to be applied to the Vault server. This should be a multi-line key/value string.envName
(string: required
) - Name of the environment variable to be populated in the Vault container.secretName
(string: required
) - Name of Kubernetes secret used to populate the environment variable defined byenvName
.secretKey
(string: required
) - Name of the key where the requested secret value is located in the Kubernetes secret.
# Extra Environment Variables populated from a secret. extraSecretEnvironmentVars: - envName: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY secretName: vault secretKey: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
extraVolumes
(array: []
) - A list of extra volumes to mount to Vault servers. This is useful for bringing in extra data that can be referenced by other configurations at a well known path, such as TLS certificates. The value of this should be a list of objects. Each object supports the following keys:type
(string: required
) - Type of the volume, must be one of "configMap" or "secret". Case sensitive.name
(string: required
) - Name of the configMap or secret to be mounted. This also controls the path that it is mounted to. The volume will be mounted to/vault/userconfig/<name>
by default unlesspath
is configured.path
(string: /vault/userconfigs
) - Name of the path where a configMap or secret is mounted. If not specified the volume will be mounted to/vault/userconfig/<name of volume>
.
extraVolumes: - type: "secret" name: "vault-certs" path: "/etc/pki"
affinity
(string
) - This value defines the affinity for server pods. It defaults to allowing only a single pod on each node, which minimizes risk of the cluster becoming unusable if a node is lost. If you need to run more pods per node (for example, testing on Minikube), set this value tonull
.
# Recommended default server affinity: affinity: | podAntiAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: - labelSelector: matchLabels: app: {{ template "vault.name" . }} release: "{{ .Release.Name }}" component: server topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
tolerations
(array []
) - This value defines the tolerations that are acceptable when being scheduled.tolerations: - key: "node.kubernetes.io/unreachable" operator: "Exists" effect: "NoExecute" tolerationSeconds: 6000
nodeSelector
(string
) - This value defines additional node selection criteria for more control over where the Vault servers are deployed.nodeSelector: disktype: ssd
extraLabels
(string
) - This value defines additional labels for server pods. This should be formatted as a multi-line string.extraLabels: | "sample/label1": "foo" "sample/label2": "bar"
annotations
(string
) - This value defines additional annotations for server pods. This should be a formatted as a multi-line string.annotations: | "sample/annotation1": "foo" "sample/annotation2": "bar"
service
- Values that configure the Kubernetes service created for Vault.enabled
(boolean: true
) - When set totrue
, a Kubernetes service will be created for Vault.clusterIP
(string
) - ClusterIP controls whether an IP address (cluster IP) is attached to the Vault service within Kubernetes. By default the Vault service will be given a Cluster IP address, set toNone
to disable. When disabled Kubernetes will create a "headless" service. Headless services can be used to communicate with pods directly through DNS instead of a round robin load balancer.port
(int: 8200
) - Port on which Vault server is listening inside the pod.targetPort
(int: 8200
) - Port on which the service is listening.annotations
(string
) - This value defines additional annotations for the service. This should be formatted as a multi-line string.annotations: | "sample/annotation1": "foo" "sample/annotation2": "bar"
serviceAccount
- Values that configure the Kubernetes service account created for Vault.annotations
(string
) - This value defines additional annotations for the service account. This should be formatted as a multi-line string.annotations: | "sample/annotation1": "foo" "sample/annotation2": "bar"
extraVolumes
- This configures theService
resource created for the Vault server.enabled
(boolean: true
) - Enables a service to allow other pods running in Kubernetes to communicate with the Vault server.
dataStorage
- This configures the volume used for storing Vault data when not using external storage such as Consul.enabled
(boolean: true
) - Enables a persistent volume to be created for storing Vault data when not using an external storage service.size
(string: 10Gi
) - Size of the volume to be created for Vault's data storage when not using an external storage service.storageClass
(string: null
) - Name of the storage class to use when creating the data storage volume.accessMode
(string: ReadWriteOnce
) - Type of access mode of the storage device. See the official Kubernetes for more information.
