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Chris S. Kim committed Jun 21, 2023
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14 changes: 7 additions & 7 deletions website/content/docs/connect/ca/index.mdx
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client agents for HTTP API TLS, and for mTLS for RPC requests to servers.

Any secondary datacenters use their CA provider to generate an intermediate certificate
signing request (CSR) to be signed by the Primary Root CA. They receive an intermediate
CA certificate which is used to sign leaf certificates in the secondary datacenter.
signing request (CSR) to be signed by the primary root CA. They receive an intermediate
CA certificate, which is used to sign leaf certificates in the secondary datacenter.

It is possible to use different providers across primary and secondary datacenters.
You can use different providers across primary and secondary datacenters.
For example, an operator may use a Vault CA provider for extra security in the primary
datacenter but choose to use the built-in CA provider in the secondary datacenter which
may not have a reachable Vault cluster. The pros and cons of both providers are listed below.
datacenter but choose to use the built-in CA provider in the secondary datacenter, which
may not have a reachable Vault cluster. The following table compares the built-in and Vault providers.

## CA Provider Comparison

| | Consul built-in | Vault |
|------------|------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Security | CA private keys are stored on disk | CA private keys are stored in Vault and are never exposed to Consul server agents |
| Resiliency | No dependency on external systems. If Consul is available, it can sign certificates | Dependent on Vault availability |
| Latency | Consul signs certificates locally | A network call to Vault is required to sign certificates |
| Resiliency | No dependency on external systems. If Consul is available, it can sign certificates | Dependent on Vault availability |
| Latency | Consul signs certificates locally | A network call to Vault is required to sign certificates |

## CA Bootstrapping

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7 changes: 4 additions & 3 deletions website/content/docs/connect/ca/vault.mdx
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# Vault as a Service Mesh Certificate Authority

You can configure Consul to use [Vault](https://www.vaultproject.io/) as the certificate authority (CA) so that Vault can manage and sign certificates distributed to services in the mesh.
You can configure Consul to use [Vault](/vault) as the certificate authority (CA) so that Vault can manage and sign certificates distributed to services in the mesh.
The Vault CA provider uses the [Vault PKI secrets engine](/vault/docs/secrets/pki) to generate and sign certificates.
This page describes how configure the Vault CA provider.

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- For best performance and resiliency, every datacenter should have a Vault cluster local to its Consul cluster.

- In WAN-federated environments, Vault Enterprise users using [performance secondaries](/vault/docs/enterprise/replication#performance-replication) in their secondary datacenters
are recommended to use [`local`](/vault/docs/enterprise/replication#local) mounts for their [`intermediate_pki_path`](/consul/docs/connect/ca/vault#intermediatepkipath).
- If your Consul datacenters are WAN-federated and the secondary datacenter uses Vault Enterprise
[performance secondaries](/vault/docs/enterprise/replication#performance-replication), we recommend
configuring [`local`](/vault/docs/enterprise/replication#local) mounts for their [`intermediate_pki_path`](/consul/docs/connect/ca/vault#intermediatepkipath).

## Enable Vault as the CA

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