Openssl Generate Key For Certificate

08.12.2020
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Important: This example is intended to provide general guidance to IT professionals who are experienced with SSL requirements and configuration. The procedure described in this article is just one of many available methods you can use to generate the required files. The process described here should be treated as an example and not as a recommendation.

When you configure Tableau Server to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, this helps ensure that access to the server is secure and that data sent between Tableau Server and Tableau Desktop is protected.

Looking for Tableau Server on Linux? See Example: SSL Certificate - Generate a Key and CSR.

Delphi howto generate api-key. Tableau Server uses Apache, which includes OpenSSL. You can use the OpenSSL toolkit to generate a key file and Certificate Signing Request (CSR) which can then be used to obtain a signed SSL certificate.

Steps to generate a key and CSR

A certificate.crt and privateKey.key can be extracted from your Personal Information Exchange file (certificate.pfx) using OpenSSL. Follow this article to create a certificate.crt and privateKey.key files from a certificate.pfx file. Note: if the CSR was generated this way but the certificate needs to be installed on a Windows server (i.e. IIS), you’ll need to generate the PFX file from the certificate and Private key. To do that, use this command: openssl pkcs12 -export -out.your certificate.pfx -inkey server.key -in.your certificate.p7b. Generate the certificate with the CSR and the key and sign it with the CA's root key. Use the following command to create the certificate: openssl x509 -req -in fabrikam.csr -CA contoso.crt -CAkey contoso.key -CAcreateserial -out fabrikam.crt -days 365 -sha256 Verify the newly created certificate. The CSR (Certificate Signing Request) alone is enough to generate a valid certificate. The CSR has all of the requested details of the certificate (Subject name, location, organization, etc.) along with the public key.

To configure Tableau Server to use SSL, you must have an SSL certificate. To obtain the SSL certificate, complete the steps:

  1. Generate a key file.
  2. Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).
  3. Send the CSR to a certificate authority (CA) to obtain an SSL certificate.
  4. Use the key and certificate to configure Tableau Server to use SSL.

You can find additional information on the SSL FAQ page on the Apache Software Foundation website.

Configure a certificate for multiple domain names

Tableau Server allows SSL for multiple domains. To set up this environment, you need to modify the OpenSSL configuration file, openssl.conf, and configure a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) certificate on Tableau Server. See For SAN certificates: modify the OpenSSL configuration file below.

Set the OpenSSL configuration environment variable (optional)

To avoid using the -config argument with every use of openssl.exe, you can use the OPENSSL_CONF environment variable to ensure that the correct configuration file is used and all configuration changes made in subsequent procedures in this article produce expected results (for example, you must set the environment variable to add a SAN to your certificate).

Open the Command Prompt as an administrator, and run the following command:

set OPENSSL_CONF=c:Program FilesTableauTableau Serverpackagesapache.<version_code>confopenssl.cnf

Notes:

  • When setting the Open SSL configuration environment variable, do not enclose the file path with quotation marks.

  • If you are using a 32-bit version of Tableau Server on a 64-bit computer, run the set OPENSSL_CONF=c:Program Files (x86)TableauTableau Serverpackagesapache.<version_code>confopenssl.cnf command instead.

Generate a key

Generate a key file that you will use to generate a certificate signing request.

  1. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator, and navigate to the Apache directory for Tableau Server. For example, run the following command:

    cd C:Program FilesTableauTableau Serverpackagesapache.<version_code>bin

  2. Run the following command to create the key file:

    openssl.exe genrsa -out <yourcertname>.key 4096

    Note: This command uses a 4096-bit length for the key. You should choose a bit length that is at least 2048 bits because communication encrypted with a shorter bit length is less secure. If a value is not provided, 512 bits is used.

Create a certificate signing request to send to a certificate authority

Use the key file you created in the procedure above to generate the certificate signing request (CSR). You send the CSR to a certificate authority (CA) to obtain a signed certificate.

Important: If you want to configure a SAN certificate to use SSL for multiple domains, first complete the steps in For SAN certificates: modify the OpenSSL configuration file below, and then return to here to generate a CSR.

