---
layout: docs
page_title: Integrated Storage - Storage Backends - Configuration
description: |-

  The Integrated Storage (Raft) backend is used to persist Vault's data. Unlike all the other
  storage backends, this backend does not operate from a single source for the
  data. Instead all the nodes in a Vault cluster will have a replicated copy of
  the entire data. The data is replicated across the nodes using the Raft
  Consensus Algorithm.
---

# Integrated storage (Raft) backend

The Integrated Storage backend is used to persist Vault's data. Unlike other storage
backends, Integrated Storage does not operate from a single source of data. Instead
all the nodes in a Vault cluster will have a replicated copy of Vault's data.
Data gets replicated across all the nodes via the [Raft Consensus
Algorithm][raft].

- **High Availability** – the Integrated Storage backend supports high availability.

- **HashiCorp Supported** – the Integrated Storage backend is officially supported
  by HashiCorp.

```hcl
storage "raft" {
  path = "/path/to/raft/data"
  node_id = "raft_node_1"
}
cluster_addr = "http://127.0.0.1:8201"
```

~> **Note:** When using the Integrated Storage backend, it is required to provide
[`cluster_addr`](/vault/docs/concepts/ha#per-node-cluster-address) to indicate the address and port to be used for communication
between the nodes in the Raft cluster.

~> **Note:** When using the Integrated Storage backend, a separate
[`ha_storage`](/vault/docs/configuration#ha_storage)
backend cannot be declared.

~> **Note:** When using the Integrated Storage backend, it is strongly recommended to
set [`disable_mlock`](/vault/docs/configuration#disable_mlock) to `true`, and to disable memory swapping on the system.

## `raft` parameters

- `path` `(string: "")` – The file system path where all the Vault data gets
  stored.
  This value can be overridden by setting the `VAULT_RAFT_PATH` environment variable.

- `node_id` `(string: "")` - The identifier for the node in the Raft cluster.
  This value can be overridden by setting the `VAULT_RAFT_NODE_ID` environment variable.

- `performance_multiplier` `(integer: 0)` - An integer multiplier used by 
  servers to scale key Raft timing parameters, where each increment translates to approximately 1 – 2 seconds of delay. For example, setting the multiplier to "3" translates to 3 – 6 seconds of total delay.  Tuning  the multiplier affects the time it
  takes Vault to detect leader failures and to perform leader elections, at the
  expense of requiring more network and CPU resources for better performance.
  Omitting this value or setting it to 0 uses default timing described below. 
  Lower values are used to tighten timing and increase sensitivity while higher 
  values relax timings and reduce sensitivity.


By default, Vault uses a balanced timing value of 5, which is suitable for most
platforms and scenarios. You should only adjust the timing value when platform
telemetry indicators that a change is needed or different timing is required due
to the overall reliability your platform (network, etc.).

Setting the timing value to 1 configures Raft to its highest performance (lowest
delay) mode. The maximum allowed value is 10. 

- `trailing_logs` `(integer: 10000)` - This controls how many log entries are
  left in the log store on disk after a snapshot is made. This should only be
  adjusted when followers cannot catch up to the leader due to a very large
  snapshot size and high write throughput causing log truncation before a
  snapshot can be fully installed. If you need to use this to recover a cluster,
  consider reducing write throughput or the amount of data stored on Vault. The
  default value is 10000 which is suitable for all normal workloads. The
  `trailing_logs` metric is not the same as `max_trailing_logs`.

- `snapshot_threshold` `(integer: 8192)` - This controls the minimum number of Raft
  commit entries between snapshots that are saved to disk. This is a low-level
  parameter that should rarely need to be changed. Very busy clusters
  experiencing excessive disk IO may increase this value to reduce disk IO and
  minimize the chances of all servers taking snapshots at the same time.
  Increasing this trades off disk IO for disk space since the log will grow much
  larger and the space in the `raft.db` file can't be reclaimed till the next
  snapshot. Servers may take longer to recover from crashes or failover if this
  is increased significantly as more logs will need to be replayed.

