You’re probably familiar with those emails that claim to be from your bank, CPA, or services like Microsoft and Google. They use deceptive tactics, such as subtly altered URLs and stolen branding, to trick you into entering your credentials on fraudulent sites. If you’re tired or distracted, it’s easy to fall for these schemes, which can put you at serious risk.
The great advantage and the “beauty” of passkeys is their ability to render these phishing attempts ineffective. By design, passkeys prevent remote phishing through email or text from achieving their goals, ensuring your credentials stay secure.
Why this works?
The “magic” or brilliance behind this innovation lies in the collaborative efforts of the industry at large, spearheaded by the FIDO Alliance, to establish a unified “standard.” This unified standard leverages public/private key functionality in a way that is user-friendly, making it easier for individuals to secure their remote accounts.
This new standard is already compatible with browsers on laptops and mobile devices. However, because it’s still relatively new, adoption among banks and financial institutions has been limited. For instance, I currently have only one financial institution using this standard. Most organizations still rely on two-factor authentication methods, combining a password with either an SMS code or an authentication app. That said, major global companies like Google and Microsoft are leading the charge in rolling out passkeys, and it’s only a matter of time before broader adoption follows.
How this works?
Background: The public-private key process (asymmetric cryptography) has evolved significantly, especially between 1990 and 2010, to enable secure online access, such as shopping and banking. Here’s how it works: A shopping or banking website hosts its public certificate (visible to anyone). When you access the site, it uses its private key (accessible only to the site) to validate this certificate. If the public and private keys match, the connection is secure, and you can confidently proceed with your transactions.
New Phishing Risks: Cyber-criminals (aka “bad-guys”) have become adept at creating convincing fake websites with their own public/private keys, paired with stolen images and content to appear legitimate. For years, we’ve been trained to trust the lock symbol in the URL bar as an indicator of a secure connection. However, this is no longer foolproof. For instance, a malicious site could use subtle tricks, like replacing the letter “o” with a zero in “google.com,” to deceive users. These tactics highlight the need to go beyond basic visual indicators and “raise the bar” on security to ensure our online activities remain safe.
Raise the Bar: With passkeys, the private key stays securely on your device (e.g., phone, workstation, physical security key, or tablet), while the public certificate is stored exclusively on the site where you registered. Authentication can only occur when the public certificate and the private key’s signature match, rendering interception attempts useless. This significantly raises the security “bar” against malicious remote access attempts.
That said, passkeys are still relatively new to global adoption, and their rollout is ongoing. While there are challenges, such as addressing backup and replication, these should not deter you from leveraging this technology to enhance your personal security.
Register a ‘passkey’ with your mobile phone.
Why? We want the bigger screens of private/public laptop/workstations and the security of the ‘passkey’ functionality with mobility.
If you are accessing a website from your phone, you will have no issue registering the passkey, because all components on your phone are trusted with each other, e.g. hardware chip to store the passkey (private key), the middle-ware software (SamSung Pass/Google Passkey/Apple Passkey), and your mobile browser.
The current challenge is using your mobile phone with your private laptop/workstation. This seems to be a “glossed” over area in current online docs. There is the assumption that all users have tied their “mobile phones” with their current private workstation. Unfortunately, this is a “gotcha” with using ‘passkeys”
Per the standard, Bluetooth is used as the primary communication between your mobile phone and the public/private laptop/workstation.
You can check if you have Bluetooth setup on your private laptop/workstation by using the built-in file copy operation. Below is a view of using this feature.
The mobile phone does have to advertise itself via Bluetooth first. The mobile phone does NOT have to be trusted first with the workstation. The operation can be approved when it occurs. This is similar how ‘passkey’ will work with your workstation (public or private).
For registration with ‘passkey’ , I have found through trial-and-error, that what worked best, was to previously trust (aka “paired“) the mobile phone as a Bluetooth device first. Add & pair your mobile phone, as you would your keyboard or mouse that has Bluetooth functionality.
Ignore these false messages – Choose another device
Now, when you hit a site via a browser on your workstation, you can now continue even if you see a negative message that states “A passkey can’t be created on these device”. These message are only focused on your workstation (if it alone can support the ‘passkey’). We don’t care about these workstations at this time. Especially, if you are eventually going to be traveling and want the passkey on your mobile phone.
Look for the button or message that states “Use another device” or similar message.
Example of ‘passkey’ registration. After you select your mobile phone, most websites will then offer a QR code to generate a new unique private-public key combo (aka the ‘passkey’) only for your account on their site. Use your phone, that has previously been Bluetooth paired to your private laptop/workstation, to register the ‘passkey’.
After you have registered the ‘passkey’ you can now leverage it from both your mobile web site, as well as from any workstation/laptop, including public workstations. You should see a popup box on your mobile phone via Bluetooth to authenticate with your ‘passkey’
Now, even if you still get a phishing email, and you inadvertently click on it. When the false-site asks for a password and you know you have a ‘passkey’, you can stop the process in its track.
Please be aware, that your original password is still on the proper valid site. It has NOT been removed due to you adding a ‘passkey’ for authentication. If you lose your mobile phone, you most likely will need to re-register with a new ‘passkey’ with a new mobile phone. The FIDO alliance is working with vendors to allow possible recovery, but some may argue that while useful, it defeat the purpose of ‘passkey’ that ONLY you have access to. You can catch up on what the latest recommendations are.
As my backup to my mobile phone, I am a fan of the YubiKey 5C NFC. This model has room for 100 ‘passkey’s and with the USB-C and NFC features, I can use it with any mobile phone or laptop. Adding a long PIN as well, so it fits the “something you know” + “something you have”. Similar to a mobile phone as the holder of the ‘passkey’.
Help your family, friends, and neighbors get on this ‘passkey’ band wagon.
Hopefully, knowing how to manage the Bluetooth ‘gotcha‘ for registration, will allow you to use your mobile phone more effective with your laptop. You can still use Authentication Apps + ‘password’ as your intermediate authentication until your financial institutions and others switch over to offer ‘passkey’ as an option.
To learn more you may wish to review the longer blog entry.
