You can add a signer certificate to a server's trust.p12 file,
allowing that server to securely communicate with another server. This can
be done using the retrieveSigners command to add a signer to a server's trust.p12 file
after making changes to the ssl.client.props file.
Before you begin
The server that will
be communicating as a client must be identified before the server to server
trust can be established. You will make change to the ssl.client.props file
and run the retrieveSigners command on the server communicating as
a client. If both servers will be acting as a client , these steps will be
required for both servers.
About this task
The
ssl.client.props file is setup by default to
configure Secure Socket Layer (SSL) communication for clients. This makes
the default behavior of the
retrieveSigners command work on the client's
trust.p12 file
and
key.p12 file in the
profile_root/etc directory.
You can add a signer certificate to a server's
trust.p12 file,
allowing that server to act as a client communicating to another server.
Using the
retrieveSigners command to add a signer to a server's
trust.p12 file
requires some changes to the
ssl.client.props file.
Procedure
- Open the ssl.client.props file. The ssl.client.props file
is located in profile_root/properties ditrectory.
- Uncomment the section of ssl.client.props that
starts with com.ibm.ssl.alias=AnotherSSLSettings property.
- Uncomment the section of ssl.client.props that
starts with com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreName=AnotherTrustStore property.
- Enter the location of the trust store that the signer should be
added. If you are using the server trust store for a deployment
manager then it is located in profile_root/config/cells/cell name/trust.p12. If using the trust store for an
appserver it's located inprofile_root/config/cells/cell
name/nodes/node name/trust.p12.
- Update the remaining properties in this section with the values
associated with the trust store being used. A description of the
properties can be found in ssl.client.props
client configuration file.
- Optional: Uncomment and update section that starts
with com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreName=AnotherKeyStore property. Most
scenarios only require a signer to be added to the trust store. This example
only adds a signer to the trust store, but you can also add a signer to the
key store by updating the properties as you did for the trust store in steps
3 through 5.
- Save the changes made to ssl.client.props.
- Run the retrieveSigners command. For more
information about where to run this command, see Using command tools
retrieveSigners NodeDefaultTrustStore AnotherTrustStore -host ademyers.austin.ibm.com -port 8879
Example output: CWPKI0308I: Adding signer alias "default_1" to local keystore
"AnotherTrustStore" with the following SHA digest:
F4:71:97:79:3E:C1:DC:E7:9F:8F:3D:F0:A0:15:1E:D1:44:73:2C:06
Results
After the steps have been successfully completed. the server acting
as a client has the signing certificate of the other server. This allows
that server to establish a SSL connection to the other server.
Example
The example shows the modified section of the
ssl.client.props file
assuming that the server's
trust.p12 file is being used.
Any trust store existing trust store can be used if the properties are provided
for that trust store.
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
com.ibm.ssl.alias=AnotherSSLSettings
com.ibm.ssl.protocol=SSL_TLS
com.ibm.ssl.securityLevel=HIGH
com.ibm.ssl.trustManager=IbmX509
com.ibm.ssl.keyManager=IbmX509
com.ibm.ssl.contextProvider=IBMJSSE2
com.ibm.ssl.enableSignerExchangePrompt=true
#com.ibm.ssl.keyStoreClientAlias=default
#com.ibm.ssl.customTrustManagers=
#com.ibm.ssl.customKeyManager=
#com.ibm.ssl.dynamicSelectionInfo=
#com.ibm.ssl.enabledCipherSuites=
# KeyStore information
#com.ibm.ssl.keyStoreName=AnotherKeyStore
#com.ibm.ssl.keyStore=${user.root}/etc/key.p12
#com.ibm.ssl.keyStorePassword={xor}CDo9Hgw=
#com.ibm.ssl.keyStoreType=PKCS12
#com.ibm.ssl.keyStoreProvider=IBMJCE
#com.ibm.ssl.keyStoreFileBased=true
# TrustStore information
com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreName=AnotherTrustStore
com.ibm.ssl.trustStore=${user.root}/config/cells/localhostCell01/trust.p12
com.ibm.ssl.trustStorePassword={xor}CDo9Hgw=
com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreType=PKCS12
com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreProvider=IBMJCE
com.ibm.ssl.trustStoreFileBased=true
What to do next
After the signer has been added, edit the ssl.client.props file
to comment out the sections that were to used to add the signer certificate.