Add a SSL Certificate on Web Console

By default, the Web Console is accessible on HTTP. Nodeum allows the configuration of its Web Console with SSL Certificate. Here are the instructions to be followed.

Preamble

We consider in this example the following parameters:

Server hostname is nodeum.mydomain.com
Server IP is 10.1.2.3
The Nodeum Ansible package is extracted in the folder ~/v1-x-y/
Certificate validity period of key SSL is 365 days
Private key file name is "private.key" and will be stored into the folder ~/v1-x-y/files/nodeum_certs/
Certificate file name is "public.crt" and will be stored into the folder ~/v1-x-y/files/nodeum_certs/

Creation of the self-signed certificate

In the folder where you have extracted the Nodeum Ansible inventory, you have to go into the folder /files/ to execute this command.

[root@nodeum]# cd ~/v1-x-y/files/
[root@nodeum]# openssl11 req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -days 365 -nodes -keyout ./nodeum_certs/private.key -out ./nodeum_certs/public.crt -subj "/CN=nodeum.mydomain.com" -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:nodeum.mydomain.com,DNS:localhost,IP:127.0.0.1,IP:10.1.2.3"

2. Verification that the certificates are well generated

[root@nodeum:~/v1-x-y/files/nodeum_certs]# ls -l
total 8
-rw------- 1 root root 3272 Mar 29 13:17 private.key
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 1927 Mar 29 13:17 public.crt

These certificates will be used by nginx (Console UI and API) to configure the use of SSL.
The public certificate will also be used by some services that need to access the API.

3. Enable the SSL requirement

Once done, it's required to update the Nodeum Ansible inventory file and specify that SSL has to be enabled.

[root@nodeum]# cd ~/v1-x-y/inventory/host_vars/
[root@nodeum:~/v1-x-y/inventory/host_vars/]# vi srv01
... 
# If there is no default network interface defined or you want to override it
# iface_name: eth0
rails_ssl_enabled: yes
...

And then execute the Nodeum Ansible playbook installation.

Important note: Once HTTPS is enable, the Nodeum HTTP Console access is disabled. All requests through HTTP are automatically redirect to HTTPS.

Related Categories

Settings encryption

Subscribe to Email Updates