Efficiently manage and safeguard Content Software for File system keys through strategic KMS configurations and best practices. Optimize security and operational resilience.
When establishing an encrypted filesystem within the Content Software for File system, the usage of a Key Management System (KMS) is imperative to ensure the secure management of encryption keys.
The Content Software for File system relies on the KMS for encrypting filesystem keys, and during system startup, it employs the KMS to decrypt these keys, leveraging its in-memory capabilities for data encryption and decryption operations.
The Snap-To-Object feature, employed for taking snapshots, includes the storage of the encrypted filesystem key along with the encrypted data. Subsequently, when promoting such a snapshot to a different filesystem or recovering from a disaster within the Content Software for File cluster, the KMS decrypts the filesystem key. Therefore, the presence of the same KMS data is crucial for these operations. To enhance security, the Content Software for File system refrains from saving any information that could reconstruct KMS encryption keys, relying solely on the KMS configuration. This necessitates careful consideration of the following:
- Disaster recovery strategy: Loss of the KMS configuration may result in the loss of encrypted data. It is imperative to establish a robust Disaster Recovery (DR) strategy when deploying the KMS in a production environment.
- High availability: The KMS must be available during system startup, when creating a new filesystem, and periodically during key rotations. Therefore, maintaining high availability for the KMS is strongly recommended.
The Content Software for File system supports the following KMS types:
- KMIP-compliant KMS (protocol version 1.2 and up)
- HashiCorp Vault version 1.1.5 up to 1.14.x (not limited to the KMIP-compliant version). For setup instructions, see the Set up vault configuration topic.