---
layout: docs
page_title: Vault ServiceNow Credential Resolver
description: >-
  The Vault Credential Resolver allows ServiceNow MID servers to use Vault as an enterprise-grade external secret store.
---

# Vault credential resolver

ServiceNow® MID servers can use the Vault Credential Resolver to consume secrets
directly from Vault for the purpose of performing discovery. See
[installation](/vault/docs/platform/servicenow/installation) and
[configuration](/vault/docs/platform/servicenow/configuration) for help getting started
with the Vault Credential Resolver.

## Overview

ServiceNow uses MID servers deployed inside customer networks to perform
agent-less discovery of their infrastructure. As infrastructure such as databases
or servers are discovered, their attributes such as address and software versions
are stored in a database. Naturally, this process requires a wide array of
credentials. Customers can use ServiceNow's built-in credential storage, or install
an external credential resolver to take advantage of their existing enterprise-grade
secret storage solution.

[![Architecture Overview](/img/servicenow-vault-credential-resolver-diagram.png)](/img/servicenow-vault-credential-resolver-diagram.png)

The Vault Credential Resolver is one such resolver. The MID server will not
store or cache any credentials marked as external, and will invoke the
credential resolver each time it requires credentials.

The Vault Credential Resolver is designed to communicate with a Vault Agent
service installed on the same machine as the MID server. Authentication is
handled between the Agent and Vault, and Vault Agent also handles caching and
renewing leased secrets to ensure the load on Vault is minimized.

### Features

The following features are supported by the Vault Credential Resolver:

- KV, Active Directory and AWS secret engines.
- Communication with Vault via Vault Agent.
- TLS communication with Vault Agent.