auditStorage
- This configures the volume used for storing Vault's audit logs. See the Vault documentation for more information.enabled
(boolean: true
) - Enables a persistent volume to be created for storing Vault's audit logs.size
(string: 10Gi
) - Size of the volume to be created for Vault's audit logs.storageClass
(string: null
) - Name of the storage class to use when creating the audit storage volume.accessMode
(string: ReadWriteOnce
) - Type of access mode of the storage device.
dev
- This configuresdev
mode for the Vault server.enabled
(boolean: false
) - Enablesdev
mode for the Vault server. This mode is useful for experimenting with Vault without needing to unseal.
Security Warning: Never, ever, ever run a "dev" mode server in production. It is insecure and will lose data on every restart (since it stores data in-memory). It is only made for development or experimentation.
standalone
- This configuresstandalone
mode for the Vault server.enabled
(boolean: true
) - Enablesstandalone
mode for the Vault server. This mode uses thefile
storage backend and requires a volume for persistence (dataStorage
).config
(string: "{}"
) - A raw string of extra HCL or JSON configuration for Vault servers. This will be saved as-is into a ConfigMap that is read by the Vault servers. This can be used to add additional configuration that isn't directly exposed by the chart.
# ExtraConfig values are formatted as a multi-line string: config: | api_addr = "http://POD_IP:8200" listener "tcp" { tls_disable = 1 address = "0.0.0.0:8200" } storage "file" { path = "/vault/data" }
This can also be set using Helm's
--set
flag (vault-helm v0.1.0 and later), using the following syntax:--set server.standalone.config='{ listener "tcp" { address = "0.0.0.0:8200" }'
ha
- This configuresha
mode for the Vault server.enabled
(boolean: false
) - Enablesha
mode for the Vault server. This mode uses a highly available backend storage (such as Consul) to store Vault's data. By default this is configured to use Consul Helm. For a complete list of storage backends, see the Vault documentation.replicas
(int: 5
) - The number of pods to deploy to create a highly available cluster of Vault servers.updatePartition
(int: 0
) - If an updatePartition is specified, all Pods with an ordinal that is greater than or equal to the partition will be updated when the StatefulSet’s.spec.template
is updated. If set to0
, this disables parition updates. For more information see the official Kubernetes documentation.config
(string: "{}"
) - A raw string of extra HCL or JSON configuration for Vault servers. This will be saved as-is into a ConfigMap that is read by the Vault servers. This can be used to add additional configuration that isn't directly exposed by the chart.
# ExtraConfig values are formatted as a multi-line string: config: | ui = true api_addr = "http://POD_IP:8200" listener "tcp" { tls_disable = 1 address = "0.0.0.0:8200" } storage "consul" { path = "vault" address = "HOST_IP:8500" }
This can also be set using Helm's
--set
flag (vault-helm v0.1.0 and later), using the following syntax:--set server.ha.config='{ listener "tcp" { address = "0.0.0.0:8200" }'
disruptionBudget
- Values that configures the disruption budget policy. See the official Kubernetes documentation for more information.enabled
(boolean: true
) - Enables disruption budget policy to limit the number of pods that are down simultaneously from voluntary disruptions.maxUnavailable
(int: null
) - The maximum number of unavailable pods. By default, this will be automatically computed based on theserver.replicas
value to be(n/2)-1
. If you need to set this to0
, you will need to add a--set 'server.disruptionBudget.maxUnavailable=0'
flag to the helm chart installation command because of a limitation in the Helm templating language.
ui
- Values that configure the Vault UI.enabled
(boolean: false
) - If true, the UI will be enabled. The UI will only be enabled on Vault servers. Ifserver.enabled
is false, then this setting has no effect. To expose the UI in some way, you must configureui.service
.serviceType
(string: ClusterIP
) - The service type to register. This defaults toClusterIP
. The available service types are documented on the Kubernetes website.serviceNodePort
(int: null
) - Sets the Node Port value when usingserviceType: NodePort
on the Vault UI service.externalPort
(int: 8200
) - Sets the external port value of the service.loadBalancerSourceRanges
(string
) - This value defines additional source CIDRs when usingserviceType: LoadBalancer
. This should be formatted as a multi-line string.
