HashiCorp Vault – Secrets Management

Module 1: Introduction to HashiCorp Vault

• Secrets management fundamentals: why hardcoded credentials are dangerous
• Vault overview: secrets engine, authentication, and policy framework
• Vault architecture: server, storage backend, and seal/unseal mechanism
• Installing Vault: development mode and production server setup

Module 2: Vault Core Concepts

• Initialisation and unseal: Shamir's Secret Sharing and auto-unseal
• Vault CLI and API: interacting with Vault from command line and HTTP
• Paths and namespaces: Vault's hierarchical secret organisation
• Audit logging: enabling and reviewing Vault audit devices

Module 3: Secrets Engines

• KV secrets engine: v1 and v2 key-value secret storage
• Dynamic secrets: database secrets engine for auto-generated credentials
• AWS secrets engine: dynamic IAM user and role credential generation
• PKI secrets engine: certificate authority and TLS certificate issuance

Module 4: Authentication Methods

• Token authentication: root tokens, service tokens, and batch tokens
• AppRole: machine-to-machine authentication for applications
• Kubernetes auth method: pod-based authentication to Vault
• LDAP and OIDC: user authentication with directory and identity providers

Module 5: Vault Policies

• HCL policy syntax: path-based access control rules
• Capabilities: create, read, update, delete, list, and sudo
• Writing least-privilege policies for applications and users
• Policy templating: dynamic policies with identity entity attributes

Module 6: Vault Agent and Injector

• Vault Agent: client-side daemon for secret retrieval and token renewal
• Agent templates: rendering secrets into files with Consul Template syntax
• Vault Injector: Kubernetes mutating webhook for pod secret injection
• Sidecar pattern: injecting Vault Agent as a Kubernetes sidecar

Module 7: Vault High Availability and Replication

• HA storage backends: Consul, Raft integrated storage, and etcd
• Vault cluster: active and standby node failover behaviour
• Performance replication: scaling read operations across clusters
• Disaster recovery replication: cross-region Vault DR setup

Module 8: Capstone Project and Assessment

• Vault setup: KV engine, database dynamic secrets, and PKI configuration
• AppRole and Kubernetes auth: application credential retrieval project
• Vault Agent injection: Kubernetes pod consuming Vault secrets
• Final assessment and course certification

Experience in the Industry Gain expertise from HashiCorp Vault engineers who have implemented centralised secrets management for cloud-native applications, Kubernetes workloads, and CI/CD pipelines at technology and financial services organisations.

Backgrounds at the Top Our Vault trainers have worked at DevOps and platform engineering teams adopting zero-trust security models where Vault is the central secrets management platform for dynamic credentials and certificate management.

Clear & Effective Teaching Vault architecture, initialisation, KV and dynamic secrets engines, authentication methods, HCL policies, Vault Agent, Kubernetes injection, HA storage, and replication are explained with real secrets management examples.

Hands-On Learning Focus Students install Vault, configure secrets engines, write policies, set up AppRole and Kubernetes auth, deploy Vault Agent, inject secrets into pods, and configure HA clusters through structured hands-on labs.

Up-to-Date Knowledge Trainers keep content current with the latest HashiCorp Vault and OpenBao releases, HCP Vault managed service, and evolving zero-trust secrets management best practices.