community.hashi_vault.vault_write lookup – Perform a write operation against HashiCorp Vault

Note

This lookup plugin is part of the community.hashi_vault collection (version 6.2.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.hashi_vault. You need further requirements to be able to use this lookup plugin, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.hashi_vault.vault_write.

New in community.hashi_vault 2.4.0

Synopsis

  • Performs a generic write operation against a given path in HashiCorp Vault, returning any output.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this lookup.

Terms

Parameter

Comments

Terms

string / required

Vault path(s) to be written to.

Keyword parameters

This describes keyword parameters of the lookup. These are the values key1=value1, key2=value2 and so on in the following examples: lookup('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', key1=value1, key2=value2, ...) and query('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', key1=value1, key2=value2, ...)

Parameter

Comments

auth_method

string

Authentication method to be used.

none auth method was added in collection version 1.2.0.

cert auth method was added in collection version 1.4.0.

aws_iam_login was renamed aws_iam in collection version 2.1.0 and was removed in 3.0.0.

azure auth method was added in collection version 3.2.0.

Choices:

  • "token" ← (default)

  • "userpass"

  • "ldap"

  • "approle"

  • "aws_iam"

  • "azure"

  • "jwt"

  • "cert"

  • "none"

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    auth_method = token
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_AUTH_METHOD

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_auth_method

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

aws_access_key

aliases: aws_access_key_id

string

The AWS access key to use.

Configuration:

aws_iam_server_id

string

added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

If specified, sets the value to use for the X-Vault-AWS-IAM-Server-ID header as part of GetCallerIdentity request.

Configuration:

aws_profile

aliases: boto_profile

string

The AWS profile

Configuration:

aws_secret_key

aliases: aws_secret_access_key

string

The AWS secret key that corresponds to the access key.

Configuration:

aws_security_token

string

The AWS security token if using temporary access and secret keys.

Configuration:

azure_client_id

string

added in community.hashi_vault 3.2.0

The client ID (also known as application ID) of the Azure AD service principal or managed identity. Should be a UUID.

If not specified, will use the system assigned managed identity.

Configuration:

azure_client_secret

string

added in community.hashi_vault 3.2.0

The client secret of the Azure AD service principal.

Configuration:

azure_resource

string

added in community.hashi_vault 3.2.0

The resource URL for the application registered in Azure Active Directory. Usually should not be changed from the default.

Default: "https://management.azure.com/"

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    azure_resource = https://management.azure.com/
    
  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_AZURE_RESOURCE

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_azure_resource

azure_tenant_id

string

added in community.hashi_vault 3.2.0

The Azure Active Directory Tenant ID (also known as the Directory ID) of the service principal. Should be a UUID.

Required when using a service principal to authenticate to Vault, e.g. required when both azure_client_id and azure_client_secret are specified.

Optional when using managed identity to authenticate to Vault.

Configuration:

ca_cert

aliases: cacert

string

Path to certificate to use for authentication.

If not specified by any other means, the VAULT_CACERT environment variable will be used.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    ca_cert = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_CA_CERT

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_ca_cert

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

cert_auth_private_key

path

added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

For cert auth, path to the private key file to authenticate with, in PEM format.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    cert_auth_private_key = VALUE
    
  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_CERT_AUTH_PRIVATE_KEY

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_cert_auth_private_key

    added in community.hashi_vault 6.2.0

cert_auth_public_key

path

added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

For cert auth, path to the certificate file to authenticate with, in PEM format.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    cert_auth_public_key = VALUE
    
  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_CERT_AUTH_PUBLIC_KEY

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_cert_auth_public_key

    added in community.hashi_vault 6.2.0

data

dictionary

A dictionary to be serialized to JSON and then sent as the request body.

If the dictionary contains keys named path or wrap_ttl, the call will fail with hvac<1.2.

Default: {}

jwt

string

The JSON Web Token (JWT) to use for JWT authentication to Vault.

Configuration:

mount_point

string

Vault mount point.

If not specified, the default mount point for a given auth method is used.

