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Vault
Integrated Storage

Automate upgrades with Vault Enterprise

  • 14min
  • |
  • Enterprise
  • Vault

Enterprise Only

The functionality described in this tutorial is available only in Vault Enterprise.

Challenge

Vault version upgrade is always a delicate moment for any production environment, and it's important to have best practices in place that simplify the process where possible.

Solution

Vault Enterprise provides automated version upgrades with the autopilot feature when using Integrated Storage. The feature allows you to start new Vault nodes alongside the older version ones and automatically switch to the new nodes after they reach quorum.

This automates the leader election process and ensures leader election among the new nodes so that removing the older version nodes from the datacenter does not trigger a leader election.

Prerequisites

To test the automated upgrades feature explained in this tutorial you will need:

  • A Vault Enterprise cluster with three nodes running Vault Enterprise 1.11.0 or later.
  • Three extra nodes with Vault Enterprise 1.11.0 or later to use as the new servers after the upgrade.

You will also need a text editor, the curl executable to test the API endpoints, and optionally the jq command to format the output for curl.

Scenario introduction

To learn about the new autopilot behavior, start an initial 3 node cluster (Note Step 1 diagram). Then, start an additional 3 nodes with an automatic upgrade version specified, and add them to the cluster (Note Step 2 diagram).

You will run a script to start a cluster.

Scenario
  • Initialize and unseal vault_1 (http://127.0.0.1:8100). The root token creates a transit key that enables the other Vaults auto-unseal. This Vault server is not a part of the cluster.
  • Initialize and unseal vault_2 (http://127.0.0.1:8200). This Vault starts as the cluster leader.
  • Start vault_3 (http://127.0.0.1:8300). It automatically joins the cluster via retry_join.
  • Start vault_4 (http://127.0.0.1:8400). It automatically joins the cluster via retry_join.

If this is your first time setting up a Vault cluster with integrated storage, go through the Vault HA Cluster with Integrated Storage tutorial.

Setup an initial cluster

  1. Retrieve the configuration by cloning the hashicorp/learn-vault-raft repository from GitHub.

    $ git clone https://github.com/hashicorp-education/learn-vault-raft

    This repository holds supporting content for all the Vault learn tutorials. The content specific to this tutorial is in a sub-directory.

  2. Change the working directory to learn-vault-raft/raft-auto-upgrade/local.

    $ cd learn-vault-raft/raft-auto-upgrade/local

  3. Set the setup_1.sh file to executable.

    $ chmod +x setup_1.sh

  4. Execute the setup_1.sh script to spin up a Vault cluster.

    $ ./setup_1.sh

[vault_1] Creating configuration
  - creating /git/learn-vault-raft/raft-autopilot/local/config-vault_1.hcl
[vault_2] Creating configuration
  - creating /git/learn-vault-raft/raft-autopilot/local/config-vault_2.hcl
  - creating /git/learn-vault-raft/raft-autopilot/local/raft-vault_2

...snip...

[vault_3] starting Vault server @ http://127.0.0.1:8300
Using [vault_1] root token (hvs.tqKc9An04pQY5H1uysw02Xn6) to retrieve transit key for auto-unseal

[vault_4] starting Vault server @ http://127.0.0.1:8400
Using [vault_1] root token (hvs.tqKc9An04pQY5H1uysw02Xn6) to retrieve transit key for auto-unseal

    You can find the server configuration files and the log files in the working directory.

  5. Use your preferred text editor and open the config-vault_2.hcl file to examine the generated server configuration for vault_2.

    config-vault_2.hcl
    storage "raft" {
 path    = "/learn-vault-raft/raft-auto-upgrade/local/raft-vault_2/"
 node_id = "vault_2"
}

listener "tcp" {
 address = "127.0.0.1:8200"
 cluster_address = "127.0.0.1:8201"
 tls_disable = true
}

seal "transit" {
 address            = "http://127.0.0.1:8100"
 # token is read from VAULT_TOKEN env
 # token              = ""
 disable_renewal    = "false"
 key_name           = "unseal_key"
 mount_path         = "transit/"
}

disable_mlock = true
cluster_addr = "http://127.0.0.1:8201"

  6. Review the generated server configuration for vault_3.

    config-vault_3.hcl
    storage "raft" {
 path    = "/learn-vault-raft/raft-auto-upgrade/local/raft-vault_3/"
 node_id = "vault_3"

 retry_join {
   leader_api_addr = "http://127.0.0.1:8200"
 }
}

...snip...

