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Configure external key management overview

Contributors netapp-ahibbard 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).

Note 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) supports Onboard Key Manager in ONTAP 9.1 and later. Beginning in ONTAP 9.3, NVE supports external key management (KMIP) and Onboard Key Manager. Beginning in ONTAP 9.10.1, you can use Azure Key Vault or Google Cloud Key Manager Service to protect your NVE keys. Beginning in ONTAP 9.11.1, you can configure multiple external key managers in a cluster. See Configure clustered key servers.