After creating your ‘passkey’, use the website again, but do not enter your username. Test with Authenticate button to let the browser work with your workstation, to pick a passkey associated with the website.
A view of the ‘passkey’ on a Yubikey via command line tool (ykman):
Fallback Registration – USB
If you still have an issue with registration with Bluetooth, fall back to using USB-C on your mobile phone connected to your private workstation/laptop. Please ensure that you do have a “passkey” management middle-ware app on your phone enabled to work with the vendors’ website.
Example: Microsoft seems to prefer their Microsoft Authenticator to hold the “passkey” associated with your Microsoft email account (work or school or otherwise). The below image show I have many choices for the middle-ware application. OOTB on my Samsung mobile phone is Samsung Pass. But you can change this at will when you are registering your “passkey”. Recall that the actually “passkey” will still be stored in the hardware of the mobile device.
Within Microsoft Authenticator, when you select your MS email address (work/personal), you should be able to see a “passkey” option. My previous attempts at registration using Bluetooth failed, but when I used the USB-C cable, then I had no issue.
One of the primary advantages of using a passkey (certificate-based-authentication) over passwords, is to defeat the man-in-the-middle / phishing attacks.
You know those emails that your receive, that pretend to be from your bank, your CPA, or Microsoft/Google for your email. They have intentionally malformed URL addresses to trick you to enter your password into their own site, that have stolen vendor images to make it look “real”. Well, if you are tired or busy, and not paying attention, ouch, you have just put yourself at major risk by clicking that link and entering your credentials.
Lets stop this nonsense & risk now. Help your friends and family members as well.
Why this works? The magic is the industry has agreed on a “standard” to use public-private key functionality and make it more friendly for end-users to use with their laptop’s browsers and phones. Since this “standard” is fairly new, you will only see a few banks using it. I have only one bank of three using it. It is being rolled out at most global companies, e.g Google, Microsoft, etc.
How this works? The passkey’s private key remains on your device (phone/workstation/physical security key/tablet), the passkey public cert is ONLY on the one site you registered at. Only the correct public cert can verify the private key’s signature, making interception useless. Yea us!
Please be aware that passkeys (as a process) are still relative new for global usage, and this functionality is being rolled out. There are challenges that are being address for backup/replication but don’t let that stop you from adoption to enhance your own personal security.
The good:
I had great luck with using a physical security USB device, the Yubikey 5C NFC , for passkey(s), ECA certificates, and standard one-time token(s) (touch). Also, if I used an app or website on my mobile phone that supported passkeys, I had no challenges with registration and using passkeys with same phone. This was all good. I thought I should be able to do this same passkey registration with my laptop with any browser or integrate with my mobile phone as is mentioned in many online sites.
The bad:
However I became very frustrated. I wanted to use passkey(s) on my laptop/workstation natively or along with a mobile phone. Why was this so hard? I wanted this functionality for my email and for any other online work while I was sitting at my desk. I did not want to use the small screen on the mobile phone to conduct my business.
I would see these types of scary error messages when I attempt to register a passkey on my workstation.
I had to dive deeper and see why I had an issue with my workstations. An why with a slight change, I will continue to use my mobile phone or Yubikey for passkeys.
Testing Passkey (aka FIDO2) Functionality:
Pretest your workstation to see if you can use passkeys. Use the below site to test: https://webauthn.io/ Enter a random string in the edit box, click Register, then click Authenticate. If you have no issues, you are well on your way to using passkeys.
With the Firefox browser, you can try this second site. https://webauthn.bin.coffee/ It is a deeper review but shows a similar process with “Create Credential” and “Get Assertion”. If this passes, please continue.
Hardware TPM 2.0
My first failure, was due to using an older laptop/workstation. You must have a relatively new laptop that has TPM 2.0 in the BIOS. Unfortunately a BIOS upgrade will not resolve this. Passkey(s) require the newer hardware security functionality within TPM 2.0. Time to upgrade your laptop.
Check your version with MS Windows’ Device Manager or PowerShell command line, and type Get-TPM
My second issue was the OS I was using on my updated laptop/workstation that had TPM 2.0. Passkey architecture requires supported hardware (to store the key securely), middle-ware management software, and user interaction (via browser or other). For example, MS Windows OS version 10/11’s middle-ware management software is called “Windows Hello” (aka WebAuthn) that will interact between the browser (user) and the hardware (where the passkey is stored).
However, on my newest laptop, I am running MS Windows 2019 Standard OS, as I find it more stable for testing solutions. On this OS, “Windows Hello” feature set is not fully enabled. While I could enable it via MS Registry entries or a group policy (see below), I decided to stop here, and focus on the mobile phone authentication for the workstation. The underlying OS functionality will work as-is with passkeys on mobile phones, but there was a hitch.
Mobile Phone
As I reviewed through the online documentation and specs, it is clear that with a mobile phone (acting as the passkey storage with a built-in security chip) should be able to communicate to any workstation (public/private) and provide the passkey over Bluetooth when asked. However, seeing is believing, and I only was successful with passkey registration on my private workstations only after I trusted the mobile phone with the workstation.
Typically, on a workstation with MS Windows, you may use Bluetooth for keyboard/mouse/audio headsets. You may also use it for file transfer between the workstation and other devices, e.g. mobile phones. The FIDO2 architecture uses Bluetooth as well, but with their own protocol.
Before I trusted the phone with the workstation, I would see attempts to use my mobile phone from the workstation, but it would eventually fail. Perhaps there is an automated features that i needed to enabled that would allow this. I enabled Bluetooth trust between the mobile phone and the workstation prior to trying again.
Success!
If the application or website offers passkey(s) as authentication, please go ahead. Ignore any error/warning messages that may say your “device” (aka workstation/laptop) does not support passkey. Select “another device” if it is offered, then select your mobile phone. You should be able to progress and register a passkey on your phone.
Below are images from the phone, that are generated due to the Bluetooth “trust” with the workstation, when I select a passkey to be generated and stored on my mobile phone.
