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Configure external key management overview

Contributors netapp-ahibbard netapp-thomi netapp-aherbin
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You can use one or more external key management servers to secure the keys that the cluster uses to access encrypted data. An external key management server is a third-party system in your storage environment that serves keys to nodes using the Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP).

For ONTAP 9.1 and earlier versions, node management LIFs must be assigned to ports that are configured with the node management role before you can use the external key manager.

NetApp Volume Encryption (NVE) can be implemented with Onboard Key Manager in ONTAP 9.1 and later. In ONTAP 9.3 and later, NVE can be implemented with external key management (KMIP) and Onboard Key Manager. Beginning in ONTAP 9.11.1, you can configure multiple external key managers in a cluster. See Configure clustered key servers.