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279 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
---
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layout: docs
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page_title: Limits and Maximums
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description: Learn about the maximum number of objects within Vault.
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---
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# Vault Limits and Maximums
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Vault imposes fixed upper limits on the size of certain fields and
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objects, and configurable limits on others. Vault also has upper
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bounds that are a consequence of its underlying storage. This page
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attempts to collect these limits, to assist in planning Vault
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deployments.
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In some cases, the system will show performance problems in advance of
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the absolute limits being reached.
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## Storage-Related limits
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### Storage entry size
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The maximum size of an object written to a storage backend is determined
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by that backend.
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For the Consul storage backend, the default limit imposed by Consul is
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512 KiB. This may be configured via Consul’s
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[`kv_max_value_size`](https://www.consul.io/docs/agent/options#kv_max_value_size) parameter, introduced in version 1.5.3.
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For the integrated storage backend, the default limit (introduced in
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Vault 1.5.0) is 1 MiB. This may be configured via `max_entry_size` in
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the [storage stanza](/docs/configuration/storage/raft#max_entry_size).
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Many of the other limits within Vault derive from the maximum size of
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a storage entry, as described in the next sections. It is possible to
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recover from an error where a storage entry has reached its maximum
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size by reconfiguring Vault or Consul to a larger maximum storage
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entry. However, using large storage entries also negatively affects
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performance, as even a small change may become a large
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read-modify-write cycle on the entire entry. Larger writes may also delay
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Raft heartbeats, leading to leadership instability.
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### Mount point limits
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All secret engine mount points, and all auth mount points, must each fit
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within a single storage entry. Each JSON object describing a mount
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takes about 500 bytes, but is stored in compressed form at a typical cost of
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about 75 bytes. Each of (1) auth mounts, (2) secret engine mount points,
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(3) local-only auth methods, and (4) local-only secret engine mounts are
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stored separately, so the limit applies to each independently.
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| | Consul default (512 KiB) | Integrated storage default (1 MiB) |
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| -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- |
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| Maximum number of secret engine mount points | ~7000 | ~14000 |
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| Maximum number of enabled auth methods | ~7000 | ~14000 |
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| Maximum mount point length | no enforced limit | no enforced limit |
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Specifying distinct per-mount options, or using long mount point paths, can
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increase the space required per mount.
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The number of mount points can be monitored by reading the
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[`sys/auth`](/api-docs/system/auth) and
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[`sys/mounts`](/api-docs/system/mounts) endpoints from the root namespace and
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similar sub-paths for namespaces respectively, like: `namespace1/sys/auth`,
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`namespace1/sys/mounts`, etc.
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### Namespace limits
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The entire list of namespaces must fit in a single storage
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entry. However, the effective limit is generally much smaller because each
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namespace must have at least two secret engine mounts (for `sys` and `identity`),
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one local secret engine (`cubbyhole`) and one auth engine mount (`token`).
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| | Consul default (512 KiB) | Integrated storage default (1 MiB) |
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| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- |
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| Maximum number of namespaces | ~3500 | ~7000 |
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| Maximum number of namespaces with one additional secret engine per namespace | ~2300 | ~4600 |
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| Maximum nesting depth for namespaces | ~160 | ~220 |
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The maximum nesting depth calculation assumes a cost of 40 bytes per namespace
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path element. 160 nested paths = 160 namespaces ranging from 40 bytes to
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6400 bytes.
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The number of namespaces can be monitored by querying
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[`sys/namespaces`](/api-docs/system/namespaces).
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To estimate the number of namespaces that can be created, divide the mount
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point limit by the larger of of the number of auth mounts per namespace
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(including `ns_token`) and the number of secret mounts per namespace
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(including `identity` and `sys`.)