Now that your passkey is registered, you should be able to use any public workstation or other with your mobile phone, and not worry about your password being compromised. 🙂
Take-aways:
Use passkey(s) as your primary authentication (if the website or app allows it)
When using your mobile phone, ensure Bluetooth is enabled and trusted to your non-public workstation (to assist with initial passkey registration)
Consider using a physical security key with PIN, to hold the passkeys. Ensure this device has USB-C and/or NFC to allow you to use it with any modern workstation/ipad/mobile phone.
Use an authentication app (MS/Google/LastPass/Yubikey/Symantec VIP/RSA Auth/etc.) as secondary authentication option with or without your password .
Best if the site allow you to use only an Authenticator but most sites will require a password as 1st credential (at this time/ not perfect but better than just password alone).
Please note that you may be able to have as many authentication app as you like on some websites.
Use your password and SMS text as a third option for authentication to have a minimal of two (2) factor authentication. This is the minimal two (2) factor. We want better.
If you have only password authentication, use some form of password management tool, e.g. KeePass, LastPass, 1Password, etc. and make the password as long as possible, e.g. 100 characters. Let’s see someone brute force that. See below table of examples
Tool
Features
Strengths
Concerns
Best For
Pricing
KeePass
Open-source, offline storage, extensive plugins, no cloud dependency.
Highly secure, customiz-able.
Manual syncing for multiple devices.
Privacy-focused and advanced users.
Free (open-source).
Text File Secured by VeraCrypt
Open-source, offline storage, encrypted container for storing sensitive text files, open-source encryption tools.
Fully offline, highly secure.
Manual password entry; no automation.
Privacy-focused users.
Free (open-source).
LastPass
Cloud-based vault, password sharing, MFA, dark web monitoring.
User-friendly interface.
Previous data breaches.
Personal and family use.
Free version; & Premium version
Dashlane
Cloud-based vault, Password generator, VPN, dark web monitoring, autofill for payment details.
This was interesting from an administrative view. There was only one type of passkey functionality for MS O365, and it was buried within the MS Authenticator. Now it looks like there is native support as well.
It is impressive to see many parameters for Firefox to help isolate an issue.
Passkey versus SSH Key Table
I wanted to compare the similarities and the differences between passkey architecture and ssh keys (used for many years). This table summarizes the distinctions and overlaps between passkeys (a modern, browser-driven standard for web authentication) and SSH keys (a traditional tool for server authentication). This may help others to see how the evolution has progressed from behind the scenes with servers to public use with browsers.
You’re minding your own business, sipping coffee, feeling invincible—when BAM! The website goes down. The boss storms in like an angry bear who just lost Wi-Fi. The culprit? An expired SSL certificate. Congratulations, you’ve just unlocked the IT version of public humiliation.
But fear not! The ssl-cert-expiration-date-check script is here to save you from a life of shame and awkward team meetings. Think of it as the superhero you never knew you needed, armed with OpenSSL and a knack for keeping your certificates alive and kicking.
What’s This?
SSL monitoring via bash shell. Here’s how it works:
It reads a list of FQDNs or IPs (fancy IT speak for “things you probably Googled how to find”) from a file named fqdn_list.txt.
It interrogates your endpoints like a bad cop in a detective movie, using OpenSSL binary to spill the beans on their SSL certificates.
It then writes the juicy details into certs_info.csv—because nothing says “I’m a professional” like a CSV file with MS Excel.
Boom. You now know when your certificates will expire. No more flying blind. No more angry bosses. No more soul-crushing outages.
Why Should You Care?
Let me paint you a picture: An expired SSL certificate means users see a terrifying “This site is NOT secure” warning. It’s basically the internet screaming, “Run away!” Your customers? Gone. Your reputation? Sinking faster than your confidence in this job.
But this script? It’s the anti-drama. It supports everything: HTTPS, LDAPS, JDBC/S, and even those obscure protocols no one dares to ask about. It logs every certificate—server, intermediate, maybe even root CA certificates if they’re feeling generous. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet of SSL info.
Did You Know?
Some certificates, like rebellious teenagers, don’t come pre-installed in your keystore. You’ve got to manually invite them to the party.
On Windows, this means opening certlm.msc (don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds).
If you’re in Java Land, you’ll need to charm the keytool utility. It’s like convincing a cat to sit still—it’s tricky, but doable.
How to Become an SSL Wizard
Step 1: Open a text editor and create fqdn_list.txt. Add all your endpoints and ports, one per line. It’s like making a party guest list, but with less glitter.
Step 2: Run the script. Sit back. Look cool.
Step 3: Open the certs_info.csv file. Admire your work. Maybe print it out and frame it for the office wall.
The Moral of the Story
Neglect your SSL certificates, and the internet will publicly shame you. But with the ssl-cert-expiration-date-check script, you’ll avoid the chaos, the browser warnings, and the boss’s death stare.
So, download this script, save yourself, and become the hero your IT department deserves. Because nothing says “I’ve got this” like preventing a preventable disaster. Now, go forth and conquer the world of SSL certificates—preferably before your coffee gets cold.
View the Readme, play with the scripts, provide feedback. Integrate this process with your SaaS monitoring solutions, e.g. Syslog (with Splunk), Broadcom DX02 (APM), Grafana, Dynatrace, etc. Or use remote ssh to execute the process to secure internal network segments to query those certs as well.
We use the openssl s_client process to connect and return all possible certs from the endpoints’ IP or FQDN with its port and save this information to a temporary file for us to review for the metadata.
We obviously want “enddate”, to find the expiration date of the certificates. But we also want both the “subject (aka CN)” and “serial” of the certificates to avoid the all-too-common challenge during rotation of certificates where we have the SAME name (subject/CN) for the same root ca cert. This is a very annoying challenge and will add unnecessary effort during RCA (root-cause-analysis) efforts to identify the full certificate chain. The “serial” number will help us avoid this confusion.
Our goal is to move away from using self-signed certificates, often supplied by various software vendors and Kubernetes deployments, in favor of a unified approach with a single wildcard certificate covering multiple subdomains. This strategy allows for streamlined updates of a single certificate, which can then be distributed across our servers and projects as needed.