    The retry_join configuration block has vault_3 and vault_4 nodes automatically joining the cluster.

  7. Export an environment variable for the vault CLI to address the vault_2 server.

    $ export VAULT_ADDR=http://127.0.0.1:8200

  8. Verify the cluster members.

    $ vault operator raft list-peers

Node       Address           State       Voter
----       -------           -----       -----
vault_2    127.0.0.1:8201    leader      true
vault_3    127.0.0.1:8301    follower    false
vault_4    127.0.0.1:8401    follower    false

  9. View the autopilot's upgrade state information. 

    $ curl -s --header "X-Vault-Token: $(cat root_token-vault_2)" \
    $VAULT_ADDR/v1/sys/storage/raft/autopilot/state | jq -r ".data.upgrade_info"

    Output: 

    {
  "status": "idle",
  "target_version": "1.11.0",
  "target_version_voters": [
    "vault_2",
    "vault_3",
    "vault_4"
  ]
}

    Notice the Upgrade Info fields shows the Status to be idle.

    If you have the watch command (or similar), you can follow the upgrade status as you proceed to adding more nodes.

    $ watch -n 0.5 'curl -H "X-Vault-Token: $(cat root_token-vault_2)" $VAULT_ADDR/v1/sys/storage/raft/autopilot/state | jq -r ".data.upgrade_info"'

    This checks the autopilot state every half a second.

Add new nodes

When autopilot detects that the count of nodes on the new version equals or exceeds older version nodes, it begins promoting the new nodes to voters and demoting the older version nodes to non-voters.

  1. Use your preferred text editor and open the config-vault_5.hcl file to examine the generated server configuration for vault_5.

    config-vault_5.hcl
    storage "raft" {
  path    = "/learn-vault-raft/raft-auto-upgrade/local/raft-vault_5/"
  node_id = "vault_5"
  autopilot_upgrade_version = "1.12.0.1"

  retry_join {
    leader_api_addr = "http://127.0.0.1:8200"
  }
}

...snip...

    To specify an automatic upgrade target version, add the autopilot_upgrade_version parameter in the storage stanza where its value is a SemVer compatible version string of your choosing.

    Vault Configuration

    The vault_5, vault_6 and vault_7 nodes have autopilot_upgrade_version parameter configured. This implies that those nodes have a specific target Vault version.

  2. Set the setup_2.sh file to executable.

    $ chmod +x setup_2.sh

  3. Execute the setup_2.sh script to add three additional nodes to the cluster.

    $ ./setup_2.sh

[vault_5] starting Vault server @ http://127.0.0.1:8500
Using [vault_1] root token (hvs.tqKc9An04pQY5H1uysw02Xn6) to retrieve transit key for auto-unseal

[vault_6] starting Vault server @ http://127.0.0.1:8600
Using [vault_1] root token (hvs.tqKc9An04pQY5H1uysw02Xn6) to retrieve transit key for auto-unseal

[vault_7] starting Vault server @ http://127.0.0.1:8700
Using [vault_1] root token (hvs.tqKc9An04pQY5H1uysw02Xn6) to retrieve transit key for auto-unseal

  4. Follow the autopilot's upgrade status as it progresses. 

    $ curl -s --header "X-Vault-Token: $(cat root_token-vault_2)" \
    $VAULT_ADDR/v1/sys/storage/raft/autopilot/state | jq -r ".data.upgrade_info"

    Or, 

    $ watch -n 0.5 'curl -H "X-Vault-Token: $(cat root_token-vault_2)" $VAULT_ADDR/v1/sys/storage/raft/autopilot/state | jq -r ".data.upgrade_info"'

    The Status changes from idle to await-new-voters.

