open-vault/website/source/docs/secrets/databases/index.html.md

layout	page_title	sidebar_title	sidebar_current	description
docs	Database - Secrets Engines	Databases	docs-secrets-databases	The database secrets engine generates database credentials dynamically based on configured roles. It works with a number of different databases through a plugin interface. There are a number of builtin database types and an exposed framework for running custom database types for extendability.

Databases

The database secrets engine generates database credentials dynamically based on configured roles. It works with a number of different databases through a plugin interface. There are a number of builtin database types and an exposed framework for running custom database types for extendability. This means that services that need to access a database no longer need to hardcode credentials: they can request them from Vault, and use Vault's leasing mechanism to more easily roll keys.

Since every service is accessing the database with unique credentials, it makes auditing much easier when questionable data access is discovered. You can track it down to the specific instance of a service based on the SQL username.

Vault makes use of its own internal revocation system to ensure that users become invalid within a reasonable time of the lease expiring.

Setup

Most secrets engines must be configured in advance before they can perform their functions. These steps are usually completed by an operator or configuration management tool.

1. Enable the database secrets engine:

   $ vault secrets enable database
   Success! Enabled the database secrets engine at: database/
   

   By default, the secrets engine will enable at the name of the engine. To enable the secrets engine at a different path, use the -path argument.

2. Configure Vault with the proper plugin and connection information:

   $ vault write database/config/my-database \
       plugin_name="..." \
       connection_url="..." \
       allowed_roles="..." \
       username="..." \
       password="..."
   

   This secrets engine can configure multiple database connections. For details on the specific configuration options, please see the database-specific documentation.

3. Configure a role that maps a name in Vault to an SQL statement to execute to create the database credential:

   $ vault write database/roles/my-role \
       db_name=my-database \
       creation_statements="..." \
       default_ttl="1h" \
       max_ttl="24h"
   Success! Data written to: database/roles/my-role
   

   The {{name}} and {{password}} fields will be populated by the plugin with dynamically generated values. In some plugins the {{expiration}} field is also be supported.

Usage

After the secrets engine is configured and a user/machine has a Vault token with the proper permission, it can generate credentials.

1. Generate a new credential by reading from the /creds endpoint with the name of the role:

   $ vault read database/creds/my-role
   Key                Value
   ---                -----
   lease_id           database/creds/my-role/2f6a614c-4aa2-7b19-24b9-ad944a8d4de6
   lease_duration     1h
   lease_renewable    true
   password           8cab931c-d62e-a73d-60d3-5ee85139cd66
   username           v-root-e2978cd0-
   

Custom Plugins

This secrets engine allows custom database types to be run through the exposed plugin interface. Please see the custom database plugin for more information.

API

The database secrets engine has a full HTTP API. Please see the Database secret secrets engine API for more details.