- `snapshot_interval` `(integer: 120 seconds)` - The snapshot interval
   controls how often Raft checks whether a snapshot operation is
   required. Raft randomly staggers snapshots between the configured
   interval and twice the configured interval to keep the entire cluster
   from performing a snapshot at once. The default snapshot interval is
   120 seconds.

- `retry_join` `(list: [])` - There can be one or more
  [`retry_join`](#retry_join-stanza) stanzas. When the Raft cluster is getting
  bootstrapped, if the connection details of all the nodes are known beforehand,
  then specifying this config stanzas enables the nodes to automatically join a
  Raft cluster. All the nodes would mention all other nodes that they could join
  using this config. When one of the nodes is initialized, it becomes the leader
  and all the other nodes will join the leader node to form the cluster. When
  using Shamir seal, the joined nodes will still need to be unsealed manually.
  See [the section below](#retry_join-stanza) that describes the parameters
  accepted by the [`retry_join`](#retry_join-stanza) stanza.

- `retry_join_as_non_voter` `(boolean: false)` - If set, causes any `retry_join`
  config to join the Raft cluster as a non-voter. The node will not participate
  in the Raft quorum but will still receive the data replication stream, adding
  read scalability to a cluster. This option has the same effect as the
  [`-non-voter`](/vault/docs/commands/operator/raft#non-voter) flag for the
  `vault operator raft join` command, but only affects voting status when joining
  via `retry_join` config. This setting can be overridden to true by setting the
  `VAULT_RAFT_RETRY_JOIN_AS_NON_VOTER` environment variable to any non-empty value.
  Only valid if there is at least one `retry_join` stanza.

- `max_entry_size` `(integer: 1048576)` - This configures the maximum number of
  bytes for a Raft entry. It applies to both Put operations and transactions.
  Any put or transaction operation exceeding this configuration value will cause
  the respective operation to fail. Raft has a suggested max size of data in a
  Raft log entry. This is based on current architecture, default timing, etc.
  Integrated Storage also uses a chunk size that is the threshold used for
  breaking a large value into chunks. By default, the chunk size is the same as
  Raft's max size log entry. The default value for this configuration is 1048576
  -- two times the chunking size.
  - **Note:** This option corresponds to [Consul's `kv_max_value_size` parameter](https://developer.hashicorp.com/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#kv_max_value_size) for
    Vault clusters using a Consul storage backend.  If you are migrating from Consul
    storage to Raft Integrated Storage,  and have changed this value in Consul from its
    default to a value larger than the Integrated Storage default of 1MB, then you will 
    need to make the same change in Vault's Integrated Storage config.

- `autopilot_reconcile_interval` `(string: "10s")` - This is the interval after
  which autopilot will pick up any state changes. State change could mean multiple
  things; for example a newly joined voter node, initially added as non-voter to
  the Raft cluster by autopilot has successfully completed the stabilization
  period thereby qualifying for being promoted as a voter, a node that has become
  unhealthy and needs to be shown as such in the state API, a node has been marked
  as dead needing eviction from Raft configuration, etc.

- `autopilot_update_interval` `(string: "2s")` - This is the interval after which
  autopilot will poll Vault for any updates to the information it cares about. This
  includes things like the autopilot configuration, current autopilot state, raft
  configuration, known servers, latest raft index, and stats for all the known servers.
  The information that autopilot receives will be used to calculate its next state.

- `autopilot_upgrade_version` `(string: "")` - This is an optional string that, if
  provided, will be used reported to autopilot as Vault's version. This is then used
  by autopilot when it makes decisions regarding
  [automated upgrades](/vault/docs/enterprise/automated-upgrades). If omitted, the
  version of Vault currently in use will be used. Note that this string must conform
  to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org). Use of this feature requires Vault
  Enterprise.