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### Entity and group limits
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The metadata that may be attached to an identity entity or an entity group
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has the following constraints:
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| | Limit |
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| ------------------------------------- | --------- |
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| Number of key-value pairs in metadata | 64 |
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| Metadata key size | 128 bytes |
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| Metadata value size | 512 bytes |
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Vault shards the entities across 256 storage entries. This creates a
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hard limit of 128MiB storage space used for entities on Consul, or
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256MiB on integrated storage with its default settings. Entity aliases
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are stored inline in the Entity objects and so consume the same pool
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of storage. Entity definitions are compressed within each storage
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entry, and the pre-compression size varies with the number of entity
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aliases and the amount of metadata. Minimally-populated entities
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about 200 bytes after compression.
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Group definitions are stored separately, in their own pool of 256
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storage entries. The size of each group object depends on the number
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of members and the amount of metadata. Group aliases and group
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membership information is stored inline in each Group object. A group
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with no metadata, holding 10 entities, will use about 500 bytes per
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group. A group holding 100 entities would instead consume about 4,000
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bytes.
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The following table shows a best-case estimate and a more conservative
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estimate for entities and groups. The number is slightly less than the
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amount that fits in one shard, to reflect the fact that the first
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shard to fill up will start inducing failures. This maximum will
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decrease if each entity has a large amount of metadata, or if each
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group has a large number of members.
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| | Consul default (512 KiB) | Integrated storage default (1 MiB) |
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| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- |
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| Maximum number of identity entities (best case, 200 bytes per entity) | ~610,000 | ~1,250,000 |
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| Maximum number of identity entities (conservative case, 500 bytes per entity) | ~250,000 | ~480,000 |
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| Maximum number of identity entities (maximum permitted metadata, 41160 bytes per entity) | 670 | 2,400 |
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| Maximum number of groups (10 entities per group) | ~250,000 | ~480,000 |
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| Maximum number of groups (100 entities per group) | ~22,000 | ~50,000 |
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| Maximum number of members in a group | ~11,500 | ~23,000 |
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The number of entities can be monitored using Vault's [telemetry](/docs/internals/telemetry#token-identity-and-lease-metrics); see `vault.identity.num_entities` (total) or `vault.identity.entities.count` (by namespace).
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The cost of entity and group updates grows as the number of objects in
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each shard increases. This cost can be monitored via the
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`vault.identity.upsert_entity_txn` and
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the `vault.identity.upsert_group_txn` metrics.
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Very large internal groups should be avoided (more than 1000 members),
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because the membership list in a group must reside in a single storage entry.
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Instead, consider using [external groups](/docs/secrets/identity#external-vs-internal-groups) or split the group up into multiple sub-groups.
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### Token limits
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One storage entry is used per token; there is thus no
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upper bound on the number of active tokens. There are no restrictions on
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the token metadata field, other than the entire token must fit into one
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storage entry:
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| | Limit |
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| ------------------------------------- | -------- |
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| Number of key-value pairs in metadata | no limit |
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| Metadata key size | no limit |
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| Metadata value size | no limit |
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| Total size of token metadata | 512 KiB |
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### Policy limits
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The maximum size of a policy is limited by the storage
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entry size. Policy lists that appear in tokens or entities must fit
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within a single storage entry.
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| | Consul default (512 KiB) | Integrated storage default (1 MiB) |
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| ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- |
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| Maximum policy size | 512 KiB | 1 MiB |
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| Maximum number of policies per namespace | no limit | no limit |
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| Maximum number of policies per token | ~14,000 | ~28,000 |
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| Maximum number of policies per entity or group | ~14,000 | ~28,000 |
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Each time a token is used, Vault must assemble the collection of
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policies attached to that token, to the entity, to any groups that the
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entity belongs to, and recursively to any groups that contain those groups.
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Very large numbers of policies are possible, but can cause Vault’s
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response time to increase. You can monitor the
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[`vault.core.fetch_acl_and_token`](/docs/internals/telemetry#core-metrics)
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metric to determine if the time required to assemble an access control list
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is becoming excessive.
