2. Client Side Usage
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2. Client Side Usage

To use these features in an application, just build it as a Spring Boot application that depends on spring-cloud-vault-config (e.g. see the test cases). Example Maven configuration:

Example 2.1. pom.xml

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.0.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath /> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-vault-config</artifactId>
        <version>2.2.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

<!-- repositories also needed for snapshots and milestones -->

Then you can create a standard Spring Boot application, like this simple HTTP server:

@SpringBootApplication
@RestController
public class Application {

    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String home() {
        return "Hello World!";
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }
}

When it runs it will pick up the external configuration from the default local Vault server on port 8200 if it is running. To modify the startup behavior you can change the location of the Vault server using bootstrap.properties (like application.properties but for the bootstrap phase of an application context), e.g.

Example 2.2. bootstrap.yml

spring.cloud.vault:
    host: localhost
    port: 8200
    scheme: https
    uri: https://localhost:8200
    connection-timeout: 5000
    read-timeout: 15000
    config:
        order: -10

host sets the hostname of the Vault host. The host name will be used for SSL certificate validation
port sets the Vault port
scheme setting the scheme to http will use plain HTTP. Supported schemes are http and https.
uri configure the Vault endpoint with an URI. Takes precedence over host/port/scheme configuration
connection-timeout sets the connection timeout in milliseconds
read-timeout sets the read timeout in milliseconds
config.order sets the order for the property source

Enabling further integrations requires additional dependencies and configuration. Depending on how you have set up Vault you might need additional configuration like SSL and authentication.

If the application imports the spring-boot-starter-actuator project, the status of the vault server will be available via the /health endpoint.

The vault health indicator can be enabled or disabled through the property management.health.vault.enabled (default to true).

2.1 Authentication

Vault requires an authentication mechanism to authorize client requests.

Spring Cloud Vault supports multiple authentication mechanisms to authenticate applications with Vault.

For a quickstart, use the root token printed by the Vault initialization.

Example 2.3. bootstrap.yml

spring.cloud.vault:
    token: 19aefa97-cccc-bbbb-aaaa-225940e63d76

	Warning
	Consider carefully your security requirements. Static token authentication is fine if you want quickly get started with Vault, but a static token is not protected any further. Any disclosure to unintended parties allows Vault use with the associated token roles.

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