We have identified LetsEncrypt as a viable source for these wildcard certificates. Although LetsEncrypt offers a Docker/Podman image example, we have discovered an alternative that integrates with Google Domains. This method automates the entire process, including validation of the DNS TXT record and generation of wildcard certificates. It’s important to note that Google Domains operates independently from Google Cloud DNS, and its API is limited to updating TXT records only.
In this blog post, we will concentrate on how to validate the certificates provided by LetsEncrypt using OpenSSL. We will also demonstrate how to replace self-signed certificates with these new ones on a virtual appliance.
View the pubkey of the LetsEncrypt cert.pem and privkey.pem file to confirm they match
We need to download this root CA cert for solutions, appliances, and on-prem Kubernetes Clusters that do NOT have these root CA certs in their existing keystores.
Validate the cert.pem file with the public root CA cert and the provided chain.pem file
Will return an “OK” response if valid. CA certs order is important, if reversed this process will fail. Validation still fails if we only have chain.pem or fullchain.pem (see image below) without the correct public root CA cert from LetsEncrypt. Note: This public root CA cert is typically provided in updated modern browsers. Note2: While the fullchain.pem does have a CA cert with the CN = ISRG Root X1, this does NOT appear to be the correct one based on the error reported, so we have downloaded the correct CA cert to be used with the same CN name of ISRG Root X1 (see following images below)
Combine cert.pem with the public root CA cert and chain.pem for a complete chain cert in the CORRECT order.
Important Note: cert.pem MUST be first in this list otherwise validation will fail. Please note that there are two (2) root CA certs with the same CN, that may cause some confusion when validating the chain.
Validate certs with openssl server process and two (2) terminal ssh sessions/windows
1st terminal session – run an openssl server (via openssl s_server) on port 9443 (any open port). The -www switch will send a status message back to the client when it connects. This includes information about the ciphers used and various session parameters. The output is in HTML format so this option will normally be used with a web browser.
2nd terminal session – run openssl s_client and curl with the combined chain cert to validate. Replace the FQDN with your LetsEnscrypt domain in the wildcard cert. Example below FQDN is training.anapartner.net. You may also use a browser to access the openssl s_server web server with a FQDN.
Example of using the official Certbot image with podman. We recommend using multiple -d switches with *.subdomain1.domain.com to allow a single cert be used for many of your projects. Reference of this deployment
A version of podman with the Google Domain API TXT integration. We use variables for reuse of this code for various testing domains. This docker image will temporarily create the Google Domain TXT records via a REST API, that are needed for Certbot DNS validation, then the process will remove the TXT records. There is no manual interaction required. We use this process with a bash shell script to run as needed or via scheduled events.
Replace Identity Suite vApp Apache Certificate with LetsEncrypt
We see tech notes and an online document but wanted to provide a cleaner step by step process to update the Symantec IGA Virtual Appliance certificates for the embedded Apache HTTPD service under the path /opt/CA/VirtualAppliance/custom/apache-ssl-certificates
# Collect the generated LetsEncrypt certs via certbot, save them, scp to the vApp host, and then extract them
tar -xvf letsencrypt-20231125.tar
# View the certs
ls -lart
# Validate LetEncrypt cert via pubkey match between private key and cert
openssl x509 -noout -pubkey -in cert.pem
openssl pkey -pubout -in privkey.pem
# Download the latest LetsEncrypt public root CA cert
curl -sOL https://letsencrypt.org/certs/isrgrootx1.pem
# Validate a full chain with root with cert (Note: order is important on cat process)
openssl verify -CAfile <(cat isrgrootx1.pem chain.pem) cert.pem
# Create a full chain with root cert and LetsEncrypt chain in the correct ORDER
cat cert.pem isrgrootx1.pem chain.pem > combined_chain_with_cert.pem
# Move prior Apache HTTPD cert files
mv localhost.key localhost.key.original
mv localhost.crt localhost.crt.original
# Link the new LetsEncrypt files to same names of localhost.XXX
ln -s privkey.pem localhost.key
ln -s combined_chain_with_cert.pem localhost.crt
# Restart apache (httpd)
sudo systemctl restart httpd
# Test with curl with the FQDN name in the CN or SANs of the cert, e.g. training.anapartner.net
curl -v --cacert combined_chain_with_cert.pem --resolve training.anapartner.net:443:127.0.0.1 https://training.anapartner.net:443
# Test with browser with the FQDN name
Example of integration and information reported by browser
View of the certificate as shown with a CN (subject) = training.anapartner.net
A view of the SANS wildcard certs that match the FQDN used in the browser URL bar of iga.k8s-training-student01.anapartner.net
Example of error messages from Apache HTTPD service’s log files if certs are not in correct order or validate correctly. One message is a warning only, the other message is a fatal error message about the validation between the cert and private key do not match. Use the pubkey check process to confirm the cert/key match.
[ssl:warn] [pid 2206:tid 140533536823616] AH01909: CA_IMAG_VAPP:443:0 server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name
[ssl:emerg] [pid 652562:tid 140508002732352] AH02565: Certificate and private key CA_IMAG_VAPP:443:0 from /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt and /etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key do not match
TLS Secrets update in Kubernetes Cluster
If your Kubernetes Cluster is on-prem and does not have access to the internet to validate the root CA cert you may decided to use the combine_chain_with_cert.pem when building your Kubernetes Secrets. With Kubernetes Secrets you must delete then re-add the Secret as there are no current update process for Secrets.
CERTFOLDER=~/labs/letsencrypt
CERTFILE=${CERTFOLDER}/combined_chain_with_cert.pem
#CERTFILE=${CERTFOLDER}/fullchain.pem
KEYFILE=${CERTFOLDER}/privkey.pem
INGRESS_TLS_SECRET=anapartner-dev-tls
NAMESPACE=monitoring
NS=${NAMESPACE}
kubectl -n ${NS} get secret ${INGRESS_TLS_SECRET} 2>&1 > /dev/null
if [ $? != 0 ]; then
echo ""
echo "### Installing TLS Certificate for Ingress"
kubectl -n ${NS} create secret tls ${INGRESS_TLS_SECRET} \
--cert=${CERTFILE} \
--key=${KEYFILE}
fi
Ingress Rule via yaml:
tls:
- hosts:
- grafana.${INGRESS_APPS_DOMAIN}
secretName: ${INGRESS_TLS_SECRET}
helm update:
--set grafana.ingress.tlsSecret=${INGRESS_TLS_SECRET}
The below section from the online documentation mentions the purpose of a certificate to be used by Symatnec Directory. It mentioned using either DXcertgen or openssl. We can now add in LetsEncrypt certs as well to be used.
