open-vault/website/pages/docs/platform/k8s/index.mdx
Lynn Frank 423acfd4dd
Updates the k8s helm platform docs (#8632)
* Updates the k8s helm platform docs

- Updates to talk about the external mode
- Updates the helm install overview to show that the releases can also
  be the way to install
- Rewrites the how-to to include showing how to start in each mode
- Each mode that has a guide links off to a guide
- Re-organizes the Unseal and Init to a section and places all the
  various other unseals underneath it
- Moves updating below the unseal and init
- Shows some basic usage of the helm CLI with a value and file override

* Adds learn links for k8s index pages

* Adds helm dev and external vault examples

While the dev one may seem obvious I think that it's incredibly useful
to cover our bases if this is to be reference documentation. I thought
maybe the example could have ingress support for UI but do not have the
experience to recommend it.

* Adds helm docs example dev and external

- places the development first as it feels like the starting point for
  some.
- places the external after HA

Co-authored-by: Vishal Nayak <vishalnayak@users.noreply.github.com>
2020-03-30 17:35:08 -04:00

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---
layout: docs
page_title: Kubernetes
sidebar_title: Kubernetes
description: This section documents the official integration between Vault and Kubernetes.
---
# Kubernetes
Vault can be deployed into Kubernetes using the official HashiCorp Vault Helm chart.
The Helm chart allows users to deploy Vault in various configurations:
- Dev: a single in-memory Vault server for testing Vault
- Standalone (default): a single Vault server persisting to a volume using the file storage backend
- High-Availability (HA): a cluster of Vault servers that use an HA storage backend such as Consul (default)
- External: a Vault Agent Injector server that depends on an external Vault server
## Use Cases
**Running a Vault Service:** The Vault server cluster can run directly on Kubernetes.
This can be used by applications running within Kubernetes as well as external to
Kubernetes, as long as they can communicate to the server via the network.
**Accessing and Storing Secrets:** Applications using the Vault service running in
Kubernetes can access and store secrets from Vault using a number of different
[secret engines](/docs/secrets) and [authentication methods](/docs/auth).
**Running a Highly Available Vault Service:** By using pod affinities, highly available
backend storage (such as Consul) and [auto-unseal](/docs/concepts/seal#auto-unseal),
Vault can become a highly available service in Kubernetes.
**Encryption as a Service:** Applications using the Vault service running in Kubernetes
can leverage the [Transit secret engine](/docs/secrets/transit)
as "encryption as a service". This allows applications to offload encryption needs
to Vault before storing data at rest.
**Audit Logs for Vault:** Operators can choose to attach a persistent volume
to the Vault cluster which can be used to [store audit logs](/docs/audit).
**And more!** Vault can run directly on Kubernetes, so in addition to the
native integrations provided by Vault itself, any other tool built for
Kubernetes can choose to leverage Vault.