loadBalancerSourceRanges: - 10.0.0.0/16 - 120.78.23.3/32
loadBalancerIP
(string
) - This value defines the IP address of the load balancer when usingserviceType: LoadBalancer
.annotations
(string
) - This value defines additional annotations for the UI service. This should be a formatted as a multi-line string.
annotations: | "sample/annotation1": "foo" "sample/annotation2": "bar"
» Helm Chart Examples
The following are different configuration examples to support a variety of deployment models.
» Standalone Server with Load Balanced UI
The below values.yaml
can be used to set up a single server Vault cluster with a LoadBalancer to allow external access to the UI and API.
global:
enabled: true
image: "vault:1.2.4"
server:
standalone:
enabled: true
config: |
ui = true
listener "tcp" {
tls_disable = 1
address = "[::]:8200"
cluster_address = "[::]:8201"
}
storage "file" {
path = "/vault/data"
}
service:
enabled: true
dataStorage:
enabled: true
size: 10Gi
storageClass: null
accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
ui:
enabled: true
serviceType: LoadBalancer
» Standalone Server with TLS
The below values.yaml
can be used to set up a single server Vault cluster using TLS.
This assumes that a Kubernetes secret
exists with the server certificate, key and
certificate authority:
global:
enabled: true
image: "vault:1.2.4"
tlsDisable: false
server:
extraVolumes:
- type: secret
name: vault-server-tls
standalone:
enabled: true
config: |
listener "tcp" {
address = "[::]:8200"
cluster_address = "[::]:8201"
tls_cert_file = "/vault/userconfig/vault-server-tls/vault.crt"
tls_key_file = "/vault/userconfig/vault-server-tls/vault.key"
tls_client_ca_file = "/vault/userconfig/vault-server-tls/vault.ca"
}
storage "file" {
path = "/vault/data"
}
service:
enabled: true
dataStorage:
enabled: true
size: 10Gi
storageClass: null
accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
» Standalone Server with Audit Storage
The below values.yaml
can be used to set up a single server Vault cluster with
auditing enabled.
global:
enabled: true
image: "vault:1.2.4"
server:
standalone:
enabled: true
config: |
listener "tcp" {
tls_disable = true
address = "[::]:8200"
cluster_address = "[::]:8201"
}
storage "file" {
path = "/vault/data"
}
service:
enabled: true
dataStorage:
enabled: true
size: 10Gi
storageClass: null
accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
auditStorage:
enabled: true
size: 10Gi
storageClass: null
accessMode: ReadWriteOnce
After Vault has been deployed, initialized and unsealed, auditing can be enabled by running the following command against the Vault pod:
$ kubectl exec -ti <POD NAME> -- vault audit enable file file_path=/vault/audit/vault_audit.log
» Highly Available Vault Cluster with Consul
The below values.yaml
can be used to set up a five server Vault cluster using
Consul as a highly available storage backend, Google Cloud KMS for Auto Unseal.
global:
enabled: true
image: "vault:1.2.4"
server:
extraEnvironmentVars:
GOOGLE_REGION: global
GOOGLE_PROJECT: myproject
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS: /vault/userconfig/my-gcp-iam/myproject-creds.json
extraVolumes: []
- type: secret
name: my-gcp-iam
affinity: |
podAntiAffinity:
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
- labelSelector:
matchLabels:
app: {{ template "vault.name" . }}
release: "{{ .Release.Name }}"
component: server
topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
service:
enabled: true
ha:
enabled: true
replicas: 5
config: |
ui = true
listener "tcp" {
tls_disable = 1
address = "[::]:8200"
cluster_address = "[::]:8201"
}
storage "consul" {
path = "vault"
address = "HOST_IP:8500"
}
seal "gcpckms" {
project = "myproject"
region = "global"
key_ring = "vault-unseal-kr"
crypto_key = "vault-unseal-key"
}