Requesting and installing a new signed certificate

If your current signed certificate expires or is about to expire, you can request a new signed certificate from a certificate authority.

About this task

Note: Changing the system certificate changes the trust that any configured key servers have in the cluster. Reestablish key server trust in the cluster by exporting the cluster certificate to the key servers.

In the management GUI, select Settings > Security > Secure communications and select signed certificate and complete the form to create a request for a signed certificate for your system. After you receive the certificate from the certificate authority, use this panel to install the certificate on the system.

Procedure

  1. In the command-line interface, enter the following command to create a new certificate request: 
    chsystemcert -mkrequest -keytype ecdsa521 -country GB -state Hampshire -locality Hursley -org MYCO -orgunit Storage -commonname svcsystem1.myco.com -email admin@myco.com
    The certificate request is automatically written to /dumps/certificate.csr.

    The Chrome browser, and other browsers, require a Subject Alternative Name, which is an extension to the Internet standard for public key certificates. The Subject Alternative Name extension is used to match the domain name and site certificate and can be an email address, an IP address, a URI, or a DNS name. A certificate can contain a collection of these values so that the certificate can be used on multiple sites.

    For example, to add a DNS name to the Subject Alternative Name extension, include the following parameter in the chsystemcert CLI command: -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.mysystem.com" For multiple values, use a recommended delimiter to separate each entry for the -subjectalternativename parameter. Delimiters can be mixed:
    Table 1. Recommended delimiters
    Delimiter Name Symbol Example
    Space ( space) -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.myco.com IP:1.2.3.20 URI:http:\\www.myco.com email:support@myco.com"
    Comma (,) -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.myco.com,IP:1.2.3.20,URI:http:\\www.myco.com,email:support@myco.com"
    Semi-colon (;) -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.myco.com;IP:1.2.3.20;URI:http:\\www.myco.com;email:support@myco.com"
    Newline (for Linux® or UNIX operating systems) (\n) -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.myco.com\nIP:1.2.3.20\nURI:http:\\www.myco.com\nemail:support@myco.com"
    Tab (for Linux or UNIX operating systems) (\t) -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.myco.com\tIP:1.2.3.20\tURI:http:\\www.myco.com\temail:support@myco.com"
    Carriage return (for Windows operating systems) (\r) -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.myco.com\rIP:1.2.3.20\rURI:http:\\www.myco.com\remail:support@myco.com"
    Carriage return with newline (for Windows operating systems) (\r\n) -subjectalternativename "DNS:dns.myco.com\r\nIP:1.2.3.20\r\nURI:http:\\www.myco.com\r\nemail:support@myco.com"
    For more information about supported delimiters, see the chsystemcert CLI command.
  2. Use secure copy (scp) to copy the file /dumps/certificate.csr from the system and send this file to a certificate authority (CA) to sign. The certificate authority returns a signed certificate. After you receive the certificate, use scp to copy the certificate back onto the system in the file /dumps/certificate.cer, where certificate.cer is the name of the certificate.
  3. After you copy the certificate to the system, enter the following command to install the certificate on the system.
    chsystemcert -install -file /dumps/certificate.cer