AWS, Azure, GCP and external auth methods

Auth methods are the components in Vault that perform authentication and are responsible for assigning identity and a set of policies to a user. In all cases, Vault will enforce authentication as part of the request processing. In most cases, Vault will delegate the authentication administration and decision to the relevant configured external auth method (e.g., Amazon Web Services, GitHub, Google Cloud Platform, Kubernetes, Microsoft Azure, Okta ...).

Having multiple auth methods enables you to use an auth method that makes the most sense for your use case of Vault and your organization.

For example, on developer machines, the GitHub auth method is easiest to use. But for servers the AppRole method is the recommended choice.

To learn more about authentication, see the authentication concepts page.

External auth method considerations

When using an external auth method (e.g., GitHub), Vault will call the external service at the time of authentication and for subsequent token renewals. If the status of an entity changes in the external system (e.g., an account expires or is disabled), Vault denies requests to renew tokens associated with the entity. However, any existing token remain valid for the original grant period unless they are explicitly revoked within Vault. Operators should set appropriate token TTLs when using external authN methods.