One statement caught our eye that was not quite accurate was that a certificate used on one DSA could not be used for another DSA. We can see if we compare the DSAs provided by CA Directory for the provisioning servers data tier (Identity Suite/Identity Manager), there is no difference between them, including subject name. Due to the fact that the subject (CN) has the same name for all five (5) DSAs (data/router), if a Java JNDI call is made for an LDAP call to the DSAs, the LDAP hostname validation must be disabled. (see below)
We must use key type of RSA for any cert with Symantec PAM. This process is fairly straightforward to update the certificates. Access the PAM UI configuration, select the menu of: Configuration / Security / Certificates. Join the cert.pem and the privkey.pem files together, in this order, with cat or notepad.
Challenge/Resolution: Please edit the joined file and add the string “RSA“ to the header/footer of the private key provided by LetsEncrypt. Per Broadcom tech note: 126692, “PAMs source code is expecting that RSA based Private Keys start with “—–BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY—–” header and have a matching footer. See example below.
Select “Certificate with Private key” with X509 (as other option), then click “Choose File” button to select the combined cert/privatekey pem file. We are not required to have a destination filename nor passphrase for the LetsEncrypt certs. Click Upload button.
We should receive a confirmation message of “Confirmation: PAM-CM-0349: subject=CN = training.anapartner.net has been verified.”
The error message “PAM-CM-0201: Verification Error Can not open private key file” will occur if using keytype of RSA or ECDSA and the default header/footer does not contain a required string for PAM to parse. If we attempt to use ECDSA keytype, we would receive a similar PAM-CM-0201 error message after updating the header/footer. So please regenerate the LetsEncrypt certs with keytype=RSA.
Next steps, after the certificate and private key have been loaded into Symantec PAM, please use the “Set” menu option to assign this certificate as primary. We will click verify button first, to confirm the certificate is functioning correctly.
We should receive a confirmation message for the file ” Confirmation: PAM-CM-0346: cert_with_key_only_for_pam_app.crt has been verified“.
Finally, we will click “Accept” button, and allow the PAM appliance to restart. Click “Yes” when asked to restart the appliance.
View the updated PAM UI with the LetsEncrypt Certs.
ERROR Messages
If you have received any of the below error messages during use of any java process, e.g. J2EE servers (JBOSS/Wildfly), you have pushed beyond the solution’s vendor ability to manage new features provided in LetsEncrypt certs. You will need to regenerate them with the type of RSA, instead of default of elliptical certs.
UNKNOWN-CIPHER-SUITE ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH SSLHandshakeException: no cipher suites in common Ignore unavailable extension Ignore unknown or unsupported extension
Use the below processes to help you identify the root cause of your issue.
Create an ‘RSA’ type JKS and P12 Keystore using LetsEncrypt certs.
The below example is a two (2) steps process that will create a p12 keystore first with the cert.pem and privkey.pem files. Then, a second command will convert the p12 keystore to the older JKS keystore format. You may use these in any Java process, e.g.J2EE and/or Tomcat platform.
Locate “the good, the bad, and the ugly” data with a transparent proxy.
Have you been frustrated with various enterprise/cloud solutions’ APIs implementation or documentation where a single case-sensitive data field entry delays progress? Does the solution have undocumented features for older client tools? Do you wish to know what your mobile apps or laptop sends to the internet?
Utilizing a proxy can help with all the above, and if the process is quick and straightforward, so much the better.
Typically for a proxy, there may be quite a bit of effort and steps. You may need to modify a client host/mobile phone to redirect web traffic with OS environmental variables of HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY or adjustment of the underlying OS network/iptables. Prior, we typically set up the open-source Jmeter proxy with the OS environment variables to capture secure traffic data. This process works well for most applications. Additionally, the Firefox browser allows manual modification using a proxy without dependence on the OS environment settings if we wish to capture the user experience and any data challenges.
The example below of modifying a Firefox browser to use a “manual proxy configuration” instead of system/auto configurations.
To ensure accurate capture of web traffic submissions, a more thorough method is needed as the above process may fail if client tools or mobile apps cannot detect OS environmental variables.
We have found a perfect combination within the open-source tool of MITMproxy with podman and the embedded VPN feature of WireGuard.
The WireGuard client configuration will be provided in three (3) places: the MITMproxy logs (podman logs mitmproxy), the text file wireguard.conf (if podman/docker volumes are enabled), and the MITMproxy UI. The QR code is enabled for mobile phone use, but since the public IP address provided is not correct in this view, you will need to manually edit this configuration on your mobile phone during those use-cases to have the correct endpoint IP address.
MITMproxy UI with standard proxy configuration mode.
Bash Script:
Script to deploy MITMproxy with podman on a linux OS with two (2) configurations: Wireguard mode for any client applications that do not honor HTTP_PROXY/HTTPS_PROXY and Standard proxy mode. This bash script allows a shared volume to use the SAME certs to avoid managing different certs upon restart of the container.
