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Jasper Rodda
Jasper Rodda

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Install Hashicorp Vault to store Secrets and use it in Terraform.

#beginners #tutorial #devops #hashicorpvault

1. Installation Steps

  • Install gpg 
sudo apt update && sudo apt install gpg
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  • Download the signing key to a new keyring 
wget -O- https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg
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  • Verify the key's fingerprint 
gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg --fingerprint
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  • Add the HashiCorp repo 
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hashicorp.list
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  • Update packages 
sudo apt update
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  • Install Vault 
sudo apt install vault
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2. Start Vault Server

  • Start Vault Server 
vault server -dev -dev-listen-address="0.0.0.0:8200"
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3. Configure Terraform to read the secret from Vault.

  1. Enable AppRole Authentication: > To enable the AppRole authentication method in Vault, you need to use the Vault CLI or the Vault HTTP API.
  2. Run the following command to enable the AppRole authentication method: 
vault auth enable approle
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  1. Create an AppRole:
  2. 2.a) Create Policy 
vault policy write terraform - <<EOF
path "*" {
  capabilities = ["list", "read"]
}

path "secrets/data/*" {
  capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"]
}

path "kv/data/*" {
  capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"]
}


path "secret/data/*" {
  capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"]
}

path "auth/token/create" {
capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "list"]
}
EOF
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2.b) Create the AppRole:

vault write auth/approle/role/terraform \
    secret_id_ttl=10m \
    token_num_uses=10 \
    token_ttl=20m \
    token_max_ttl=30m \
    secret_id_num_uses=40 \
    token_policies=terraform
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  1. Generate Role ID and Secret ID: > After creating the AppRole, you need to generate a Role ID and Secret ID pair. The Role ID is a static identifier, while the Secret ID is a dynamic credential.
  2. 3.a) Generate Role ID: 
vault read auth/approle/role/my-approle/role-id
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  • 3.b) Generate Secret ID: 
vault write -f auth/approle/role/my-approle/secret-id
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This command generates a Secret ID and provides it in the response. Save the Secret ID securely, as it will be used for Terraform authentication.

4. Provider.tf file 

provider "vault" {
  address = "<>:8200"
  skip_child_token = true

  auth_login {
    path = "auth/approle/login"

    parameters = {
      role_id = "<>"
      secret_id = "<>"
    }
  }
}
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5. Main.tf

  • 5.a) Create vault server 
# Create vault server - 1 
resource "aws_instance" "vault-server-1" {
  ami                    = "ami-053b0d53c279acc90"
  instance_type          = "t2.micro"
  key_name               = "efronlogin"
  subnet_id              = aws_subnet.sd-snet1.id
  vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.sd-sg-1.id]
  user_data              = base64encode(file("vault_userdata.sh"))

   tags = {
    name="vault-Master"
    Environment="dev"
  }

}
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  • 5.b) Connect to Hashicorp Vault via "data" resource 
 data "vault_kv_secret_v2" "example" {
   mount = "secret" // change it according to your mount
   name  = "dev-s3" // change it according to your secret
 }
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  • 5.c) Use it to retrieve in Terraform

  • create EC2 instance with Tag names and Secret Name

resource "aws_instance" "my_instance" {
  ami           = "ami-053b0d53c279acc90"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "test"
    Secret = data.vault_kv_secret_v2.example.data["secret_name"]
  }
}
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Credits:-
Thanks to Abhishek Veeramalla

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