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---
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2020-01-18 00:18:09 +00:00
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layout: docs
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page_title: Recovery Mode
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sidebar_title: Recovery Mode
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description: Recovery mode allows for doing surgery on a Vault that won't start.
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2019-10-29 20:42:47 +00:00
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---
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# Recovery Mode
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Vault can be started using the `-recovery` flag to bring it up in Recovery Mode.
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In recovery mode, Vault:
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- is automatically unsealed once a recovery token is issued
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- apart from recovery token operations, only supports the `sys/raw` endpoint
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- `raw` requests must be authenticated using a recovery token
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- won't form clusters or handle requests forwarded by standbys
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## Recovery tokens
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Recovery tokens are issued in much the same way as root tokens are generated:
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the API is basically the same, only using a different endpoint. Unlike root
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tokens, the recovery token is not persisted, so if Vault is restarted into
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recovery mode a new one must be generated.
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Only a single recovery token can be generated. If lost, restart Vault and
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generate a new one.
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## Raw requests
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Requests can be issued to `sys/raw` in just the same way as in regular Vault
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server mode. The only difference is that in recovery mode, `X-Vault-Token`
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must contain a recovery token instead of a service or batch token.
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## Raft rejoin
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Raft integrated storage is the immediate motivation for recovery mode. With
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other backends it was always possible to delete data directly from a storage
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backend, but that's impractical with a Raft backend. That said, recovery mode
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works with any backend.
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In order to bring the Vault server up reliably, using any node's raft data,
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recovery mode Vault automatically resizes the cluster to size 1. This means
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that after having used recovery mode, part of the procedure for returning to
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active service must include rejoining the raft cluster.
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