Running dynamic, ephemeral multi-hop workers for HCP Boundary: Part 1

HashiCorp Boundary provides secure session access to workloads on private networks, addressing challenges with traditional approaches like jump boxes and bastion hosts. The platform consists of two architectural components: Controller and Workers. Workers are dynamic, can be managed in a stateless way without persistent storage, and come in two flavors - ingress and egress workers. A custom Boundary secrets engine using HashiCorp Vault facilitates the deployment of ephemeral workers as Nomad jobs, automating tasks like worker cleanup, token management, and revocation. The engine allows for on-demand, short-lived controller-led worker entries, tied to the lifecycle of their workload, mitigating worker sprawl risks.