How to connect a compatible product using KMIP protocol
Objective
The purpose of this guide is to show you the usage of the KMIP protocol and the different operations and types supported by the OVHcloud KMS.
Requirements
Instructions
Description
KMIP (Key Management Interoperability Protocol) is a protocol designed to standardise the communications with a KMS.
So any products supporting KMIP (such as VMware vSphere, Veeam, Nutanix, etc.) can natively be interfaced with a KMIP compatible KMS such as the OVHcloud KMS, hosted by OVHcloud or not.
It brings an easy connection, and a reversible configuration.
Connection of a KMIP compatible product with the OVHcloud KMS
The configuration depends on the product to integrate, but does not need any specific configuration on the OVHcloud KMS other than generating an access certificate. Softwares editors usually offer dedicated guides for this purpose.
As an example, the following products were validated with the OVHcloud KMS :
Direct use
It's also possible to use the KMIP API directly.
Authentication on this protocol is done with a client certificate, in the same way as for the REST API. It needs to open a TLS channel with a valid access certificate.
Then it's possible to exchange KMIP messages such as defined in the standard. Depending on the technology stack, we recommend the following libraries:
- PyKMIP for python: https://github.com/OpenKMIP/PyKMIP.
- Libkmip for C: https://github.com/OpenKMIP/libkmip.
You can use as well our SDK for Go: https://github.com/ovh/kmip-go
IAM Rights
KMIP operations with IAM users need specific authorisations as described below:
KMIP coverage
The OVHcloud KMS covers a part of 1.0 to 1.4 versions of the KMIP standard.
Details of the coverage are available here:
Legend:
- N/A : Not Applicable
- ✅ : Fully compatible
- 🚧 : Partially compatible
- ❌ : Not implemented
- 🚫 : Deprecated
Messages
Operations
Managed Objects
Base Objects
Transparent Key Structures
Attributes
Go further
The OASIS website.
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