117 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
117 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: "intro"
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page_title: "Starting the Server"
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sidebar_current: "gettingstarted-devserver"
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description: |-
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After installing Vault, the next step is to start the server.
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---
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# Starting the Vault Server
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With Vault installed, the next step is to start a Vault server.
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Vault operates as a client/server application. The Vault server is the
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only piece of the Vault architecture that interacts with the data
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storage and backends. All operations done via the Vault CLI interact
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with the server over a TLS connection.
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In this page, we'll start and interact with the Vault server to understand
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how the server is started, and understanding the seal/unseal process.
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## Starting the Dev Server
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To start, we're going to start the Vault _dev server_. The dev server
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is a built-in flag to start a pre-configured server that is not very
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secure but useful for playing with Vault locally. Later in the getting
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started guide we'll configure and start a real server.
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To start the Vault dev server, run `vault server -dev`:
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```
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$ vault server -dev
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WARNING: Dev mode is enabled!
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In this mode, Vault is completely in-memory and unsealed.
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Vault is configured to only have a single unseal key. The root
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token has already been authenticated with the CLI, so you can
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immediately begin using the Vault CLI.
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The only step you need to take is to set the following
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environment variable since Vault will be talking without TLS:
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export VAULT_ADDR='http://127.0.0.1:8200'
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The unseal key and root token are reproduced below in case you
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want to seal/unseal the Vault or play with authentication.
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Unseal Key: 2252546b1a8551e8411502501719c4b3
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Root Token: 79bd8011-af5a-f147-557e-c58be4fedf6c
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==> Vault server configuration:
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Log Level: info
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Backend: inmem
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Listener 1: tcp (addr: "127.0.0.1:8200", tls: "disabled")
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...
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```
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You should see output similar to that above. Vault does not fork, so it will
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continue to run in the foreground; to connect to it with later commands, open
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another shell.
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As you can see, when you start a dev server, Vault warns you loudly. The dev
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server stores all its data in-memory (but still encrypted), listens on
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localhost without TLS, and automatically unseals and shows you the unseal key
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and root access key. We'll go over what all this means shortly.
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The important thing about the dev server is that it is meant for
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development only. **Do not run the dev server in production.** Even if it
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was run in production, it wouldn't be very useful since it stores data in-memory
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and every restart would clear all your secrets.
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With the dev server running, do the following three things before anything
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else:
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1. Copy and run the `export VAULT_ADDR ...` command from your terminal
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output. This will configure the Vault client to talk to our dev server.
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2. Save the unseal key somewhere. Don't worry about _how_ to save this
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securely. For now, just save it anywhere.
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3. Do the same as step 2, but with the root token. We'll use this later.
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## Verify the Server is Running
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Verify the server is running by running `vault status`. This should
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succeed and exit with exit code 0. If you see an error about opening
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a connection, make sure you copied and executed the `export VAULT_ADDR...`
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command from above properly.
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If it ran successfully, the output should look like below:
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```
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$ vault status
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Sealed: false
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Key Shares: 1
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Key Threshold: 1
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Unseal Progress: 0
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High-Availability Enabled: false
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```
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If the output looks different, especially if the numbers are different
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or the Vault is sealed, then restart the dev server and try again. The
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only reason these would ever be different is if you're running a dev
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server from going through this guide previously.
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We'll cover what this output means later in the guide.
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## Next
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Congratulations! You've started your first Vault server. We haven't stored
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any secrets yet, but we'll do that in the next section.
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Next, we're going to
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[read and write our first secrets](/intro/getting-started/first-secret.html).
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