KV secrets engine
The kv secrets engine is a generic Key-Value store used to store arbitrary
secrets within the configured physical storage for OpenBao. This backend can be
run in one of two modes; either it can be configured to store a single value
for a key or, versioning can be enabled and a configurable number of versions
for each key will be stored.
KV version 1
When running the kv secrets backend non-versioned, only the most recently
written value for a key will be preserved. The benefits of non-versioned kv
is a reduced storage size for each key since no additional metadata or history
is stored. Additionally, requests going to a backend configured this way will be
more performant because for any given request there will be fewer storage calls
and no locking.
More information about running in this mode can be found in the K/V Version 1 Docs
KV version 2
When running v2 of the kv backend a key can retain a configurable number of
versions. This defaults to 10 versions. The older versions' metadata and data
can be retrieved. Additionally, Check-and-Set operations can be used to avoid
overwriting data unintentionally.
When a version is deleted the underlying data is not removed, rather it is marked as deleted. Deleted versions can be undeleted. To permanently remove a version's data the destroy command or API endpoint can be used. Additionally all versions and metadata for a key can be deleted by deleting on the metadata command or API endpoint. Each of these operations can be ACL'ed differently, restricting who has permissions to soft delete, undelete, or fully remove data.
More information about running in this mode can be found in the K/V Version 2 Docs