#!/bin/bash
######################################################################################
#
# Deploy MITMproxy with two (2) configurations:
#
# MITMProxy with WireGuard mode enabled (UDP 51820) and Web UI (TCP 8081)
# MITMProxy with standard proxy enabled (TCP 9080) and Web UI (TCP 9081)
#
# Notes: Use podman exec to check path and env variables
# - Binaries: dnf -y install podman
# - Use shared folder to avoid having two (2) different configuration files for both copies
# - Do not forget the :z for -v volumes to avoid permissions issues
# - Do not forget quotes around env -e variables
# - Use --rm as needed
# - Use this switch as needed, but do not leave it on: --log-level debug \
#
# Basic: podman run -it -v /tmp/mitmproxy/:/home/mitmproxy/.mitmproxy:z -p 8080:8080 mitmproxy/mitmproxy
# Logs: podman logs mitmproxy-wireguard
# Shell: podman exec -it -u root mitmproxy bash
#
# Options Ref. https://docs.mitmproxy.org/stable/concepts-options/
# - added stream_large_bodies=10m to lower impact to mitmproxy due
# to possible large json/xml payloads
#
# ANA 07/2023
#
######################################################################################
MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH=/tmp/mitmproxy
echo ""
echo "You may delete the shared folder of ${MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH}"
echo "to remove prior configuration of mitmproxy certs & wireguard.conf files"
echo ""
#sudo rm -rf ${MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH}
mkdir -p ${MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH}
chmod -R 777 ${MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH}
ls -hlrt ${MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH}
echo ""
echo " Starting mitmproxy-wireguard proxy "
podman rm mitmproxy-wireguard -f &>/dev/null
podman run -d -it --name mitmproxy-wireguard \
-p 51820:51820/udp -p 8081:8081 \
-l mitmproxy \
-v ${MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH}:/home/mitmproxy/.mitmproxy:z \
docker.io/mitmproxy/mitmproxy \
mitmweb --mode wireguard --ssl-insecure --web-host 0.0.0.0 --web-port 8081 --set stream_large_bodies=10m
echo ""
echo " Starting mitmproxy-default proxy "
podman rm mitmproxy-default -f &>/dev/null
podman run -d -it --name mitmproxy-default \
-p 9080:9080 -p 9081:9081 \
-l mitmproxy \
-v ${MITMPROXY_HOMEPATH}:/home/mitmproxy/.mitmproxy:z \
docker.io/mitmproxy/mitmproxy \
mitmweb --set listen_port=9080 --web-host 0.0.0.0 --web-port 9081
echo ""
echo ""
echo "###############################################################################"
echo ""
echo " Running Podman Containers for MITMproxy"
sleep 5
podman ps -a --no-trunc | grep -i mitmproxy
echo ""
echo "###############################################################################"
podman logs mitmproxy-default
echo ""
echo " Monitor the mitmproxy-default UI @ http://$(curl -s ifconfig.me):9081 "
echo "###############################################################################"
podman logs mitmproxy-wireguard
echo ""
echo " Monitor the mitmproxy-wireguard UI @ http://$(curl -s ifconfig.me):8081 "
echo "###############################################################################"
echo ""
echo "Please update the mitmproxy wireguard client configuration endpoint address to: $(curl -s ifconfig.me)"
echo ""
echo "###############################################################################"
echo ""
MITMproxy CERTS:
Add mitmproxy-ca-cert to the trusted root certs folder on your client host OS keystore (MS Win: certlm.msc) and/or if there is a java keystore for the client tool, please add the mitmproxy-ca-cert.cer as a trusted cert. keytool -import -trustcacerts -file mitm-ca-proxy.cer -alias mitmproxy -keystore capam.keystore
WireGuard client configuration:
To ensure that only selected web traffic is monitored through wireguard VPN to mitmproxy, make changes to the wireguard.conf file before importing it. Specifically, update the AllowedIPs address field to include a single IP address. Additionally, modify the endpoint field to direct traffic to the public IP address of the mitmproxy host on UDP port 51820. If deploying mitmproxy on AWS or other cloud hosts, confirm that the firewall/security groups permit TCP 8080, 8081, 9080, 9091, and UDP 51820. Once you have activated the WireGuard client, test your processes on the host and monitor the MITMproxy UI for updates.
An example of data captured between two (2) CLI tools. These CLI tools did not honor the OS environmental variables of HTTP_PROXY & HTTPS_PROXY. Using the MITMproxy with WireGuard process, we can now confirm the delta submission behavior that was masked by the CLI tools. This process was useful to confirm that MS Powershell was removing special characters for a password string, e.g. ! (exclamation mark).
Example of script deploying two (2) MITMproxy containers
While preparing to enable a feature within the Identity Suite Virtual Appliance for TLS encryption for the Provisioning Tier to send notification events, we noticed some challenges that we wish to clarify.
The Identity Suite Virtual Appliance has four (4) web services that use pre-built self-signed certificates when first deployed. Documentation is provided to change these certificates/key using aliases or soft-links.
One of the challenges we discovered is the Provisioning Tier may be using an older version of libcurl & OpenSSL that have constraints that need to be managed. These libraries are used during the web submission to the IME ETACALLBACK webservice. We will review the processes to capture these error messages and how to address them.
We will introduce the use of Let’s Encrypt wildcard certificates into the four (4) web services and the Provisioning Server’s ETACALLBACK use of a valid public root certificate.
The Apache HTTPD service is used for both a forward proxy (TCP 443) to the three (3) Wildfly Services and service for the vApp Management Console (TCP 10443). The Apache HTTPD service SSL certs use the path /etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt for a self-signed certificate. A soft-link is used to redirect this to a location that the ‘config’ service ID has access to modify. The same is true for the private key.
A view of the Apache HTTPD SSL self-signed certificate and key.
The three (3) Wildfly services are deployed for the Identity Manager, Identity Governance and Identity Portal components. The configuration for TLS security is defined within the primary Wildfly configuration file of standalone.xml. The current configuration is already setup with the paths to PKCS12 keystore files of:
A view of the three (3) Wildfly PKCS12 keystore files and view of the self-signed cert/key with the pseudo hostname of the vApp host.
Provisioning Server process for TLS enablement for IME ETACALLBACK process.
Step 1. Ensure that the Provisioning Server is enabled to send data/notification events to the IME.
Step 2. Within the IME Management Console, there is a baseURL parameter. This string is sent down to the Provisioning Server upon restart of the IME, and appended to a list. This list is viewable and manageable within the Provisioning Manager UI under [System/Identity Manager Setup]. The URL string will be appended with the string ETACALLBACK/?env=identityEnv. Within this Provisioning Server, we can manage which URLs have priority in the list. This list is a failover list and not load-balancing. We have the opportunity to introduce an F5 or similar load balancer URL, but we should enable TLS security prior.