  1. Run the following command to create a certificate signing request (CSR) file:

    openssl.exe req -new -key yourcertname.key -out yourcertname.csr

    If you did not set the OpenSSL configuration environment variable, OPENSSL_CONF, you might see either of the following messages:

    • An error message about the config information being unable to load. In this case, retype the command above with the following parameter: -config .confopenssl.cnf.

    • A warning that the /usr/local/ssl directory cannot be found. This directory does not exist on Windows, and you can simply ignore this message. The file is created successfully.

    To set an OpenSSL configuration environment variable, see Set the OpenSSL configuration environment variable (optional) section in this article.

  2. When prompted, enter the required information.

    Note: For Common Name, type the Tableau Server name. The Tableau Server name is the URL that will be used to reach the Tableau Server. For example, if you reach Tableau Server by typing tableau.example.com in the address bar of your browser, then tableau.example.com is the common name. If the common name does not resolve to the server name, errors will occur when a browser or Tableau Desktop tries to connect to Tableau Server.

Send the CSR to a certificate authority to obtain an SSL certificate

Send the CSR to a commercial certificate authority (CA) to request the digital certificate. For information, see the Wikipedia article Certificate authority and any related articles that help you decide which CA to use.

Use the key and certificate to configure Tableau Server

When you have both the key and the certificate from the CA, you can configure Tableau Server to use SSL. /abbyy-finereader-14-key-generator.html. For the steps, see Configure External SSL.

For SAN certificates: modify the OpenSSL configuration file

In a standard installation of OpenSSL, some features are not enabled by default. To use SSL with multiple domain names, before you generate the CSR, complete these steps to modify the openssl.cnf file.

  1. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the Apache conf folder for Tableau Server.

    For example: C:Program FilesTableauTableau Server<version_code>apacheconf

  2. Open openssl.cnf in a text editor, and find the following line: req_extensions = v3_req

    This line might be commented out with a hash sign (#) at the beginning of the line.

    If the line is commented out, uncomment it by removing the # and space characters from the beginning of the line.

  3. Move to the [ v3_req ] section of the file. The first few lines contain the following text:

    # Extensions to add to a certificate request
    basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
    keyUsage = nonRepudiation, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment

    After the keyUsage line, insert the following line:

    subjectAltName = @alt_names

    If you’re creating a self-signed SAN certificate, do the following to give the certificate permission to sign the certificate:

    1. Add the cRLSign and keyCertSign to the keyUsage line so it looks like the following: keyUsage = nonRepudiation, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment, cRLSign, keyCertSign

    2. After the keyUsage line, add the following line: subjectAltName = @alt_names

  4. In the [alt_names] section, provide the domain names you want to use with SSL.

    DNS.1 = [domain1]
    DNS.2 = [domain2]
    DNS.3 = [etc]

    The following image shows the results highlighted, with placeholder text that you would replace with your domain names.

  5. Save and close the file.

  6. Complete the steps in Create a certificate signing request to send to a certificate authority section, above.

Additional information

If you prefer to use a different version of OpenSSL, you can download it from Open SSL for Windows.

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The Application Gateway v2 SKU introduces the use of Trusted Root Certificates to allow backend servers. This removes authentication certificates that were required in the v1 SKU. The root certificate is a Base-64 encoded X.509(.CER) format root certificate from the backend certificate server. It identifies the root certificate authority (CA) that issued the server certificate and the server certificate is then used for the TLS/SSL communication.

Application Gateway trusts your website's certificate by default if it's signed by a well-known CA (for example, GoDaddy or DigiCert). You don't need to explicitly upload the root certificate in that case. For more information, see Overview of TLS termination and end to end TLS with Application Gateway. However, if you have a dev/test environment and don't want to purchase a verified CA signed certificate, you can create your own custom CA and create a self-signed certificate with it.

Note

Self-signed certificates are not trusted by default and they can be difficult to maintain. Also, they may use outdated hash and cipher suites that may not be strong. For better security, purchase a certificate signed by a well-known certificate authority.

