Vaultwarden on Google Cloud Run

Vaultwarden is a lightweight, self-hosted Bitwarden-compatible password manager written in Rust. This module deploys Vaultwarden on Cloud Run v2 on top of the App_CloudRun foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Vaultwarden uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every Cloud Run application — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_CloudRun foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

Vaultwarden runs as a compiled Rust binary on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	Rust binary service, 1 vCPU / 512 Mi by default, request-based autoscaling
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 (default) or MySQL 8.0	Configurable engine; the init job adjusts automatically
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated vaultwarden-attachments bucket
Secrets	Secret Manager	Database password; Vaultwarden manages its own admin token internally
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL, optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• Registrations are closed by default. signups_allowed = false prevents anonymous account creation. Enable only during initial admin setup, then disable.
• No admin token is auto-generated. The /admin panel is disabled unless you provide ADMIN_TOKEN in environment_variables. This is the secure default.
• domain must be set for WebAuthn and TOTP. Without the full public URL, 2FA QR codes link to localhost and organisation invitation emails contain broken links.
• Health probes target /alive, Vaultwarden's dedicated lightweight health endpoint. Vaultwarden starts in seconds; the startup probe uses a 30 s initial delay.
• cpu_limit must be at least 1000m. Cloud Run gen2 with always-allocated CPU (required for a min_instance_count ≥ 1 password manager) requires at least 1 vCPU.
• execution_environment = "gen2" is the default and should not be changed; it is required for Unix socket connections to the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy.
• min_instance_count = 1 keeps the vault warm. Scale-to-zero makes a password manager unavailable for several seconds; Bitwarden clients show connection errors.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the Vaultwarden service

Vaultwarden runs as a Cloud Run v2 service that autoscales by request load between the minimum and maximum instance counts. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, logs, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL — PostgreSQL 15 or MySQL 8.0

Vaultwarden stores all vault data in a managed Cloud SQL instance. The default engine is PostgreSQL 15; set database_type = "MYSQL_8_0" to use MySQL instead. The service connects privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy over a Unix socket (no public IP). On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and user.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Cloud Storage

A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (vaultwarden-attachments) is provisioned for attachment files. The workload service account is granted access automatically.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<attachments-bucket>/    # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse mounts and CMEK options.

D. Secret Manager

The database password is stored in Secret Manager and injected into the service at runtime. Vaultwarden manages its own internal admin token and RSA signing keys within the /data directory — those are not stored in Secret Manager.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

E. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN (with caution — do not cache authenticated API responses), and Cloud Armor can be layered on. Cloud Armor is strongly recommended to protect the Vaultwarden login endpoint from brute-force attacks.

• Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

F. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks (targeting /alive) and alert policies.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

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3. Vaultwarden Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job creates the Vaultwarden database and user before the service starts. It is idempotent. The correct job image is selected automatically: postgres:15-alpine for PostgreSQL, mysql:8.0-debian for MySQL.
• No schema migrations on start. Vaultwarden manages its own internal schema evolution automatically; no migration command is needed.
• No scheduled tasks required. Unlike many web applications, Vaultwarden has no mandatory cron jobs. All vault operations are request-driven.
• Health path. Both the startup and liveness probes target /alive, which returns OK when the server is ready. The initial delay is 30 s, matching Vaultwarden's fast Rust startup.
• Admin panel. The /admin panel is disabled unless ADMIN_TOKEN is provided via environment_variables. Generate a secure random token (e.g. with openssl rand -base64 48) and inject it at runtime.
• SMTP for notifications. Vaultwarden uses SMTP for account verification, 2FA recovery codes, and emergency-access emails. Configure SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_FROM, SMTP_USERNAME, and SMTP_PASSWORD (via secret_environment_variables) as a complete set — partial SMTP configuration causes silent delivery failures.

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Vaultwarden are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the service and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources.

Group 3 — Application Identity & Vaultwarden Settings

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	vaultwarden	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
display_name	Vaultwarden Password Manager	Friendly name shown in the Console.
description	(set)	Service description.
application_version	1.32.7	Vaultwarden image version tag.
domain	""	Full public URL (e.g. https://vault.example.com). Required for WebAuthn, TOTP QR codes, org invites, and attachment links.
signups_allowed	false	Allow new user self-registration. Enable only during initial setup; disable immediately after creating admin accounts.
web_vault_enabled	true	Serve the Vaultwarden web UI. Disable for API-only access via native clients.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_source	custom	custom builds from the Dockerfile; prebuilt uses an existing image URI.
cpu_limit	1000m	CPU per instance. Minimum 1000m enforced by validation (Cloud Run gen2 requirement).
memory_limit	512Mi	Memory per instance. Vaultwarden is very lightweight at rest.
min_instance_count	1	Minimum instances. Keep ≥ 1 to avoid cold-start vault unavailability.
max_instance_count	3	Maximum instances (cost ceiling).
container_port	80	Vaultwarden's Rocket HTTP port. Must match ROCKET_PORT.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for Unix socket connections. Required.
execution_environment	gen2	Gen2 is required for Unix socket support. Do not change.
timeout_seconds	300	Maximum request duration in seconds (0–3600).
traffic_split	[]	Split traffic across revisions for staged rollouts.
max_revisions_to_retain	7	How many old revisions to keep for rollback.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control