Step 3. Added the public root CA Cert or CA chain certs to the following location. [System/Domain Configuration/Identity Manager Server/Trusted CA Bundle]. This PEM file may be placed in the Provisioning Server bin folder with no path or may use a fully qualified path to the PEM file. Note: The Provisioning Server is using a version of openssl/libcurl that will report errors that can be managed with wildcard certificates. We will show the common errors in this blog entry.
Let’sEncrypt Certificates offers a free service to build wildcard certificates. We are fond of using their DNS method to request a wildcard certificate.
sudo certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns -d *.aks.iam.anapartner.dev --register-unsafely-without-email
Let’s Encrypt will provide four (4) files to be used. [certN.pem, privkeyN.pem, chainN.pem, fullchainN.pem]
cert1.pem [The primary server side wildcard cert]
privkey1.pem [The primary server side private key associated with the wildcard cert]
chain1.pem [The intermediate chain certs that are needed to validate the cert1 cert]
fullchain1.pem [two files together in the correct order of cert1.pem and chain1.pem.]
NOTE: fullchain1.pem is the file you typically would use as the cert for a solution, so the solution will also have the intermediate CA chain certs for validation]
Important Note: One of the root public certs was cross-signed by another root public cert that expired. Most solutions are able to manage this challenge, but the provisioning service ETACALLBACK has a challenge with an expired certificate, but there are replacements for this expired certificate that we will walk through. Ref: https://letsencrypt.org/docs/dst-root-ca-x3-expiration-september-2021/
Create a new CA chain PEM files for LE (Let’s Encrypt) validation to use with the Provisioning Server.
Validate with browsers and view the HTTPS lock symbol to view the certificate
Test with an update to a Provisioning Global User’s attribute [Note: No need to sync to accounts]. Ensure that the Identity Manager Setup Log Level = DEBUG to monitor this submission with the Provisioning Server etanotifyXXXXXXX.log.
A view of the submission for updating the Global User’s Description via IMPS (IM Provisioning Server) etanotifyXXXXXXX.log. The configuration will be loaded for using the URLs defined. Then we can monitor for the submission of the update.
Finally, a view using the IME VST (View Submitted Tasks) for the ETACALLBACK process using the task Provisioning Modify User.
Common TLS errors seen with the Provisioning Server ETACALLBACK
Ensure that the configuration is enabled for debug log level, so we may view these errors to correct them. [rc=77] will occur if the PEM file does not exist or is not in the correct path. [rc=51] will occur if the URL defined does not match the exact server-side certificate (this is a good reason to use a wildcard certificate or adjust your URL FQDN to match the cert subject (CN=XXXX) value. [rc=60] will occur if the remote web service is using a self-signed certificate or if the certificate has any expiration dates within the certificate or chain or the public root CA cert.
Other Error messages (curl)
If you see an error message with Apache HTTPD (TCP 443) with curl about “curl: (60) Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with known CA certificates”, please ignore this, as the vApp does not have the “ca-bundle.crt” configuration enabled. See RedHat note: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/523823
RedHat OpenShift is one of the container orchestration platforms that provides an enterprise-grade solution for deploying, running, and managing applications on public, on-premise, or hybrid cloud environments.
This blog entry outlines the high-level architecture of a LAB OpenShift on-prem cloud environment built on VMware Workstation infrastructure.
Red Hat OpenShift and the customized ISO image with Red Hat Core OS provide a straightforward process to build your lab and can help lower the training cost. You may watch the end-to-end process in the video below or follow this blog entry to understand the overall process.
Requirements:
Red Hat Developer Account w/ Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals
Local DNS to resolve a minimum of three (3) addresses for OpenShift. (api.[domain], api-int.[domain], *.apps.[domain])
DHCP Server (may use VMware Workstation NAT’s DHCP)
Storage (recommend using NFS for on-prem deployment/lab) for OpenShift logging/monitoring & any db/dir data to be retained.
SSH Terminal Program w/ SSH Key.
Browser(s)
Front Loader/Load Balancer (HAProxy)
VMware Workstation Pro 16.x
Specs: (We used more than the minimum recommended by OpenShift to prepare for other applications)
Three (3) Control Planes Nodes @ 8 vCPU/16 GB RAM/100 GB HDD with “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 x64 bit” Guest OS Type
Four (4) Worker Nodes @ 4 vCPU/16 GB RAM/100 GB HDD with “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 x64” Guest OS Type
Post-Efforts: Apply these to provide additional value. [Included as examples]
Add entropy service (haveged) to all nodes/pods to increase security & performance.
Let’sEncrypt wild card certs for *.[DOMAIN] and *.apps.[DOMAIN] to avoid self-signed certs for external UIs. Avoid using “thisisunsafe” within the Chrome browser to access the local OpenShift console.
Update OpenShift Ingress to be aware of more than two (2) worker nodes.
Update OpenShift to use NFS as default storage.
Below is a view of our footprint to deploy the OpenShift 4.x environment on a local data center hosted by VMware Workstation.
Red Hat OpenShift provides three (3) options to deploy. Cloud, Datacenter, Local. Local is similar to minikube for your laptop/workstation with a few pods. Red Hat OpenShift license for Cloud requires deployment on other vendors’ sites for the nodes (cpu/ram/disk) and load balancers. If you deploy OpenShift on AWS and GCP, plan a budget of $500/mo per resource for the assets.
After reviewing the open-source OKD solution and the various OpenShift deployment methods, we selected the “DataCenter” option within OpenShift. Two (2) points made this decision easy.
Red Hat OpenShift offers a sixty (60) day eval license.
This license can be restarted for another sixty (60) days if you delete/archive the last cluster.
Red Hat OpenShift provides a customized ISO image with Red Hat Core OS, ignition yaml files, and an embedded SSH Public Key, that does a lot of the heavy lifting for setting up the cluster.
