HSM Deployment Checklist

Use this checklist when deploying HSM-backed key management to production.

Pre-Deployment

Planning

Choose HSM provider (AWS KMS or Google Cloud KMS)
Review security requirements and compliance needs
Estimate costs based on expected signing volume
Schedule deployment window
Notify stakeholders

Infrastructure Setup

Create KMS key in chosen provider
Configure IAM policies/service accounts
Test IAM permissions
Set up monitoring and alerting
Configure audit logging (CloudTrail/Cloud Audit Logs)

Development

Install KMS SDK dependencies

npm install @aws-sdk/client-kms  # or @google-cloud/kms

Update configuration files
Create Kubernetes secrets/configmaps
Update deployment manifests

Testing

Test in development environment
Test in staging environment
Verify signing operations work
Verify public key retrieval
Load test signing performance
Test error handling and retries
Verify monitoring and alerts

Deployment

Backup

Backup current Kubernetes secrets

kubectl get secret oracle-secrets -o yaml > backup-secrets.yaml

Backup current deployment

kubectl get deployment oracle -o yaml > backup-deployment.yaml

Document current configuration
Save rollback procedures

Deploy

Create new secrets with HSM configuration
Update deployment manifest
Apply changes to Kubernetes
```
kubectl apply -f k8s/production/
```

Monitor rollout

kubectl rollout status deployment/oracle

Verification

Check pod logs for successful initialization

kubectl logs -f deployment/oracle | grep "KeyService initialized"

Verify provider type in logs

Expected: "KeyService initialized with aws-kms provider"

Test signing operation
Monitor error rates
Check latency metrics
Verify audit logs are being generated

Post-Deployment

Monitoring (First 24 Hours)

Monitor signing success rate (target: 100%)
Monitor signing latency (expected: 10-50ms)
Monitor KMS API errors (target: 0)
Monitor application logs for errors
Check KMS usage and costs
Verify audit logs are complete

Cleanup (After 48 Hours)

Verify system stability

Remove old secrets

kubectl delete secret oracle-secrets-old

Remove backup files from secure storage
Update documentation
Notify stakeholders of successful migration

Documentation

Rollback Checklist

If issues occur:

Quick Rollback

Apply backup deployment
```
kubectl apply -f backup-deployment.yaml
```
Verify rollback successful
Check logs for errors
Notify stakeholders

Full Rollback

Restore secrets
```
kubectl apply -f backup-secrets.yaml
```
Restore deployment
```
kubectl apply -f backup-deployment.yaml
```
Verify system operational
Document rollback reason
Plan remediation

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"AWS SDK not installed"

Install SDK: npm install @aws-sdk/client-kms
Rebuild Docker image
Redeploy

"Access Denied" from KMS

Verify IAM permissions
Check IAM role/service account binding
Test KMS access manually
Review CloudTrail/Audit logs

High Latency

Check network connectivity to KMS
Verify KMS endpoint region
Check for rate limiting
Review application logs

Signing Failures

Check KMS key status
Verify key permissions
Check application logs
Test KMS access manually

Success Criteria

Deployment is successful when:

All pods running and healthy
Logs show correct provider initialization
Signing operations succeeding at 100%
Latency within acceptable range (10-50ms)
No KMS API errors
Audit logs being generated
Monitoring and alerts working
No increase in application errors
Stakeholders notified

Contacts

Escalation

DevOps Team: [contact info]
Security Team: [contact info]
On-Call Engineer: [contact info]

Vendor Support

AWS Support: [case link]
Google Cloud Support: [case link]

References

Deployment Date: _______________
Deployed By: _______________
Approved By: _______________
Rollback Plan Tested: [ ] Yes [ ] No

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HSM_DEPLOYMENT_CHECKLIST.md

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