Does not apply to token authentication.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    mount_point = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.5.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_MOUNT_POINT

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.5.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_mount_point

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.5.0

namespace

string

Vault namespace where secrets reside. This option requires HVAC 0.7.0+ and Vault 0.11+.

Optionally, this may be achieved by prefixing the authentication mount point and/or secret path with the namespace (e.g mynamespace/secret/mysecret).

If environment variable VAULT_NAMESPACE is set, its value will be used last among all ways to specify namespace.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    namespace = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_NAMESPACE

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_namespace

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

password

string

Authentication password.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_PASSWORD

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_password

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

proxies

any

added in community.hashi_vault 1.1.0

URL(s) to the proxies used to access the Vault service.

It can be a string or a dict.

If it’s a dict, provide the scheme (eg. http or https) as the key, and the URL as the value.

If it’s a string, provide a single URL that will be used as the proxy for both http and https schemes.

A string that can be interpreted as a dictionary will be converted to one (see examples).

You can specify a different proxy for HTTP and HTTPS resources.

If not specified, environment variables from the Requests library are used.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    proxies = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_PROXIES

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_proxies

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

region

string

The AWS region for which to create the connection.

Configuration:

retries

any

added in community.hashi_vault 1.3.0

Allows for retrying on errors, based on the Retry class in the urllib3 library.

This collection defines recommended defaults for retrying connections to Vault.

This option can be specified as a positive number (integer) or dictionary.

If this option is not specified or the number is 0, then retries are disabled.

A number sets the total number of retries, and uses collection defaults for the other settings.

A dictionary value is used directly to initialize the Retry class, so it can be used to fully customize retries.

For detailed information on retries, see the collection User Guide.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    retries = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_RETRIES

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_retries

retry_action

string

added in community.hashi_vault 1.3.0

Controls whether and how to show messages on retries.

This has no effect if a request is not retried.

Choices:

  • "ignore"

  • "warn" ← (default)

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    retry_action = warn
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_RETRY_ACTION

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_retry_action

role_id

string

Vault Role ID or name. Used in approle, aws_iam, azure and cert auth methods.

For cert auth, if no role_id is supplied, the default behavior is to try all certificate roles and return any one that matches.

For azure auth, role_id is required.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    role_id = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_ROLE_ID

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_role_id

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

secret_id

string

Secret ID to be used for Vault AppRole authentication.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_SECRET_ID

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_secret_id

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

timeout

integer

added in community.hashi_vault 1.3.0

Sets the connection timeout in seconds.

If not set, then the hvac library’s default is used.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    timeout = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_TIMEOUT

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_timeout

token

string

Vault token. Token may be specified explicitly, through the listed [env] vars, and also through the VAULT_TOKEN env var.

If no token is supplied, explicitly or through env, then the plugin will check for a token file, as determined by token_path and token_file.

The order of token loading (first found wins) is token param -> ansible var -> ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_TOKEN -> VAULT_TOKEN -> token file.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_TOKEN

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_token

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

token_file

string

If no token is specified, will try to read the token from this file in token_path.

Default: ".vault-token"

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    token_file = .vault-token
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_TOKEN_FILE

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_token_file

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

token_path

string

If no token is specified, will try to read the token_file from this path.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    token_path = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_TOKEN_PATH

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_token_path

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

token_validate

boolean

added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

For token auth, will perform a lookup-self operation to determine the token’s validity before using it.

Disable if your token does not have the lookup-self capability.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    token_validate = false
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_TOKEN_VALIDATE

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_token_validate

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

url

string

URL to the Vault service.

If not specified by any other means, the value of the VAULT_ADDR environment variable will be used.

If VAULT_ADDR is also not defined then an error will be raised.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [hashi_vault_collection]
    url = VALUE
    

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.4.0

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_ADDR

    added in community.hashi_vault 0.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_url

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_addr

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

username

string

Authentication user name.

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_USERNAME

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_username

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

validate_certs

boolean

Controls verification and validation of SSL certificates, mostly you only want to turn off with self signed ones.

