The Backup Manager comes with SSL already set up. By default, SSL works with a self-signed certificate. This certificate can be used for encryption only and does not prove the identity of the server.
That default certificate is not signed by any well-known Certification Authority (CA), so when the users try to open the SSL version of the Backup Manager Web Interface, they usually see the warning in the browser window (see the image below).
If you decide to continue working with this self-signed certificate, you have to perform several steps to "accept" the certificate before you access the site. This usually occurs only the first time you access the site. Then the self-signed certificate is stored in the browser database marked as trusted. This scenario is suitable for testing purposes or for running the Backup Manager on the company's internal networks.
But if you want to provide a Backup Manager SSL interface to the outside world, you should obtain a certificate signed by a well-known CA. The role of a CA is to verify that the Backup Manager you are trying to access actually has the name you are trying to access it by, and that this server actually belongs to your organization.
Certificates for production use are issued by trusted 3rd party Certification Authorities (CAs). Many CAs simply verify the domain name and issue the certificate, whereas others (VeriSign, etc.) verify the existence of your business, the ownership of your domain name, and your authority to apply for the certificate, providing a higher standard of authentication.
Every browser comes with a pre-defined list of well-known CAs. A sample list of CAs can be found on http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Security/Public_Key_Infrastructure/PKIX/Tools_and_Services/Third_Party_Certificate_Authorities/.
Along with the name of your organization and the name of your server, a CA-signed certificate contains the public key of the server. This public key is used by the browser to encrypt data sent to the server. There is a private key on the server. The server uses the private key to decrypt the data encrypted by the public key. The private key should be kept secure on the server to prevent unauthorized access.
To learn more about public key cryptography, you can read this wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography. To learn more about certificates and steps to buy a certificate, you need to take a look at CAs' websites. Some of the most well known CAs are:
Before the CA can issue you the certificate, you should generate private key and the certificate request and send it to the CA for signing. For the instructions below to work, the certificate request and the private key should be generated with the openssl command, the same way as for Apache web server. If you decide to buy the certificate from GoDaddy - very popular hosting provider, which also issues the certificate - generate the private key and certificate request according to http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/5269/generating-a-certificate-signing-request-csr-apache-2x.
While generating the private key and certificate request In Windows, you should replace the openssl command with the full path to binary, for example, C:\OpenSSL\bin\openssl. |
The following steps show you how to install a SSL certificate purchased from a Certification Authority. Your SSL vendor may have different instructions, please check with them for proper certificate installation. The following examples refer to GoDaddy and VeriSign.
To enable a certificate, you need to use the Java keytool - a key and certificate management utility. The keytool stores the keys and certificates in a so-called keystore.
It is assumed that you have both the private key file and certificate file in the PEM format and OpenSSL tool for Windows is installed into. It is also assumed that the private key file is called wildcard.r1soft.com.keyand the certificate file is called wildcard.r1soft.com.key and both are on disk C, in the root directory.
You can download OpenSSL for Windows installation package from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/openssl.htm. |
Run the following command. It will launch the ImportKey utility and create the keystore file (default name is keystore.ImportKey) in your home directory (in Windows 2008 it is usually C:\Users\<your username>). The private key and the certificate will be placed there.
java ImportKey c:\wildcard.r1soft.com.key.der c:\wildcard.r1soft.com.crt.der
The keystore's password and the key's passwords must be set to password. |
Import the received trusted certificate into your keystore file.
keytool -import -alias intermed -file c:\sf_issuing.crt -keystore c:\Users\Administrator\keystore.ImportKey -trustcacerts
Internet Explorer may change the file extension. So if the command above does not work, try sf_issuing.cer instead of sf_issuing.crt. |
Follow the instructions below to restart the Backup Manager using the Backup Manager Configuration Utility.
Establish a SSH connection to the Linux server where the Backup Manager is installed. Or log in on the text Linux console. You should either log in as root or obtain root permissions after login via su or sudo command.
Your home directory should be set to /root. |
Run the following command. It will launch the ImportKey utility and create the keystore file (default name is keystore.ImportKey) in your home directory (root). The private key and the certificate will be placed there.
./java ImportKey /root/wildcard.r1soft.com.key.der /root/wildcard.r1soft.com.crt.der
The keystore's password and the key's passwords must be set to password. |
keytool Options
Windows:
Given user name uName, the "user.home" property value defaults to:
{code}
C:\Winnt\Profiles\uName on multi-user Windows NT systems
C:\Windows\Profiles\uName on multi-user Windows 95 systems
C:\Windows on single-user Windows 95 systems
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Read more about Java keytool for Windows:
http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/keytool.html
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Linux:
The keystore is by default stored in a file named .keystore in the user's home directory, as determined by the "user.home" system property. If you do not specify a -keystore option, the default keystore is a file named .keystore in your home directory.
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Read more about Java keytool for Linux:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/solaris/keytool.html.
Configuring Backup Manager for SSL Communication
See Configure Web Server Options.
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Instructions on how to install a certificate signed by an authority.
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