Quickstart: Create a key vault using PowerShell
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that provides a secure store for keys, secrets, and certificates. For more information on Key Vault, see About Azure Key Vault; for more information on what can be stored in a key vault, see About keys, secrets, and certificates.
If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.
Azure Cloud Shell
Azure hosts Azure Cloud Shell, an interactive shell environment that you can use through your browser. You can use either Bash or PowerShell with Cloud Shell to work with Azure services. You can use the Cloud Shell preinstalled commands to run the code in this article, without having to install anything on your local environment.
To start Azure Cloud Shell:
Option | Example/Link |
---|---|
Select Try It in the upper-right corner of a code or command block. Selecting Try It doesn't automatically copy the code or command to Cloud Shell. | ![]() |
Go to https://shell.azure.com, or select the Launch Cloud Shell button to open Cloud Shell in your browser. | ![]() |
Select the Cloud Shell button on the menu bar at the upper right in the Azure portal. | ![]() |
To use Azure Cloud Shell:
Start Cloud Shell.
Select the Copy button on a code block (or command block) to copy the code or command.
Paste the code or command into the Cloud Shell session by selecting Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows and Linux, or by selecting Cmd+Shift+V on macOS.
Select Enter to run the code or command.
In this quickstart, you create a key vault with Azure PowerShell. If you choose to install and use PowerShell locally, this tutorial requires Azure PowerShell module version 1.0.0 or later. Type $PSVersionTable.PSVersion
to find the version. If you need to upgrade, see Install Azure PowerShell module. If you are running PowerShell locally, you also need to run Connect-AzAccount
to create a connection with Azure.
Connect-AzAccount
Create a resource group
A resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources are deployed and managed. Use the Azure PowerShell New-AzResourceGroup cmdlet to create a resource group named myResourceGroup in the eastus location.
New-AzResourceGroup -Name "myResourceGroup" -Location "EastUS"
Create a key vault
Use the Azure PowerShell New-AzKeyVault cmdlet to create a Key Vault in the resource group from the previous step. You need to provide some information:
Key vault name: A string of 3 to 24 characters that can contain only numbers (0-9), letters (a-z, A-Z), and hyphens (-)
Important
Each key vault must have a unique name. Replace <your-unique-keyvault-name> with the name of your key vault in the following examples.
Resource group name: myResourceGroup.
The location: EastUS.
New-AzKeyVault -Name "<your-unique-keyvault-name>" -ResourceGroupName "myResourceGroup" -Location "EastUS"
The output of this cmdlet shows properties of the newly created key vault. Take note of these two properties:
- Vault Name: The name you provided to the -Name parameter.
- Vault URI: In the example, this URI is https://<your-unique-keyvault-name>.vault.azure.net/. Applications that use your vault through its REST API must use this URI.
At this point, your Azure account is the only one authorized to perform any operations on this new vault.
Clean up resources
Other quickstarts and tutorials in this collection build upon this quickstart. If you plan to continue on to work with other quickstarts and tutorials, you may want to leave these resources in place.
When no longer needed, you can use the Azure PowerShell Remove-AzResourceGroup cmdlet to remove the resource group and all related resources.
Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name "myResourceGroup"
Next steps
In this quickstart you created a Key Vault using Azure PowerShell. To learn more about Key Vault and how to integrate it with your applications, continue on to the articles below.
- Read an Overview of Azure Key Vault
- See the reference for the Azure PowerShell Key Vault cmdlets
- Review the Azure Key Vault security overview .md)