VA-003 Manage Vault leases Practice Question
A Vault operator wants to manage lease durations for secrets issued by a PKI secrets engine. Which two actions can they take to affect the lease duration of certificates?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse the 'default_lease_ttl' on the mount (which is a fallback) with the role-level 'ttl' (which is the direct control), or mistakenly think auth method lease settings apply to secrets engine leases.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Configure the 'ttl' parameter in the PKI role definition.
The 'ttl' parameter in a PKI role definition directly controls the lease duration (time-to-live) for certificates issued by that role. This is the primary mechanism for setting how long a certificate is valid, overriding the mount-level default if specified.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set the 'default_lease_ttl' on the auth method used to log in.
Why it's wrong here
The auth method's default_lease_ttl affects token lifetimes, not secrets engine leases.
- ✗
Set the 'max_lease_ttl' on the auth method used to log in.
Why it's wrong here
The auth method's max_lease_ttl limits authentication token lifetimes, not secrets engine lease durations.
- ✓
Configure the 'ttl' parameter in the PKI role definition.
Why this is correct
The 'ttl' parameter in a PKI role overrides the mount's default lease TTL for certificates issued by that role.
- ✗
Set the 'lease_duration' parameter in the PKI role definition.
Why it's wrong here
PKI roles do not have a 'lease_duration' parameter; the correct parameter is 'ttl'.
- ✓
Set the 'default_lease_ttl' on the PKI secrets engine mount.
Why this is correct
The mount's default lease TTL sets the default lease duration for all secrets issued by that engine, including certificates.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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