Generate an admin token

HCP Vault Dedicated clusters operate from the admin namespace, unlike a self-managed Vault Enterprise cluster which operates from the root namespace.

The admin token generated from the HCP Portal provides administrative access to the admin namespace. The root namespace is reserved for platform operations and not customer accessible.

Recommended practice for Vault administrators

The admin token generated in the HCP Portal should be used for initial configuration or emergency access only.

You can mitigate the risk of not being able to generate admin tokens during a platform outage by setting up appropriate authentication within Vault to generate tokens that provide the necessary administrative access.

Refer to Authentication method documentation for more information on configuring Vault auth methods.

Log into the HCP Portal.
From the Vault clusters page, click the Vault cluster you want to generate an admin token for.
Under Quick actions click Generate token.
When the token generation process completes, click Copy.
You can use the admin token to log in to Vault using the Vault CLI or Vault UI.