Quickstart: Azure Key Vault certificate client library for Go
In this quickstart, you'll learn to use the Azure SDK for Go to manage certificates in an Azure Key Vault.
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that works as a secure secrets store. You can securely store keys, passwords, certificates, and other secrets. For more information on Key Vault, you may review the Overview.
Follow this guide to learn how to use the azcertificates package to manage your Azure Key Vault certificates using Go.
Prerequisites
- An Azure subscription - create one for free.
- Go installed: Version 1.18 or above
- Azure CLI
Sign in to the Azure portal
In the Azure CLI, run the following command:
az login
If the Azure CLI can open your default browser, it will do so on the Azure portal sign-in page.
If the page doesn't open automatically, go to https://aka.ms/devicelogin, and then enter the authorization code that's displayed in your terminal.
Sign in to the Azure portal with your account credentials.
Create a resource group and key vault
This quickstart uses a precreated Azure key vault. You can create a key vault by following the steps in the Azure CLI quickstart, Azure PowerShell quickstart, or Azure portal quickstart.
Alternatively, you can run these Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell commands.
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.
az group create --name "myResourceGroup" -l "EastUS"
az keyvault create --name "<your-unique-keyvault-name>" -g "myResourceGroup" --enable-rbac-authorization
Grant access to your key vault
To gain permissions to your key vault through Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), assign a role to your "User Principal Name" (UPN) using the Azure CLI command az role assignment create.
az role assignment create --role "Key Vault Certificate Officer" --assignee "<upn>" --scope "/subscriptions/<subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<resource-group-name>/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/<your-unique-keyvault-name>"
Replace <upn>, <subscription-id>, <resource-group-name> and <your-unique-keyvault-name> with your actual values. Your UPN will typically be in the format of an email address (e.g., username@domain.com).
Create a new Go module and install packages
Run the following Go commands:
go mod init quickstart-go-kvcerts
go get github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/keyvault/azcertificates
go get github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azidentity
Create the sample code
Create a file named main.go
and copy the following code into the file:
package main
import (
"context"
"fmt"
"log"
"time"
"github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azcore/to"
"github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/azidentity"
"github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go/sdk/keyvault/azcertificates"
)
func getClient() *azcertificates.Client {
keyVaultName := os.Getenv("KEY_VAULT_NAME")
if keyVaultName == "" {
log.Fatal("KEY_VAULT_NAME environment variable not set")
}
keyVaultUrl := fmt.Sprintf("https://%s.vault.azure.net/", keyVaultName)
cred, err := azidentity.NewDefaultAzureCredential(nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
return azcertificates.NewClient(keyVaultUrl, cred, nil)
}
func createCert(client *azcertificates.Client) {
params := azcertificates.CreateCertificateParameters{
CertificatePolicy: &azcertificates.CertificatePolicy{
IssuerParameters: &azcertificates.IssuerParameters{
Name: to.Ptr("Self"),
},
X509CertificateProperties: &azcertificates.X509CertificateProperties{
Subject: to.Ptr("CN=DefaultPolicy"),
},
},
}
resp, err := client.CreateCertificate(context.TODO(), "myCertName", params, nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Requested a new certificate. Operation status: %s\n", *resp.Status)
}
func getCert(client *azcertificates.Client) {
// an empty string version gets the latest version of the certificate
version := ""
getResp, err := client.GetCertificate(context.TODO(), "myCertName", version, nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println("Enabled set to:", *getResp.Attributes.Enabled)
}
func listCert(client *azcertificates.Client) {
pager := client.NewListCertificatesPager(nil)
for pager.More() {
page, err := pager.NextPage(context.Background())
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
for _, cert := range page.Value {
fmt.Println(*cert.ID)
}
}
}
func updateCert(client *azcertificates.Client) {
// disables the certificate, sets an expires date, and add a tag
params := azcertificates.UpdateCertificateParameters{
CertificateAttributes: &azcertificates.CertificateAttributes{
Enabled: to.Ptr(false),
Expires: to.Ptr(time.Now().Add(72 * time.Hour)),
},
Tags: map[string]*string{"Owner": to.Ptr("SRE")},
}
// an empty string version updates the latest version of the certificate
version := ""
_, err := client.UpdateCertificate(context.TODO(), "myCertName", version, params, nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println("Updated certificate properites: Enabled=false, Expires=72h, Tags=SRE")
}
func deleteCert(client *azcertificates.Client) {
// DeleteCertificate returns when Key Vault has begun deleting the certificate. That can take several
// seconds to complete, so it may be necessary to wait before performing other operations on the
// deleted certificate.
resp, err := client.DeleteCertificate(context.TODO(), "myCertName", nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println("Deleted certificate with ID: ", *resp.ID)
}
func main() {
fmt.Println("Authenticating...")
client := getClient()
fmt.Println("Creating a certificate...")
createCert(client)
fmt.Println("Getting certificate Enabled property ...")
getCert(client)
fmt.Println("Listing certificates...")
listCert(client)
fmt.Println("Updating a certificate...")
updateCert(client)
fmt.Println("Deleting a certificate...")
deleteCert(client)
}
Run the code
Before you run the code, create an environment variable named KEY_VAULT_NAME
. Set the environment variable's value to the name of the Azure Key Vault created previously.
export KEY_VAULT_NAME=<YourKeyVaultName>
Next, run the following go run
command to run the app:
go run main.go
Code examples
See the module documentation for more examples.
Clean up resources
Run the following command to delete the resource group and all its remaining resources:
az group delete --resource-group myResourceGroup