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Certificates

The Certificates page allows the management of the certificates that are needed by the various OpenVPN server instances running on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance and is composed of four tabs: Certificates, Certificate Authority, Revoked Certificates, and Certificate Revocation List.

Certificates

Here it is possible to manage all the certificates stored on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance. The table, initially empty, shows all certificates along with the following details, one per each column:

  • Name. The name assigned to the certificate.

  • Subject. The collection of information that identify the certificate. itself. See the options below.

  • CA. The Certificate Authority used to generate the certificate.

  • Expiration Date. The final date of validity of the certificate.

  • Actions. What actions can be done on the certificate.

At the bottom of the table, on the left-hand side there is a navigation widget, that allows to navigate among the various pages composing the table, if there are many certificates, whereas on the right-hand side there is a reload widget, used to refresh the list of certificates.

Above the list, a link can be clicked to Add new certificate. Upon clicking, the page will be replaced by a form that allows to provide all data necessary to the generation of a new certificate. The following options are available.

Action

Select from this drop-down menu the method to create a new certificate on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance: Generate a new certificate, Generate a Let’s Encrypt certificate, Upload a certificate, and Upload a Certificate signing request.

Generate a new certificate

The first alternative allows to create a new certificate directly on the Endian 4i Edge Appliance, by providing the following information. The capital letters in parentheses show the field of the certificate that will be filled by the value supplied and form the Subject of the certificate.

Note

A Root Certificate Authority is needed to create certificates, so create the Root CA before creating certificates.

Common name

The common name (CN) of the certificate’s owner, i.e., the name with which the owner will be identified.

Email address

The e-mail address of the certificate’s owner.

Subject Alternative Name

The alternative name for the subject, which allows a single certificate to be associated to multiple domains or resources. The available options are:

  • DNS. The DNS entry of the site

  • IP. The IP address of the site

  • email. An email address.

The actual value for each option must be written in the textbox on the right.

Changed in version 5.0: This option was called Subject alt name

Organizational unit name

The Organisation Unit (OU) to which the owner belongs to, i.e., the company, enterprise, or institution department identified with the certificate.

Organization name

The organisation (O) to which the owner belongs to.

City

The city (L) in which the organisation is located.

State or province

The state or province (ST) in which the organisation is located.

Country

The Country (C) in which the organisation is located, chosen from those in the selection menu. By typing one or more letters, matching countries are searched for and displayed.

Certificate type

The type of the certificate, chosen between Client and :strong:Server from the drop-down menu.

Validity (days)

The number of days before the certificate expires.

PKCS12 file password

The password for the certificate, if needed.

PKCS12 file password Confirmation)

Type once more the certificate’s password for confirmation.

Certificate digest algorithm

Choose from the drop-down menu the algorithm to be used to generate the certificate.

New in version 5.0.

Certificate key size

Choose from the drop-down menu the size of the key (in bits) used to generate the certificate.

New in version 5.0.

Generate a Let’s Encrypt certificate

New in version 5.1.

This methods uses the Let’s Encrypt service’s API to generate a new certificate.

The options available for this type of certificate are the same for Generate a new certificate, except that a few options are not available, namely the Certificate type, which is always of type Server, the validity, which is 365 day, the Certificate digest algorithm, and certificate key size.

See also

A guide to the creation of a Let’s Encrypt certificate, along with requirements and troubleshooting is available in Endian’s help portal: https://help.endian.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011418094

Upload a certificate

In this alternative, upload an existing certificate from the local workstation to the Endian 4i Edge Appliance.

Certificate (PKCS12/PEM)

By clicking on the Browse button or on the textfield, a file chooser will open, in which to supply the path to the certificate to be uploaded.

PKCS12 file password

The password for the certificate, if needed. Tick the checkbox on the right-hand side to show the password’s characters.

Upload a certificate signing request

This method requires to upload a CSR from the local workstation to the Endian 4i Edge Appliance, i.e., an encrypted text file containing all necessary information to generate a new certificate, recognised by the server.

Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

By clicking on the Browse button or on the textfield, a file chooser will open, in which to supply the path to the CSR to be uploaded.

Validity (days)

How many days the certificate is valid.

Certificate Authority

This page allows to manage the CA, needed for the correct set up of the whole certificate infrastructure. There are two ways to add a CA: Either by clicking on the Generate new root/host certificates link above the table of already existent certificates to generate a new certificate, or by uploading it using the buttons below the table.

The table, once populated, shows the same information as in the Certificates tab, with the only difference in the Actions available.

Instead of generating a new certificate authority, it is possible to upload an existent one.

Certificate (PEM)

By clicking on the Browse button or on the textfield, a file chooser will open, in which to supply the path to the certificate to be uploaded. Once chosen, a click on the Upload CA certificate will complete the upload process.

Generate new root/host certificates

This procedure can be applied only once when setting up for the first time the PKI infrastructure and it will generate two certificates: A root certificate authority and a host certificate; the latter will appear in the Certificates tab. When clicking on the link, a form will replace the list, in which to supply the following data, that will be used in the new root and host certificates.

Note

The only way to generate a new root certificate is to delete the existing one from the command line.

System fully qualified domain name or IP address

The name of the system, that will be used as the certificate’s Common Name.

Email address

The e-mail address of the system’s owner or responsible.

Organizational unit name

The Organisation Unit (OU) to which the system belongs to.

Organization name

The organisation (O) to which the system belongs to.

City

The city (L) in which the organisation is located.

State or province

The state or province (ST) in which the organisation is located.

Country

The Country (C) in which the organisation is located, chosen from those in the selection menu. By typing one or more letters, matching countries are searched for and displayed.

Subject alt name (subjectAltName=email:*,URI:*,DNS:*,RID:*)

An alternate name for the subject, i.e., the certificate.

Validity (days)

The number of days before the certificate expires.

Certificate digest algorithm

Choose from the drop-down menu the algorithm to be used to generate the certificate.

New in version 5.0.

Certificate key size

Choose from the drop-down menu the size of the key (in bits) used to generate the certificate.

New in version 5.0.

Revoked Certificates

The certificates that have been revoked are listed in the table, that show the serial number and the subject of the certificate.

Download the Certificate Revocation List

A click on this link will allow to download the on a local workstation the Certificate Revocation List.

Certificate Revocation List

In this page can be managed all the Certificate Revocation lists that have been uploaded.

The table shows all the Certificate Revocation Lists and for each item in the table are show the name of the certificate, the issuer, the issued date, and the available actions.

It is possible to upload a certificate Revocation List by clicking on the Browse… button to search for it on the local workstation, then on the Upload CA certificate button to finalise the process.

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