Secrets Management with OpenBao 

Course & Training

Open-source secrets management with OpenBao in Kubernetes environments. Community-driven alternative to HashiCorp Vault.

Discover OpenBao as an open-source alternative for professional secrets management. In this intensive training, you'll learn how to seamlessly integrate OpenBao with Kubernetes, use it with GitLab CI/CD, and leverage it from applications. Master migration from HashiCorp Vault and implement sustainable, community-driven secrets management solutions without vendor lock-in.

In-House Course:

We are happy to conduct tailored courses for your team - on-site, remotely or in our course rooms.

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Content:


Welcome to our comprehensive training on OpenBao for modern secrets management scenarios. This course is designed for DevOps engineers, security engineers, and developers who want to implement an open-source alternative to proprietary secrets management solutions in Kubernetes environments.

OpenBao is a community-driven fork of HashiCorp Vault that remains fully open source and provides a sustainable alternative for secrets management. With full API compatibility to Vault, OpenBao enables seamless migration and integration into existing workflows.

Throughout the training, you will master the following topics:

– OpenBao Fundamentals and Setup:
... - OpenBao vs. HashiCorp Vault: differences and advantages
... - Community-driven development and roadmap
... - Installation and basic configuration
... - Migration from HashiCorp Vault to OpenBao

– Kubernetes Integration:
... - OpenBao Agent Injector for automatic secret injection
... - Configuring Kubernetes Auth Method
... - Service Account Token-based authentication
... - CSI Provider for Secret Store integration
... - External Secrets Operator with OpenBao
... - Securing Pod-to-OpenBao communication

– Secrets Engines and Backends:
... - Key-Value Secrets Engine (v1 and v2)
... - Dynamic secrets for databases
... - PKI Engine for certificate management
... - Transit Engine for encryption
... - Cloud provider secrets engines
... - Developing custom secrets engines

– Authentication and Authorization:
... - Auth methods for different environments
... - Policy-based access control
... - Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
... - Identity groups and entities
... - Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
... - Token lifecycle management

– GitLab CI/CD Integration:
... - OpenBao integration in GitLab pipelines
... - JWT Auth Method for GitLab
... - Dynamic secrets in CI/CD workflows
... - Secure variable injection
... - Pipeline-specific policies
... - Audit and compliance in CI/CD

– Application Integration:
... - OpenBao client libraries for various languages
... - API-based secret retrieval
... - Dynamic database credentials
... - Secret rotation in applications
... - OpenBao Agent for local caching
... - Sidecar pattern for secret management

– Migration and Compatibility:
... - Migration from HashiCorp Vault to OpenBao
... - API compatibility and breaking changes
... - Tool migration and client updates
... - Data migration and backup strategies
... - Rollback scenarios and contingency planning
... - Hybrid setups during migration

– Community and Governance:
... - OpenBao community and contribution
... - Governance model and decision processes
... - Release cycles and versioning
... - Security patches and updates
... - Community support and resources
... - Enterprise support options

– Security Best Practices:
... - Implementing least privilege principle
... - Secret rotation strategies
... - Audit logging and monitoring
... - Network security for OpenBao
... - Backup and recovery procedures
... - Incident response for OpenBao

– Monitoring and Observability:
... - OpenBao metrics and telemetry
... - Integration with Prometheus and Grafana
... - Health checks and alerting
... - Performance monitoring
... - Audit log analysis
... - Troubleshooting common issues

– OpenBao in Production:
... - High availability setup
... - Capacity planning and sizing
... - Upgrade strategies and procedures
... - Multi-region deployments
... - Compliance and governance
... - Cost optimization

– Advanced Features:
... - Namespaces for multi-tenancy
... - Replication and disaster recovery
... - Performance standby nodes
... - Transform Secrets Engine
... - Custom policy development
... - Plugin development

– Hands-on Labs and Use Cases:
... - Kubernetes-native secret management with OpenBao
... - GitLab CI/CD with dynamic secrets
... - Microservices secret injection
... - Database credential rotation
... - Certificate lifecycle management
... - Multi-cloud secret management
... - Vault-to-OpenBao migration

This course combines theoretical knowledge with intensive practical application and prepares you to successfully implement and operate OpenBao as a sustainable, open-source secrets management solution in production Kubernetes environments.


Disclaimer: The actual course content may vary from the above, depending on the trainer, implementation, duration and constellation of participants.

Whether we call it training, course, workshop or seminar, we want to pick up participants at their point and equip them with the necessary practical knowledge so that they can apply the technology directly after the training and deepen it independently.

Goal:

Participants can implement and operate OpenBao as an open-source secrets management solution in Kubernetes environments after the course. They master migration from HashiCorp Vault, integration with GitLab CI/CD, and can implement sustainable, vendor-independent secrets management strategies.


Form:

Proven mix of explanation, live demos, and practical exercises with real Kubernetes deployments. Intensive hands-on sessions with OpenBao installation, Vault migration, and GitLab CI/CD integration.


Target Audience:

DevOps engineers, security engineers, platform engineers, and developers who want to implement open-source secrets management solutions with OpenBao, migrate from HashiCorp Vault, and build vendor-independent infrastructures.


Requirements:

Basic understanding of Kubernetes and container technologies, experience with CI/CD pipelines, basic knowledge of security concepts. Knowledge of HashiCorp Vault is advantageous but not required.


Preparation:

Each participant receives a questionnaire and installation instructions after registration. We provide a pre-configured Kubernetes laboratory environment with OpenBao, GitLab, and sample applications.

Request In-House Course:

In-House Kurs Anfragen

Waitinglist for public course:

Sign up for the waiting list for more public course dates. Once we have enough people on the waiting list, we will determine a date that suits everyone as much as possible and schedule a new session. If you want to participate directly with two colleagues, we can even plan a public course specifically for you.

Waiting List Request

(If you already have 3 or more participants, we will discuss your preferred date directly with you and announce the course.)

More about OpenBao



OpenBao is a community-driven fork of HashiCorp Vault that emerged after Vault's license change. OpenBao remains fully open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 and provides a sustainable alternative for secrets management.




History and Development


OpenBao emerged in 2023 as a response to HashiCorp's decision to place Vault under the Business Source License (BSL). The Linux Foundation initiated the project to ensure a fully open-source alternative controlled by the community.


The project is governed by a governance board consisting of representatives from various companies and the community. OpenBao maintains API compatibility with Vault while pursuing an independent development direction. Development focuses on transparency, community participation, and sustainable open-source principles.


Today, OpenBao is being adopted by companies that prefer vendor-independent infrastructures and require long-term open-source guarantees. The project demonstrates how the community can respond to license changes and create sustainable alternatives. Growing support from cloud providers and enterprise users demonstrates confidence in the community-driven model.