Secret XML format

Secret XML

Secrets stored by libvirt may have attributes associated with them, using the secret element. The secret element has two optional attributes, each with values 'yes' and 'no', and defaulting to 'no':

ephemeral
This secret must only be kept in memory, never stored persistently.
private
The value of the secret must not be revealed to any caller of libvirt, nor to any other node.

The top-level secret element may contain the following elements:

uuid
An unique identifier for this secret (not necessarily in the UUID format). If omitted when defining a new secret, a random UUID is generated.
description
A human-readable description of the purpose of the secret.
usage
Specifies what this secret is used for. A mandatory type attribute specifies the usage category, currently only volume and ceph are defined. Specific usage categories are described below.

Usage type "volume"

This secret is associated with a volume, and it is safe to delete the secret after the volume is deleted. The <usage type='volume'> element must contain a single volume element that specifies the key of the volume this secret is associated with.

Usage type "ceph"

This secret is associated with a Ceph RBD (rados block device). The <usage type='ceph'> element must contain a single name element that specifies a usage name for the secret. The Ceph secret can then be used by UUID or by this usage name via the <auth> element of a disk device. Since 0.9.7.

Usage type "iscsi"

This secret is associated with an iSCSI target for CHAP authentication. The <usage type='iscsi'> element must contain a single target element that specifies a usage name for the secret. The iSCSI secret can then be used by UUID or by this usage name via the <auth> element of a disk device. Since 1.0.4.

Example

      <secret ephemeral='no' private='yes'>
         <description>LUKS passphrase for the main hard drive of our mail server</description>
         <usage type='volume'>
            <volume>/var/lib/libvirt/images/mail.img</volume>
         </usage>
      </secret>