Variable	Default	Description
ingress_settings	all	Which networks may reach the service (all / internal / internal-and-cloud-load-balancing).
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	How outbound traffic is routed through the VPC connector.
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in via Identity-Aware Proxy. Note: IAP may prevent native Bitwarden clients from connecting.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access through IAP.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	(SMTP/log defaults)	Plain-text settings. Core ROCKET_PORT, SIGNUPS_ALLOWED, WEB_VAULT_ENABLED, DATA_FOLDER, and optionally DOMAIN are injected automatically. Default includes LOG_LEVEL=warn, SHOW_PASSWORD_HINT=false, and SMTP stub values.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name (e.g. { SMTP_PASSWORD = "vaultwarden-smtp-pass" }).
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Secret Manager rotation notification cadence.

Group 7 — Backup & Restore

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	30	Retention; 30-day default reflects vault recovery importance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_uri / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy.

Group 8 — CI/CD & Binary Authorization

Standard App_CloudRun Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_CloudRun. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy, enable_binary_authorization, binauthz_evaluation_mode.

Group 9 — Custom SQL Scripts

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_CloudRun.

Group 10 — Load Balancer, CDN & Cloud Armor

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Recommended for Vaultwarden. Provisions a Global HTTPS LB + Cloud Armor WAF to protect the login endpoint from brute-force.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs allowed privileged access.
application_domains	[]	Custom hostnames. Also set domain to the full https:// URL.
enable_cdn	false	Cloud CDN. Do not cache authenticated API responses — ensure Cache-Control: no-store headers are in place.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	(set)	Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision the attachments bucket.
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix = "data" }]	Additional buckets.
enable_nfs	false	Optional Filestore NFS volume. Not required for Vaultwarden in Cloud Run (data is in Cloud SQL and GCS).
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	NFS mount path inside the container.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS Fuse volume mounts.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	POSTGRES_15 (default) or MYSQL_8_0. The init job image is selected automatically.
db_name	vaultwarden	Database name. Immutable after first deploy.
db_user	vaultwarden	Application user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_sec	off	DB password rotation.
db_host_env_var_name / db_user_env_var_name / db_name_env_var_name / db_port_env_var_name / service_url_env_var_name	""	Additional env var names under which connection details are injected.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in database setup job (selects the correct image for PostgreSQL or MySQL automatically).
cron_jobs	[]	Vaultwarden has no required scheduled tasks; add custom Cloud Run Jobs here if needed.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	HTTP /alive, 30 s delay, 6 failures	Vaultwarden's dedicated health path; 30 s matches fast Rust startup.
liveness_probe	HTTP /alive, 30 s delay, 3 failures	Liveness probe.
uptime_check_config	disabled, /alive	Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Metric alert policies.

Group 21 — Redis

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Vaultwarden does not use Redis natively. Leave disabled unless adding a custom integration.
redis_host / redis_port / redis_auth	(set)	Redis endpoint, port, and auth.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

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5. Outputs

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	Default run.app URL of the service.
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service URLs (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
signups_allowed	false	Critical	Any internet user can self-register on the vault while true. Disable immediately after creating admin accounts.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Critical	Vaultwarden connects to Cloud SQL via Unix socket; disabling causes all database connections to fail at startup.
db_name / db_user	set once	Critical	Changing after first deploy causes Vaultwarden to connect to an empty database; all credentials appear lost.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
domain	full https:// URL	High	Without it, TOTP QR codes link to localhost, org invite emails contain broken links, and attachment URLs are invalid.
database_type	set once	High	Changing after first deploy causes Vaultwarden to see an empty database; all credentials appear lost.
cpu_limit	1000m or more	High	Cloud Run gen2 with always-allocated CPU rejects values below 1000m at deploy time.
container_port	80	High	Must match ROCKET_PORT; a mismatch means Cloud Run health checks fail and all requests time out.
execution_environment	gen2	High	Gen1 does not support the Unix socket path used by the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy, causing database connection failures at startup.
min_instance_count	1	High	Scale-to-zero makes a password manager unavailable for 5–15 s on cold start; Bitwarden clients show connection errors.
enable_cloud_armor	enable for production	Medium	Without Cloud Armor, the Vaultwarden login endpoint is open to brute-force attacks from the internet.
enable_cdn	false or with cache controls	Medium	Caching authenticated API responses leaks vault data across users.
backup_retention_days	30 (raise for prod)	Medium	A password manager without adequate retention means credential loss on database failure.
enable_iap with native clients	use with care	Medium	IAP requires browser-based OAuth; native Bitwarden clients cannot complete the IAP flow.
smtp_* env vars	configure as a complete set	High	Partial SMTP configuration causes silent email delivery failures — 2FA recovery codes and invitation emails are never sent.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. Vaultwarden-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Vaultwarden_Common.