- `autopilot_redundancy_zone` `(string: "")` - This is an optional string that specifies
  Vault's [redundancy zone](/vault/docs/enterprise/redundancy-zones). This is reported to autopilot
  and is used to enhance scaling and resiliency. Use of this feature requires Vault Enterprise.

### `retry_join` stanza

- `leader_api_addr` `(string: "")` - Address of a possible leader node.

- `auto_join` `(string: "")` - Cloud auto-join configuration, using
  [go-discover](https://github.com/hashicorp/go-discover) syntax.

- `auto_join_scheme` `(string: "")` - The optional URI protocol scheme for addresses
  discovered via auto-join. Available values are `http` or `https`.

- `auto_join_port` `(uint: "")` - The optional port used for addressed discovered
  via auto-join.

- `leader_tls_servername` `(string: "")` - The TLS server name to use when
  connecting with HTTPS.
  Should match one of the names in the [DNS
  SANs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_Alternative_Name) of the remote
  server certificate.
  See also [Integrated Storage and TLS](/vault/docs/concepts/integrated-storage#autojoin-with-tls-servername)

- `leader_ca_cert_file` `(string: "")` - File path to the CA cert of the
  possible leader node.

- `leader_client_cert_file` `(string: "")` - File path to the client certificate
  for the follower node to establish client authentication with the possible
  leader node.

- `leader_client_key_file` `(string: "")` - File path to the client key for the
  follower node to establish client authentication with the possible leader node.

- `leader_ca_cert` `(string: "")` - CA cert of the possible leader node.

- `leader_client_cert` `(string: "")` - Client certificate for the follower node
  to establish client authentication with the possible leader node.

- `leader_client_key` `(string: "")` - Client key for the follower node to
  establish client authentication with the possible leader node.

Each [`retry_join`](#retry_join-stanza) block may provide TLS certificates via
file paths or as a single-line certificate string value with newlines delimited
by `\n`, but not a combination of both. Each [`retry_join`](#retry_join-stanza)
stanza may contain either a [`leader_api_addr`](#leader_api_addr) value or a
cloud [`auto_join`](#auto_join) configuration value, but not both. When an
[`auto_join`](#auto_join) value is provided, Vault will automatically attempt to
discover and resolve potential Raft leader addresses using [go-discover](https://github.com/hashicorp/go-discover).
See the go-discover
[README](https://github.com/hashicorp/go-discover/blob/master/README.md)
for details on the format of the `auto_join` value.

By default, Vault will attempt to reach discovered peers using HTTPS and port 8200. Operators may override these through the
[`auto_join_scheme`](#auto_join_scheme) and [`auto_join_port`](#auto_join_port)
fields respectively.

Example Configuration:

```hcl
storage "raft" {
  path    = "/Users/foo/raft/"
  node_id = "node1"

  retry_join {
    leader_api_addr = "http://127.0.0.2:8200"
    leader_ca_cert_file = "/path/to/ca1"
    leader_client_cert_file = "/path/to/client/cert1"
    leader_client_key_file = "/path/to/client/key1"
  }
  retry_join {
    leader_api_addr = "http://127.0.0.3:8200"
    leader_ca_cert_file = "/path/to/ca2"
    leader_client_cert_file = "/path/to/client/cert2"
    leader_client_key_file = "/path/to/client/key2"
  }
  retry_join {
    leader_api_addr = "http://127.0.0.4:8200"
    leader_ca_cert_file = "/path/to/ca3"
    leader_client_cert_file = "/path/to/client/cert3"
    leader_client_key_file = "/path/to/client/key3"
  }
  retry_join {
    auto_join = "provider=aws region=eu-west-1 tag_key=vault tag_value=... access_key_id=... secret_access_key=..."
  }
}
```

## Tutorial

Refer to the [Integrated
Storage](/vault/tutorials/raft) series of tutorials to learn more about implementing Vault using Integrated Storage.

[raft]: https://raft.github.io/ 'The Raft Consensus Algorithm'