    {
  "other_version_voters": [
    "vault_2",
    "vault_3",
    "vault_4"
  ],
  "status": "await-new-voters",
  "target_version": "1.12.0.1",
  "target_version_non_voters": [
    "vault_5",
    "vault_6"
  ]
}

    The status will change to promoting as autopilot promotes the 3 new nodes to be voters. Then the status will change to demoting, as autopilot demotes 2 out of the 3 older version nodes to be non-voters. Then, the leader will change from vault_2 to vault_5.

    {
  "other_version_non_voters": [
    "vault_3",
    "vault_4"
  ],
  "other_version_voters": [
    "vault_2"
  ],
  "status": "leader-transfer",
  "target_version": "1.12.0.1",
  "target_version_voters": [
    "vault_5",
    "vault_6",
    "vault_7"
  ]
}

    The status changes to await-server-removal.

    {
  "other_version_non_voters": [
    "vault_2",
    "vault_3",
    "vault_4"
  ],
  "status": "await-server-removal",
  "target_version": "1.12.0.1",
  "target_version_voters": [
    "vault_5",
    "vault_6",
    "vault_7"
  ]
}

Autopilot Statue

The progression of autopilot statuses during an upgrade looks like: idle → await-new-voters → demoting → promoting → leader-transfer → await-server-removal → idle.

Remove non-voter nodes

Once the autopilot upgrade status changes to await-server-removal, you can remove the older version non-voting nodes from the cluster.

  1. List the current peers before removing any nodes.

    $ vault operator raft list-peers

Node       Address           State       Voter
----       -------           -----       -----
vault_2    127.0.0.1:8201    follower    false
vault_3    127.0.0.1:8301    follower    false
vault_4    127.0.0.1:8401    follower    false
vault_5    127.0.0.1:8501    leader      true
vault_6    127.0.0.1:8601    follower    true
vault_7    127.0.0.1:8701    follower    true

  2. Export an environment variable for the vault CLI to address the server.

    $ export VAULT_ADDR=http://127.0.0.1:8500

  3. Remove vault_2 from the cluster.

    $ vault operator raft remove-peer vault_2
Peer removed successfully!

  4. Remove vault_3 from the cluster.

    $ vault operator raft remove-peer vault_3
Peer removed successfully!

  5. Remove vault_4 from the cluster.

    $ vault operator raft remove-peer vault_4
Peer removed successfully!

  6. Verify non-voter node removal from the cluster.

    $ vault operator raft list-peers

Node       Address           State       Voter
----       -------           -----       -----
vault_5    127.0.0.1:8501    leader      true
vault_6    127.0.0.1:8601    follower    true
vault_7    127.0.0.1:8701    follower    true

Autopilot configuration

Vault Enterprise enables automated upgrade migrations by default. 

$ vault operator raft autopilot get-config

Output: 

Key                                   Value
---                                   -----
Cleanup Dead Servers                  false
Last Contact Threshold                10s
Dead Server Last Contact Threshold    24h0m0s
Server Stabilization Time             10s
Min Quorum                            0
Max Trailing Logs                     1000
Disable Upgrade Migration             false

To disable automated upgrade migrations, set the -disable-upgrade-migration parameter to true.

$ vault operator raft autopilot set-config -disable-upgrade-migration=true

Clean up

The cluster.sh script provides a clean operation that removes all services, configuration, and modifications to your local system.

Clean up your local workstation.

$ ./cluster.sh clean

Found 1 Vault service(s) matching that name
[vault_1] stopping

...snip...

Removing log file /git/learn-vault-raft/raft-autopilot/local/vault_5.log
Removing log file /git/learn-vault-raft/raft-autopilot/local/vault_6.log
Clean complete

Next steps

In this tutorial you upgraded your Vault datacenter by using autopilot's automated upgrades functionality. Automated upgrades lets you automatically upgrade a cluster of Vault nodes to a new version as updated server nodes join the cluster. Once the number of nodes on the new version is equal to or greater than the number of nodes on the older version, Autopilot will promote the newer versioned nodes to voters, demote the older versioned nodes to non-voters, and begin a leadership transfer from the older version leader to one of the newer versioned nodes. After the leadership transfer completes, you can remove the older versioned non-voting nodes from the cluster.

Help and reference

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