Will be populated with the inverse of VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY if that is set and validate_certs is not explicitly provided.

Will default to true if neither validate_certs or VAULT_SKIP_VERIFY are set.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_validate_certs

    added in community.hashi_vault 1.2.0

wrap_ttl

string

Specifies response wrapping token creation with duration. For example 15s, 20m, 25h.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_hashi_vault_wrap_ttl

Notes

Note

  • When keyword and positional parameters are used together, positional parameters must be listed before keyword parameters: lookup('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', term1, term2, key1=value1, key2=value2) and query('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', term1, term2, key1=value1, key2=value2)

  • vault_write is a generic plugin to do operations that do not yet have a dedicated plugin. Where a specific plugin exists, that should be used instead.

  • In the vast majority of cases, it will be better to do writes as a task, with the community.hashi_vault.vault_write module.

  • The lookup can be used in cases where you need a value directly in templating, but there is risk of executing the write many times unintentionally.

  • The lookup is best used for endpoints that directly manipulate the input data and return a value, while not changing state in Vault.

  • See the Lookup Guide for more information.

See Also

See also

community.hashi_vault.vault_write

Perform a write operation against HashiCorp Vault.

community.hashi_vault.vault_kv2_write

Perform a write operation against a KVv2 secret in HashiCorp Vault.

community.hashi_vault.vault_read lookup

The official documentation for the community.hashi_vault.vault_read lookup plugin.

community.hashi_vault.vault_read

Perform a read operation against HashiCorp Vault.

community.hashi_vault Lookup Guide

Guidance on using lookups in community.hashi_vault.

Examples

# These examples show some uses that might work well as a lookup.
# For most uses, the vault_write module should be used.

- name: Retrieve and display random data
  vars:
    data:
      format: hex
    num_bytes: 64
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "{{ lookup('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', 'sys/tools/random/' ~ num_bytes, data=data) }}"

- name: Hash some data and display the hash
  vars:
    input: |
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
      Pellentesque posuere dui a ipsum dapibus, et placerat nibh bibendum.
    data:
      input: '{{ input | b64encode }}'
    hash_algo: sha2-256
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "The hash is {{ lookup('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', 'sys/tools/hash/' ~ hash_algo, data=data) }}"


# In this next example, the Ansible controller's token does not have permission to read the secrets we need.
# It does have permission to generate new secret IDs for an approle which has permission to read the secrets,
# however the approle is configured to:
# 1) allow a maximum of 1 use per secret ID
# 2) restrict the IPs allowed to use login using the approle to those of the remote hosts
#
# Normally, the fact that a new secret ID would be generated on every loop iteration would not be desirable,
# but here it's quite convenient.

- name: Retrieve secrets from the remote host with one-time-use approle creds
  vars:
    role_id: "{{ lookup('community.hashi_vault.vault_read', 'auth/approle/role/role-name/role-id') }}"
    secret_id: "{{ lookup('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', 'auth/approle/role/role-name/secret-id') }}"
  community.hashi_vault.vault_read:
    auth_method: approle
    role_id: '{{ role_id }}'
    secret_id: '{{ secret_id }}'
    path: '{{ item }}'
  register: secret_data
  loop:
    - secret/data/secret1
    - secret/data/app/deploy-key
    - secret/data/access-codes/self-destruct


# This time we have a secret values on the controller, and we need to run a command the remote host,
# that is expecting to a use single-use token as input, so we need to use wrapping to send the data.

- name: Run a command that needs wrapped secrets
  vars:
    secrets:
      secret1: '{{ my_secret_1 }}'
      secret2: '{{ second_secret }}'
    wrapped: "{{ lookup('community.hashi_vault.vault_write', 'sys/wrapping/wrap', data=secrets) }}"
  ansible.builtin.command: 'vault unwrap {{ wrapped }}'

Return Value

Key

Description

Return value

list / elements=dictionary

The raw result of the write against the given path.

Returned: success

Authors

  • Brian Scholer (@briantist)

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.