Obtaining connection values for HashiCorp Vault (IBM Vault)

About this task

Use these instructions to get the connection values for the HashiCorp Vault (IBM Vault) connector.

Procedure

To obtain the engine path value (BEARER TOKEN and BASIC), complete the following steps:
1. Log in to your HashiCorp Vault (IBM Vault) instance.
2. Go to Secret Engines > Enable new engine +.
3. Select the secret engine according to your requirement.
4. In the Path field, enter a path name.
5. Configure the secret engine according to your requirement.
6. Click the Enable engine button.
7. Click the Configuration tab.
8. Copy the Path value (this value is your Engine path) and save it somewhere safe.
Tip: To know more about secret engines see Secrets engines on the Hashicorp Developer page.
To obtain the token value (BEARER TOKEN), choose one of the following:
- Use the initial root token value generated during Vault initialization.
- Generate a new token by running the following CLI command on your host machine:
```
vault token create
```
Important: Ensure that your authentication method includes vault policies with sufficient permissions for the required secret engine operations.
For example:
```
path "secret/data/*" {
  capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"]
}
```
Tip: To know more token authentication and policies, see Getting Vault Enterprise Installed and Running on the Hashicorp page.
To obtain the username, password and mount path values (BASIC), complete the following steps:
1. Log in to your HashiCorp Vault (IBM Vault) instance.
2. Go to Access > Authentication Methods > Enable new method +.
3. Select the Username & Password tile on the Enable and Authentication Method page.
4. In the Path field, enter a path name.
5. Copy the Path value (this value is your Mount path) and save it somewhere safe.
6. Click the Enable method button.
7. Select the authentication method that you enabled.
8. Click Create user +.
9. Enter a name in the Username field.
10. Enter a password in the Password field.
11. Expand ⌄Tokens.
12. In the Generated Token's Policies field, enter the required policy name.
13. Click the Add button.
14. Click Save.
15. Select the user that you created.
16. Copy and save your Username and Password values.
  Important: Ensure that your authentication method includes vault policies with sufficient permissions for the required secret engine operations.
  For example:
  path "secret/data/*" { capabilities = ["create", "read", "update", "delete", "list"] }
Tip: For detailed instructions about generating username and password via the CLI method, see Userpass auth method on the Hashicorp Developer page.