104 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
104 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
---
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layout: docs
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page_title: Namespaces - Vault Enterprise
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description: >-
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Vault Enterprise has support for Namespaces, a feature to enable Secure
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Multi-tenancy (SMT) and self-management.
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---
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# Vault Enterprise Namespaces
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## Overview
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-> **Note**: This feature is available in all versions of [Vault Enterprise](https://www.hashicorp.com/products/vault/).
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Many organizations implement Vault as a "service", providing centralized
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management for teams within an organization while ensuring that those teams
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operate within isolated environments known as _tenants_.
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There are two common challenges when implementing this architecture in Vault:
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**Tenant Isolation**
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Frequently teams within a VaaS environment require strong isolation from other
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users in their policies, secrets, and identities. Tenant isolation is typically a
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result of compliance regulations such as [GDPR](https://www.eugdpr.org/), though it may
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be necessitated by corporate or organizational infosec requirements.
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**Self-Management**
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As new tenants are added, there is an additional human cost in the management
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overhead for teams. Given that tenants will likely have different policies and
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request changes at a different rate, managing a multi-tenant environment can
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become very difficult for a single team as the number of tenants within that
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organization grow.
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'Namespaces' is a set of features within Vault Enterprise that allows Vault
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environments to support _Secure Multi-tenancy_ (or _SMT_) within a single Vault
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infrastructure. Through namespaces, Vault administrators can support tenant isolation
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for teams and individuals as well as empower delegated administrators to manage their
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own tenant environment.
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## Usage
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API operations performed under a namespace can be done by providing the relative
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request path along with the namespace path using the `X-Vault-Namespace` header.
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Similarly, the namespace header value can be provided in full or partially when
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reaching into nested namespaces. When provided partially, the remaining
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namespace path must be provided in the request path in order to reach into the
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desired nested namespace.
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Alternatively, the fully qualified path can be provided without using the
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`X-Vault-Namespace` header. In either scenario, Vault will construct the fully
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qualified path from these two sources to correctly route the request to the
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appropriate namespace.
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For example, these three requests are equivalent:
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1. Path: `ns1/ns2/secret/foo`
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2. Path: `secret/foo`, Header: `X-Vault-Namespace: ns1/ns2/`
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3. Path: `ns2/secret/foo`, Header: `X-Vault-Namespace: ns1/`
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## Root only API Paths
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There are certain API paths that can only be called from the root namespace:
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- `sys/init`
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- `sys/license`
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- `sys/leader`
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- `sys/health`
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- `sys/metrics`
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- `sys/config/state`
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- `sys/host-info`
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- `sys/key-status`
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- `sys/storage`
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- `sys/storage/raft`
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## Architecture
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Namespaces are isolated environments that functionally exist as "Vaults within a Vault."
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They have separate login paths and support creating and managing data isolated to their
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namespace. This data includes the following:
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- Secret Engines
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- Auth Methods
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- ACL, EGP, and RGP Policies
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- Password Policies
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- Identities (Entities, Groups)
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- Tokens
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Rather than rely on Vault system admins, namespaces can be managed by delegated admins who
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can be prescribed administration rights for their namespace. These delegated admins can also
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create their own child namespaces, thereby prescribing admin rights on a subordinate group
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of delegate admins.
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Child namespaces can share policies from their parent namespaces. For example, a child namespace
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may refer to parent identities (entities and groups) when writing policies that function only
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within that child namespace. Similarly, a parent namespace can have policies asserted on child
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identities.
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## Learn
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Refer to the [Secure Multi-Tenancy with Namespaces](https://learn.hashicorp.com/vault/operations/namespaces)
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guide for a step-by-step tutorial.
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