Learn How to Run Vault on Kubernetes

Kubernetes users can now bring Vault into their Kubernetes environment using the Vault Helm chart to manage secrets. The Vault Helm chart provides core Vault deployments in Kubernetes and enables you to express the secrets required by your applications in a declarative way.

»Get Started With Hands-On Tutorials

The following guides on HashiCorp Learn demonstrate operating Vault in a variety of modes within Kubernetes:

• Vault Installation on Minikube via Helm starts a highly-available (HA) Vault cluster with a Consul storage backend and Vault's Kubernetes authentication, and then launches a sample application that directly requests secrets through Vault API calls.

• Injecting Secrets into Kubernetes Pods via Vault Helm Sidecar starts Vault in standalone mode and deploys several applications that define their secrets through the declarative annotations interface.

• Mount Vault Secrets through Container Storage Interface Volume starts Vault in development mode and deploys an application that mounts an ephemeral volume that declaratively defines secrets.

• Integrate a Kubernetes Cluster with an External Vault starts a Vault server external to the cluster and deploys applications that address it directly, address it through a service, and then leverage the declarative power of annotations.

These guides focus on the concepts while eschewing larger security concerns to increase the time-to-value in a learning environment. But when it comes time to take Vault to production these reference guides describe how to do it securely and competently:

• Vault on Kubernetes Reference Architecture
• Vault on Kubernetes Security Considerations