---
layout: "guides"
page_title: "Vault Operations - Guides"
sidebar_current: "guides-operations"
description: |-
  Vault architecture guide covers Vault infrastructure discussions including
  installation.   
---

# Vault Operations

Vault Operations guides address Vault infrastructure discussions.  These
guides are designed to help the operations team to plan and install a Vault
cluster that meets your organization's needs.

- [Production Hardening](/guides/operations/production.html) guide provides
guidance on best practices for a production hardened deployment of Vault.
The recommendations are based on the [security model](/docs/internals/security.html)
and focus on defense in depth.
- [Replication Setup & Guidance](/guides/operations/replication.html)
walks you through the commands to activate the Vault servers in replication mode.
Please note that [Vault Replication](/docs/vault-enterprise/replication/index.html)
is a Vault Enterprise feature.
- [Root Token Generation](/guides/operations/generate-root.html) guide
demonstrates the workflow of regenerating root tokens. It is considered to be a
best practice not to persist the initial **root** token. If a root token needs
to be regenerated, this guide helps you walk through the task.
- [Rekeying & Rotating](/guides/operations/rekeying-and-rotating.html) guide
provides a high-level overview of Shamir's Secret Sharing Algorithm, and how to
perform _rekey_ and _rotate_ operations in Vault.
- [Building Plugin Backends](/guides/operations/plugin-backends.html) guide
provides steps to build, register, and mount non-database external plugin
backends.