Set up your cluster with the onboarding checklist
Enterprise
Appropriate Vault Enterprise license required
Use the onboarding checklist on the Vault GUI dashboard to follow a recommended setup path for a new cluster. The checklist, titled Set up your cluster, walks you through installing the Terraform Vault Provider and CLI, creating namespaces and policies, enabling authentication, and creating your first secrets engine. It shows your progress as a percentage.
Before you start
You must have access to the root namespace. The checklist does not appear in child namespaces.
You must have permission to configure authentication methods or secrets engines. Without that permission, the dashboard does not show the checklist.
Step 1: Confirm your permissions
The checklist hides a step if you lack permission to open the associated page in the GUI and only calculates progress based on the steps you can actually perform.
For example, if you can configure authentication methods but cannot open the namespaces page, the checklist omits the namespaces step and calculates your progress from the remaining four steps.
Confirm you have appropriate permission for the steps you intend to perform.
| Step | Permission required |
|---|---|
| Install Terraform Vault Provider and CLI | None |
| Set up namespaces | Access to namespaces |
| Set up policies | Access to ACL policies |
| Set up authentication | Access to authentication methods |
| Create your first secrets engine | None |
Step 2: Open the checklist
Log in to the Vault GUI.
Open the Dashboard.
Find Set up your cluster in the left column of the dashboard.
If you have the correct permissions, Vault displays a checklist with the numbered setup steps, a progress bar and percentage completed, and the first incomplete step expanded automatically.
If you have insufficient permissions or logged into a non-root namespace, Vault displayes the standard dashboard widgets.
Vault does not display the saved checklist if it cannot load the saved checklist progress or you do have sufficient permissions.
Step 3: Complete each setup step
Select a step to expand it. Each step has a description and buttons that take you to the page where you do the work.
| Step | Buttons | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Install Terraform Vault Provider and CLI | Installation guide | Opens the Terraform installation guide in a new tab. Install the Terraform Vault Provider, the CLI, or use the UI to get started with your cluster. |
| Set up namespaces | Namespaces | Opens the namespaces page. Create isolated environments for independent teams. Refer to Manage namespaces in the Vault GUI. |
| Set up policies | ACL policies | Opens the ACL policies page. Define rules that grant or forbid access to paths and operations. Refer to Policies. |
| Set up authentication | Authentication methods | Opens the authentication methods page. Enable methods so users and applications can log in and get a token. Refer to Authentication methods. |
| Create your first secrets engine | Secrets engines, Secrets sync | Opens the secrets engines page or the secrets sync overview. Refer to Secrets engines and Secrets sync. |
When you finish a step, select Mark complete in the expanded step. Vault marks the step with a check, updates the progress percentage, and expands the next incomplete step. To undo a step, select Mark incomplete.
Vault stores checklist progress on the cluster, so it persists across browsers and sessions.
Step 3: Finish, hide, and restore the checklist
When you mark every visible step complete, the dashboard replaces the checklist with the Initial setup complete! card. The card has the following buttons and links:
- Back: Returns to the checklist.
- Hide: Hides the card.
- How to use your secrets: Opens the Vault secrets management tutorials in a new tab.
- Replication: Opens the replication page.
To hide the checklist before you finish, select Hide setup guide at the end of the checklist. Hiding the checklist does not change setup progress. Vault saves the hidden state in your local browser storage, so the checklist still appears in other browsers and for other users.
After you hide the checklist, the dashboard shows one of the following cards in its place:
| Checklist state | Card | Button to restore the checklist |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden before completion | Guided cluster setup | View setup guide |
| Hidden after completion | Explore more of Vault | Setup guide |
Scope of the checklist
The cluster-startup checklist has a fixed set of five steps. It does not include the following capabilities:
- Selecting the Vault products you want to set up, such as Data Protection or Secrets Management. Every user sees the same steps, filtered only by permissions.
- Generating policy or Terraform code. The checklist links to the Terraform installation tutorial and nothing else about Terraform. To manage Vault configuration with Terraform, refer to the the Programmatic best practices guide, Manage resources programmatically with Terraform guide, and Terraform Vault provider technical reference.