Inject license via Hashicorp Vault Agent | HiveMQ Operator (legacy)
In this knowledge base article, we set up Hashicorp Vault and injector service with the Hashicorp Vault Helm chart and store a HiveMQ License as a secret. Then we will deploy the HiveMQ broker cluster with the hivemq-operator Helm chart to demonstrate how the Hashicorp Vault injector service retrieves, decodes and writes the secret to /opt/hivemq/license/hivmq.lic file on the pod for the HiveMQ application to use.
Prerequisites
These instructions require the following tools on the local machine:
Kubernetes command-line interface (CLI)
Helm CLI
The kubectl context should be set to the Kubernetes cluster where the HiveMQ broker will be installed.
Instructions
Install the Hashicorp Vault Helm Chart
Add the HashiCorp Helm repository.
helm repo add hashicorp https://helm.releases.hashicorp.com
Update all the repositories to ensure
helm
is aware of the latest versions.helm repo update hashicorp
Install the latest version of the Hashicorp Vault server running in development mode.
Development mode: Running a Hashicorp Vault server in development is automatically initialized and unsealed. This is ideal in a learning environment but NOT recommended for a production environment.helm install vault hashicorp/vault --set "server.dev.enabled=true"
The vault pod and vault Agent Injector pod are deployed in the default namespace.
Display all the pods in the default namespace.
The
vault-0
pod runs a vault server in development mode. Thevault-agent-injector
pod performs the injection based on the annotations present or patched on a deployment.Wait until the
vault-0
pod andvault-agent-injector
pod are running and ready (1/1
).
Set a secret in Hashicorp Vault
Copy the hivemq-license file to the
vault-0
pod.Verify that the file is copied.
Start an interactive shell session on the
vault-0
pod.Your system prompt is replaced with a new prompt
/ $
. Commands issued at this prompt are executed on thevault-0
container.Enable kv-v2 secrets at the path
hivemq
.Create a secret at path
hivemq/myenv/license
with ahivemq_license_b64
key and base64-encoded/tmp/hivemq.lic
file.Verify that the secret is defined at the path
hivemq/myenv/license
.The secret is ready for the application.
Lastly, exit the
vault-0
pod.
Configure Kubernetes authentication
Hashicorp Vault provides a Kubernetes authentication method that enables clients to authenticate with a Kubernetes Service Account Token. This token is provided to each pod when it is created.
Start an interactive shell session on the
vault-0
pod.Your system prompt is replaced with a new prompt
/ $
. Commands issued at this prompt are executed on thevault-0
container.Enable the Kubernetes authentication method.
Hashicorp Vault accepts a service token from any client in the Kubernetes cluster. During authentication, Hashicorp Vault verifies that the service account token is valid by querying a token review Kubernetes endpoint.
Configure the Kubernetes authentication method to use the location of the Kubernetes API.
Note: For the best compatibility with recent Kubernetes versions, ensure you are using Hashicorp Vault v1.13.3 or greater.
Successful output from the command resembles this example:
The environment variable
KUBERNETES_PORT_443_TCP_ADDR
is defined and references the internal network address of the Kubernetes host.For a client to read the secret data defined at
hivemq/myenv/license
, requires that the read capability be granted for the pathhivemq/data/myenv/license
. This is an example of a policy. A policy defines a set of capabilities.Write out the policy named
hivemq
that enables theread
capability for secrets at pathhivemq/data/myenv/license
.Create a Kubernetes authentication role named
hivemq
.Successful output from the command resembles this example:
The role connects the Kubernetes service account,
hivemq-hivemq-operator-hivemq
, and namespace,hivemq
, with the Hashicorp Vault policy,hivemq
. The tokens returned after authentication are valid for 24 hours.Lastly, exit the
vault-0
pod.
Inject secrets into the pods
If you do not have values.yaml file yet, you can get the latest version from the Helm chart repository and store it as a file, for example,
values-hivemq.yaml
:Edit the
values-hivemq.yaml
file. Add annotations to the hivemq pods.(Re)install hivemq
Get all the pods in the hivemq namespace.
Wait until the re-deployed
hivemq
pod reports that it isRunning
and ready (2/2
).This new pod now launches two containers. The application container, named
hivemq
, and the Hashicorp Vault Agent container, namedvault-agent
.Display the logs of the
vault-agent
container in the newhivemq
pod.Hashicorp Vault Agent manages the token lifecycle and the secret retrieval. The secret is rendered in the
hivemq
container at the path/opt/hivemq/license/
.Display the secret written to the
hivemq
container.The base64-decoded secret data is present on the container