You can create secret references to store secrets at a central place in Connectivity studio. Wherever you need a secret in Connectivity studio, you can use a secret reference.

Benefits of using secret references are:

• One place to maintain secrets. For example, you can use a secret in several connectors. If the secret expires, you only update the secret reference instead of updating the secret separately for each applicable connector.
• When you use a secret reference, the secret is not shown or visible where the secret is applied. The secret is also not visible when you export or import project configurations.

Standard procedure

1.	Go to Connectivity studio > Setup > Secret > Secret reference.
2.	Sub-task: Create a manual secret reference.
2.1	Click New.
2.2	In the Secret reference field, type a value.
2.3	In the Description field, type a value.
2.4	Usually, you use different secret references for different environments. To strictly distinguish between different environments, set up unique secret references for each of your environment types.
	In the Environment types field, select an option.
2.5	For informational purposes, you can enter the expiry date of the secret.
	In the Expiring date field, enter a date.
2.6	In the Manual secret field, enter a self-defined secret or password.
3.	Sub-task: Create a key vault secret reference.
3.1	Click New.
3.2	In the Secret reference field, type a value.
3.3	In the Description field, type a value.
3.4	Usually, you use different secret references for different environments. To strictly distinguish between different environments, set up unique secret references for each of your environment types.
	In the Environment types field, select an option.
3.5	For informational purposes, you can enter the expiry date of the secret.
	In the Expiring date field, enter a date.
3.6	You can use a key vault as secret of a secret reference. So, the secret reference refers to the key vault. For more information, refer to Set up the Azure Key Vault client.
	Select or clear the Key Vault check box.
3.7	Expand the Key Vault section.
3.8	In the Name field, enter or select the desired key vault.
4.	Sub-task: Create a certificate secret reference.
4.1	Click New.
4.2	In the Secret reference field, type a value.
4.3	In the Description field, type a value.
4.4	Usually, you use different secret references for different environments. To strictly distinguish between different environments, set up unique secret references for each of your environment types.
	In the Environment types field, select an option.
4.5	For informational purposes, you can enter the expiry date of the secret.
	In the Expiring date field, enter a date.
4.6	You can use a private key certificate as secret of a secret reference.
	Select or clear the Certificate check box.
	Note: In Connectivity studio, you can only use certificates for SFTP file actions on a Azure file storage connector.
4.7	Expand the Certificate section.
4.8	Click Upload private key certificate.
4.9	On the dialog, click Select private key file. Browse for and select the desired file.
4.10	Click OK.

Notes

You can encrypt the secrets of the secret references. To do so, set the Encryption key in the Connectivity studio parameters.