--- /dev/null
+.. _gatherkeys:
+
+==========
+gatherkeys
+==========
+
+The ``gatherkeys`` subcommand provides an interface to get with a cluster's
+cephx bootstrap keys.
+
+keyrings
+========
+The ``gatherkeys`` subcommand retrieves the following keyrings.
+
+ceph.mon.keyring
+----------------
+This keyring is used by all mon nodes to communicate with other mon nodes.
+
+ceph.client.admin.keyring
+-------------------------
+This keyring is ceph client commands by default to administer the ceph cluster.
+
+ceph.bootstrap-osd.keyring
+--------------------------
+This keyring is used to generate cephx keyrings for OSD instances.
+
+ceph.bootstrap-mds.keyring
+--------------------------
+This keyring is used to generate cephx keyrings for MDS instances.
+
+ceph.bootstrap-rgw.keyring
+--------------------------
+This keyring is used to generate cephx keyrings for RGW instances.
+
+Example
+=======
+The ``gatherkeys`` subcommand contacts the mon and creates or retrieves existing
+keyrings from the mon internal store. To run::
+
+ ceph-deploy gatherkeys MON [MON..]
+
+You can optionally add as many mon nodes to the command line as desired. The
+``gatherkeys`` subcommand will succeed on the first mon to respond successfully
+with all the keyrings.
+
+Backing up of old keyrings
+==========================
+
+If old keyrings exist in the current working directory that do not match the
+retrieved keyrings these old keyrings will be renamed with a time stamp
+extention so you will not loose valuable keyrings.
+
+.. note:: Before version v1.5.33 ceph-deploy relied upon ``ceph-create-keys``
+ and did not backup existing keys. Using ``ceph-create-keys`` produced
+ a side effect of deploying all bootstrap keys on the mon node so
+ making all mon nodes admin nodes.