engine-what-is.md

copyright	lastupdated	keywords	subcollection
years 2020, 2024	2024-10-10	secrets engines, engine configurations, IAM credentials engine, public certificates engine	secrets-manager

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What is a secrets engine?

{: #secrets-engines}

Secrets engines{: term} are components in {{site.data.keyword.secrets-manager_full}} that are used to process operations for secrets of different types. {: shortdesc}

Learning about engine configurations

{: #secrets-engines-about}

In {{site.data.keyword.secrets-manager_short}}, a secrets engine serves as the back end for a specific type of secret, such as a password or an API key. Depending on its type, a secrets engine can store data, generate secrets on demand, and more.

Some engines require a configuration before you can enable them for your instance. For example, when you try to order SSL/TLS certificates or create IAM credentials for the first time, a message is displayed to show that an engine configuration is required.

{: caption="Example - Engine configuration required" caption-side="bottom"}

What's in a configuration?

{: #secrets-engine-components}

Engine configurations that you add to your instance contain the properties that the service can use to enable operations for a secret type. For example, if you define certificate authority (CA) and DNS provider configurations for your instance, you can use {{site.data.keyword.secrets-manager_short}} to order public certificates (public_cert).

Check out the following image to see how a configuration is structured.

{: caption="JSON representation of {{site.data.keyword.secrets-manager_short}} engine configuration" caption-side="bottom"}

1. The name and type fields hold identifying information about a configuration.

2. The config object contains the actual configuration details.

   When you use the {{site.data.keyword.secrets-manager_short}} API to set the configuration of a secret type, the properties that you add to the config object differ depending on the type of configuration that you are adding. For example, the following truncated example shows how the configuration model is represented for a certificate authority (CA) configuration.

   {
       "name": "my-lets-encrypt-config",
       "type": "letsencrypt",
       "config": {
           "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIICdgIBADANB...(redacted)"
       }
   }

   {: screen}

How do I get started?

{: #secrets-engines-get-started}

To get started with secrets, you can go to the Secrets engines page of the {{site.data.keyword.secrets-manager_short}} UI, or check out the API reference to learn more about managing secret types programmatically.