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### Versioned key-value store (kv-v2 secret engine)
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| | Limit |
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| -------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
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| Number of secrets | no limit, up to available storage capacity |
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| Maximum size of one version of a secret | slightly less than one storage entry (512 KiB or 1024 KiB) |
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| Number of versions of a secret | default 10; configurable per-secret or per-mount |
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| Maximum number of versions (not checked when configured) | at least 24,000 |
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Each version of a secret must fit in a single storage entry; the
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key-value pairs are converted to JSON before storage.
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Version metadata consumes 21 bytes per version and must fit in a
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single storage entry, separate from the stored data.
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### Transit secret engine
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The maximum size of a Transit ciphertext or plaintext is limited by Vault's
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maximum request size, as described [below](#request-size).
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All archived versions of a single key must fit in a single storage entry.
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This limit depends on the key size.
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| Key length | Consul default (512 KiB) | Integrated storage default (1 MiB) |
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| -------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- |
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| aes128-gcm96 keys | 2008 | 4017 |
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| aes256-gcm96 keys | 1865 | 3731 |
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| chacha-poly1305 keys | 1865 | 3731 |
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| ed25519 keys | 1420 | 2841 |
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| ecdsa-p256 keys | 817 | 1635 |
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| ecdsa-p384 keys | 659 | 1318 |
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| ecdsa-p523 keys | 539 | 1078 |
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| 1024-bit RSA keys | 169 | 333 |
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| 2048-bit RSA keys | 116 | 233 |
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| 4096-bit RSA kyes | 89 | 178 |
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## Other limits
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### Request size
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The maximum size of an HTTP request sent to Vault is limited by
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the `maximum_request_size` option in the [listener stanza](/docs/configuration/listener/tcp). It defaults to 32 MiB. This value, minus the overhead of
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the HTTP request itself, places an upper bound on any Transit operation,
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and on the maximum size of any key-value secrets.
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### Request duration
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The maximum duration of a Vault operation is
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[`max_request_duration`](/docs//configuration/listener/tcp), which defaults to
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90 seconds. If a particular secret engine takes longer than this to perform an
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operation on a remote service, the Vault client will see a failure.
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The environment variable [`VAULT_CLIENT_TIMEOUT`](https://www.vaultproject.io/docs/commands#vault_client_timeout) sets a client-side maximum duration as well,
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which is 60 seconds by default.
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### Cluster and replication limits
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There are no implementation limits on the maximum size of a cluster,
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or the maximum number of replicas associated with a primary. However,
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each replica or performance standby adds considerable overhead to the
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active node, as each write must be duplicated to all standbys. The overhead of
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resyncing multiple replicas at once is also high.
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Monitor the active Vault node's CPU and network utilization, as well as
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the lag between the last WAL and replica WAL, to determine if the
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maximum number of replicas has been exceeded.
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| | Limit |
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| -------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
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| Maximum cluster size | no limit, up to active node capability |
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| Maximum number of DR replicas | no limit, up to active node capability |
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| Maximum number of performance replicas | no limit, up to active node capability |
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### Lease limits
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A systemwide [maximum TTL](/docs/configuration#max_lease_ttl), and a
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[maximum TTL per mount point](/api-docs/system/mounts#max_lease_ttl-1) can be
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configured.
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Although no technical maximum exists, high lease counts can cause
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degradation in system performance. We recommend short default
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time-to-live values on tokens and leases to avoid a large backlog of
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unexpired leases, or a large number of simultaneous expirations.
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| | Limit |
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| ---------------------------------- | ------------------------- |
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| Maximum number of leases | advisory limit at 256,000 |
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| Maximum duration of lease or token | 768 hours by default |
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The current number of unexpired leases can be monitored via the
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[`vault.expire.num_leases`](/docs/internals/telemetry#token-identity-and-lease-metrics) metric.
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### Transform limits
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The Transform secret engine obeys the [FF3-1 minimum and maximum sizes
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on the length of an input](/docs/secrets/transform#input-limits), which
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are a function of the alphabet size.
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