Install Vault

There are several approaches to installing Vault:

Installing a Linux package is the easiest. If you develop or deploy on another platform, the precompiled binary will be easiest. We provide downloads over TLS along with SHA256 sums to verify the binary. We also distribute a PGP signature with the SHA256 sums that can be verified.

Package Manager

We build and sign official packages for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, Amazon Linux, and other distributions. Follow the instructions at HashiCorp Tutorials to add our PGP key, add our repository, and install.

Precompiled Binaries

To install the precompiled binary, download the appropriate package for your system. Vault is currently packaged as a zip file.

Once the zip is downloaded, unzip it into any directory. The vault binary inside is all that is necessary to run Vault (or vault.exe for Windows). No additional files are required to run Vault.

Copy the binary to anywhere on your system. If you intend to access it from the command-line, make sure to place it somewhere on your PATH.

Continue on to HashiCorp Tutorials to start a server, put your first secret, and use other features of Vault.

Compiling from Source

To compile from source, you will need Go installed and configured properly (including a GOPATH environment variable set), as well as a copy of git in your PATH.

Clone the Vault repository from GitHub into your GOPATH:

$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/hashicorp && cd $_
$ git clone https://github.com/hashicorp/vault.git
$ cd vault

Bootstrap the project. This will download and compile libraries and tools needed to compile Vault:

$ make bootstrap

Build Vault for your current system and put the binary in ./bin/ (relative to the git checkout). The make dev target is just a shortcut that builds vault for only your local build environment (no cross-compiled targets).

$ make dev

Verifying the Installation

To verify Vault is properly installed, run vault -h on your system. You should see help output. If you are executing it from the command line, make sure it is on your PATH or you may get an error about Vault not being found.

$ vault -h