CredHub

You can configure service tiles to store internal credentials in BOSH CredHub instead of encoding them in product template and job template files.

BOSH CredHub is a secure credential management component that runs on the BOSH VM to minimize compromising credentials.

Credentials that service tiles store in BOSH CredHub for their own internal use are distinct from secure service instance credentials that VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs stores in runtime CredHub to activate apps to securely access services.

Both BOSH CredHub and runtime CredHub are instances of the CredHub credential management component. See the CredHub topics in the TAS for VMs documentation for more information.

Many Tanzu Operations Manager components use credentials to authenticate connections, and Tanzu Operations Manager installations often have hundreds of active credentials. Secure credential management is essential to prevent data and security breaches.

CredHub runs on the BOSH VM alongside the BOSH Director and UAA. Tanzu Operations Manager stores its credentials in CredHub, and you can retrieve them using the CredHub API or the Credentials tab of the BOSH Director tile. You can embed CredHub calls in manifest snippets and TAS for VMs apps can retrieve credentials using the CredHub API.

CredHub credential types

CredHub stores and retrieves the following types of credentials:

• value — single string value
• json — arbitrary JSON object
• user — user name
• password — password string
• certificate — object containing certificate authority (CA), certificate, and private key
• ssh — object containing SSH public key and private key
• rsa — object containing RSA public key and private key

For more information about CredHub credential types, see CredHub credential types.

For more information about BOSH variable types, see BOSH Variable Types.

Creating new variables

To use CredHub in your deployment, you must create new variables and store them in CredHub. By default, variable namespaces are written to prevent collision across deployments, but you can type variable names precisely if you want.

For more information about how to create new variables in CredHub, see Creating new variables in CredHub.

Migrating credentials

To migrate existing non-configurable credentials to CredHub, such as blobstore secrets and backup encryption keys, use the JavaScript migration process. After a successful migration, Tanzu Operations Manager deletes the migrated credentials from the installation.yml file.

For more information about migrating CredHub credentials, see Migrating existing credentials to CredHub.

For more information about the CredHub API, see the CredHub CLI GitHub repository and the CredHub Release GitHub repository.

Fetching variable names and values

API endpoints are available to help you find variable names and values for products that are known to the BOSH Director.

For more information about variable names and values, see Fetching variable names and values.

CredHub in manifest snippets

You can embed CredHub in product template and job template manifest snippets using triple-parentheses notation:

  manifest: |
    credhub:
      concatenated_password: prefix-((( credhub-password )))-suffix
      password: ((( credhub-password )))

Tanzu Operations Manager limitations

Tanzu Operations Manager supports CredHub for credential storage, but it does not support the following:

• Automatic backup and restore for CredHub and other Tanzu Operations Manager system components.

• Automatic tile upgrades that migrate all types of credentials defined in property blueprints in previous tile versions, to storage in CredHub.

• Using CredHub to generate new credentials.

You can choose to wait until Tanzu Operations Manager supports some or all of these features before incorporating CredHub into the service.

CredHub resources

The following resources can be helpful:

• CredHub basics
• The CredHub repository
• A recent Cloud Foundry Summit talk: CredHub and Secure Credential Management (Note that this video was created several years ago, so technical details may have changed, but the video may still be useful for some background.)