In this article, you will learn how to:

  • Create your own custom Certificate Authority
  • Create a self-signed certificate signed by your custom CA
  • Upload a self-signed root certificate to an Application Gateway to authenticate the backend server

Openssl Generate Key For Certificate Download

Prerequisites

  • OpenSSL on a computer running Windows or Linux

    While there could be other tools available for certificate management, this tutorial uses OpenSSL. You can find OpenSSL bundled with many Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu.

  • A web server

    For example, Apache, IIS, or NGINX to test the certificates.

  • An Application Gateway v2 SKU

    If you don't have an existing application gateway, see Quickstart: Direct web traffic with Azure Application Gateway - Azure portal.

Create a root CA certificate

Create your root CA certificate using OpenSSL.

Create the root key

  1. Sign in to your computer where OpenSSL is installed and run the following command. This creates a password protected key.

  2. At the prompt, type a strong password. For example, at least nine characters, using upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols.

Create a Root Certificate and self-sign it

  1. Use the following commands to generate the csr and the certificate.

    The previous commands create the root certificate. You'll use this to sign your server certificate.

  2. When prompted, type the password for the root key, and the organizational information for the custom CA such as Country, State, Org, OU, and the fully qualified domain name (this is the domain of the issuer).

Create a server certificate

Next, you'll create a server certificate using OpenSSL.

Create the certificate's key

Use the following command to generate the key for the server certificate.

Create the CSR (Certificate Signing Request)

The CSR is a public key that is given to a CA when requesting a certificate. The CA issues the certificate for this specific request.

Note

The CN (Common Name) for the server certificate must be different from the issuer's domain. For example, in this case, the CN for the issuer is www.contoso.com and the server certificate's CN is www.fabrikam.com.

  1. Use the following command to generate the CSR:

  2. When prompted, type the password for the root key, and the organizational information for the custom CA: Country, State, Org, OU, and the fully qualified domain name. This is the domain of the website and it should be different from the issuer.

Generate the certificate with the CSR and the key and sign it with the CA's root key

  1. Use the following command to create the certificate:

Verify the newly created certificate

  1. Use the following command to print the output of the CRT file and verify its content:

  2. Verify the files in your directory, and ensure you have the following files:

    • contoso.crt
    • contoso.key
    • fabrikam.crt
    • fabrikam.key

Configure the certificate in your web server's TLS settings

In your web server, configure TLS using the fabrikam.crt and fabrikam.key files. If your web server can't take two files, you can combine them to a single .pem or .pfx file using OpenSSL commands.

IIS

For instructions on how to import certificate and upload them as server certificate on IIS, see HOW TO: Install Imported Certificates on a Web Server in Windows Server 2003.

For TLS binding instructions, see How to Set Up SSL on IIS 7.

Apache

The following configuration is an example virtual host configured for SSL in Apache:

NGINX

The following configuration is an example NGINX server block with TLS configuration:

Access the server to verify the configuration

  1. Add the root certificate to your machine's trusted root store. When you access the website, ensure the entire certificate chain is seen in the browser.

    Note

    It's assumed that DNS has been configured to point the web server name (in this example, www.fabrikam.com) to your web server's IP address. If not, you can edit the hosts file to resolve the name.

  2. Browse to your website, and click the lock icon on your browser's address box to verify the site and certificate information.

Verify the configuration with OpenSSL

Or, you can use OpenSSL to verify the certificate.

Upload the root certificate to Application Gateway's HTTP Settings

To upload the certificate in Application Gateway, you must export the .crt certificate into a .cer format Base-64 encoded. Since .crt already contains the public key in the base-64 encoded format, just rename the file extension from .crt to .cer.

Azure portal

To upload the trusted root certificate from the portal, select the HTTP Settings and choose the HTTPS protocol.

Azure PowerShell

Or, you can use Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell to upload the root certificate. The following code is an Azure PowerShell sample.

Note

The following sample adds a trusted root certificate to the application gateway, creates a new HTTP setting and adds a new rule, assuming the backend pool and the listener exist already.

Verify the application gateway backend health

  1. Click the Backend Health view of your application gateway to check if the probe is healthy.
  2. You should see that the Status is Healthy for the HTTPS probe.

Next steps

Openssl Generate Private Key For Certificate

To learn more about SSLTLS in Application Gateway, see Overview of TLS termination and end to end TLS with Application Gateway.