Introduction

Effective password management is crucial in today’s digital landscape where security threats are increasingly sophisticated. Vaultwarden offers a robust solution for safeguarding passwords, making it a valuable tool for individuals and organizations alike. This series focuses on automating the deployment and management of Vaultwarden using Ansible on Red Hat-like systems such as AlmaLinux, CentOS, and Rocky Linux. Administrators can ensure consistent setup and enhanced security by automating these processes while leveraging complementary technologies like Podman, Quadlets, Duplicati, and Cloudflare Tunnel. This introduction sets the stage for exploring how to establish a secure and efficient password management solution through automated deployment strategies.

Brief introduction to Vaultwarden and its purpose

Vaultwarden, formerly known as Bitwarden RS, is an open-source password manager that provides secure storage and management of sensitive information such as passwords, secure notes, and personal data. It allows users to store their credentials in an encrypted vault, accessible via a user-friendly web interface and various client applications across different platforms. More information on the official website.

Key Features of Vaultwarden

• Security: Vaultwarden encrypts all data before it leaves the user’s device, ensuring that only encrypted data is stored on its servers.
• Cross-Platform Support: It supports a wide range of client applications including:
  • Web Interface: Accessible through any modern web browser, providing full functionality for managing passwords and other secure information.
  • Desktop Applications: Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a native experience with offline access to passwords.
  • Mobile Apps: Available for iOS and Android, enabling users to access their vault on the go and sync across devices seamlessly.
  • Browser Extensions: Extensions for popular browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, allowing convenient access and autofill capabilities.

Vaultwarden’s versatility and commitment to security make it a preferred choice for individuals and organizations seeking reliable password management solutions across multiple devices and platforms.

Importance of automated installation and management

Automated installation, management, backup, and restore processes are pivotal in ensuring the seamless deployment and continuous operation of software solutions like Vaultwarden. Administrators can achieve several critical objectives by automating these tasks using tools such as Ansible and Duplicati. Firstly, automation guarantees consistency and reliability across deployments, minimizing the risk of human error and ensuring that Vaultwarden operates predictably across different environments. Secondly, automated backups and restores are essential for business continuity. They enable swift recovery from data loss incidents, whether due to hardware failure, accidental deletions, or security breaches. This proactive approach to data protection ensures that sensitive information stored in Vaultwarden remains accessible and secure at all times. Additionally, automation facilitates regular updates and maintenance, enhancing system security by promptly applying patches and configurations. Overall, automated installation, management, backup, and restore processes are indispensable for maintaining operational efficiency, safeguarding sensitive data, and enabling uninterrupted access to password management services.

Overview of the components: Podman, Quadlets, Duplicati, and Cloudflare Tunnel

In deploying Vaultwarden with enhanced security and automation, several complementary technologies play integral roles:

• Podman offers a robust container management solution that enhances security by enabling the execution of rootless containers. Unlike traditional container engines, Podman allows containers to run without requiring elevated privileges, thereby reducing the attack surface on the host system. This approach enhances security by isolating applications like Vaultwarden within their own lightweight, sandboxed environments, ensuring that potential security breaches are contained within the container.
• Quadlets provide a seamless integration with systemd, the init system for many Linux distributions. This integration allows services encapsulated within Podman containers to start and boot alongside other system services. By leveraging systemd’s native capabilities, Quadlets streamline the management of Vaultwarden and Duplicati, enabling automatic startup, dependency management, and consistent behavior across system reboots.
• Duplicati, as a versatile backup solution, supports a wide range of destinations where Vaultwarden data can be securely stored. Examples of destinations include:
  • Local File System: Backups can be stored on local drives or network-attached storage (NAS) devices.
  • Cloud Storage Services: Integration with cloud providers like Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, and others allows backups to be stored off-site for added redundancy and disaster recovery.
  • FTP/SFTP: Backups can be transferred securely over FTP or SFTP protocols to remote servers.
  • Duplicati Server: Duplicati can also be configured to back up data to another instance of Duplicati, providing an additional layer of redundancy.

By offering such diverse backup destinations, Duplicati ensures that Vaultwarden data remains protected and accessible even in the event of hardware failures, data corruption, or other unforeseen incidents.

• Cloudflare Tunnel enhances security by securely publishing Vaultwarden without exposing ports directly to the internet. It leverages Cloudflare’s infrastructure to establish a secure tunnel between the client and the server, ensuring encrypted data transmission and protecting against unauthorized access.

Together, these technologies form a robust ecosystem that supports the automated deployment, secure operation, and reliable backup of Vaultwarden, catering to both individual users and organizations seeking scalable and resilient password management solutions.

Prerequisites

Before deploying Vaultwarden with automated tools on your Red Hat-like system (such as AlmaLinux, CentOS, or Rocky Linux), ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

System Requirements

Verify that your server meets the minimum system requirements for hosting Vaultwarden and associated services. This includes sufficient CPU, RAM, and disk space to accommodate containerized applications and backups. On my machine that is 2 CPU’s, 2 GB RAM and 30 GB disk space.

Required Software

As the installation is largely automated, the only required software to start is Ansible and Git.

• Ansible: Install Ansible, a powerful automation tool used to orchestrate the deployment and management of Vaultwarden and its dependencies. The Ansible playbook will install Podman. The cloudflare tunnel needs to be configured manually.
• Git: Install Git to clone the GitHub repository containing the Ansible playbooks and configuration files necessary for the deployment.

Initial Setup of the Red Hat-like System:

Ensure your Red Hat-like system (AlmaLinux, CentOS, Rocky Linux,…) is installed and updated to the latest stable release.

sudo dnf install epel-release -y 
sudo dnf update -y 

When the system is ready, install Ansible and Git.

sudo dnf install ansible git -y

In part 2 we will install Vaultwarden.