The below screen showcases the process that Red Hat uses to build a bootstrap ISO image using Red Hat Core OS, Ignition yaml files (to determine node type of control plane/worker node), and the embedded SSH Key. This process provides a lot of value to building a cluster and streamlines the effort.
DNS Requirement
The minimal DNS entries required for OpenShift is three (3) addresses.
Update HAproxy.cfg as needed for IP addresses / Ports. To avoid deployment of HAProxy twice, we use the “bind” command to join two (2) HAproxy configuration files together to prevent conflict on port 80/443 redirect for both OpenShift and another application deployed on OpenShift.
# Global settings
# Set $IP_RANGE as an OS ENV or Global variable before running HAPROXY
# Important: If using VMworkstation NAT ensure this range is correctly defined to
# avoid error message with x509 error on port 22623 upon startup on control planes
#
# Ensure 3XXXX PORT is defined correct from the ingress
# - We have predefined these ports to 32080 and 32443 for helm deployment of ingress
# oc -n ingress get svc
#
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
global
setenv IP_RANGE 192.168.243
setenv HA_BIND_IP1 192.168.2.101
setenv HA_BIND_IP2 192.168.2.111
maxconn 20000
log /dev/log local0 info
chroot /var/lib/haproxy
pidfile /var/run/haproxy.pid
user haproxy
group haproxy
daemon
# turn on stats unix socket
stats socket /var/lib/haproxy/stats
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
# common defaults that all the 'listen' and 'backend' sections will
# use if not designated in their block
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
defaults
log global
mode http
option httplog
option dontlognull
option http-server-close
option redispatch
option forwardfor except 127.0.0.0/8
retries 3
maxconn 20000
timeout http-request 10000ms
timeout http-keep-alive 10000ms
timeout check 10000ms
timeout connect 40000ms
timeout client 300000ms
timeout server 300000ms
timeout queue 50000ms
# Enable HAProxy stats
# Important Note: Patch OpenShift Ingress to allow internal RHEL CoreOS haproxy to run on additional worker nodes
# oc patch -n openshift-ingress-operator ingresscontroller/default --patch '{"spec":{"replicas": 7}}' --type=merge
#
listen stats
bind :9000
stats uri /
stats refresh 10000ms
# Kube API Server
frontend k8s_api_frontend
bind :6443
default_backend k8s_api_backend
mode tcp
option tcplog
backend k8s_api_backend
mode tcp
balance source
server ocp-cp-1_6443 "$IP_RANGE".128:6443 check
server ocp-cp-2_6443 "$IP_RANGE".129:6443 check
server ocp-cp-3_6443 "$IP_RANGE".130:6443 check
# OCP Machine Config Server
frontend ocp_machine_config_server_frontend
mode tcp
bind :22623
default_backend ocp_machine_config_server_backend
option tcplog
backend ocp_machine_config_server_backend
mode tcp
balance source
server ocp-cp-1_22623 "$IP_RANGE".128:22623 check
server ocp-cp-2_22623 "$IP_RANGE".129:22623 check
server ocp-cp-3_22623 "$IP_RANGE".130:22623 check
# OCP Machine Config Server #2
frontend ocp_machine_config_server_frontend2
mode tcp
bind :22624
default_backend ocp_machine_config_server_backend2
option tcplog
backend ocp_machine_config_server_backend2
mode tcp
balance source
server ocp-cp-1_22624 "$IP_RANGE".128:22624 check
server ocp-cp-2_22624 "$IP_RANGE".129:22624 check
server ocp-cp-3_22624 "$IP_RANGE".130:22624 check
# OCP Ingress - layer 4 tcp mode for each. Ingress Controller will handle layer 7.
frontend ocp_http_ingress_frontend
bind "$HA_BIND_IP1":80
default_backend ocp_http_ingress_backend
mode tcp
option tcplog
backend ocp_http_ingress_backend
balance source
mode tcp
server ocp-w-1_80 "$IP_RANGE".131:80 check
server ocp-w-2_80 "$IP_RANGE".132:80 check
server ocp-w-3_80 "$IP_RANGE".133:80 check
server ocp-w-4_80 "$IP_RANGE".134:80 check
server ocp-w-5_80 "$IP_RANGE".135:80 check
server ocp-w-6_80 "$IP_RANGE".136:80 check
server ocp-w-7_80 "$IP_RANGE".137:80 check
frontend ocp_https_ingress_frontend
bind "$HA_BIND_IP1":443
default_backend ocp_https_ingress_backend
mode tcp
option tcplog
backend ocp_https_ingress_backend
mode tcp
balance source
server ocp-w-1_443 "$IP_RANGE".131:443 check
server ocp-w-2_443 "$IP_RANGE".132:443 check
server ocp-w-3_443 "$IP_RANGE".133:443 check
server ocp-w-4_443 "$IP_RANGE".134:443 check
server ocp-w-5_443 "$IP_RANGE".135:443 check
server ocp-w-6_443 "$IP_RANGE".136:443 check
server ocp-w-7_443 "$IP_RANGE".137:443 check
######################################################################################
# VIPAUTHHUB Ingress
frontend vip_http_ingress_frontend
bind "$HA_BIND_IP2":80
mode tcp
option forwardfor
option http-server-close
default_backend vip_http_ingress_backend
backend vip_http_ingress_backend
mode tcp
balance roundrobin
server vip-w-1_32080 "$IP_RANGE".131:32080 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-2_32080 "$IP_RANGE".132:32080 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-3_32080 "$IP_RANGE".133:32080 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-4_32080 "$IP_RANGE".134:32080 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-5_32080 "$IP_RANGE".135:32080 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-6_32080 "$IP_RANGE".136:32080 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-7_32080 "$IP_RANGE".137:32080 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
frontend vip_https_ingress_frontend
bind "$HA_BIND_IP2":443
# mgmt-sspfqdn
acl is_mgmt_ssp hdr_end(host) -i mgmt-ssp.okd.anapartner.dev
use_backend vip_ingress-nodes_mgmt-nodeport if is_mgmt_ssp
mode tcp
#option forwardfor
option http-server-close
default_backend vip_https_ingress_backend
backend vip_https_ingress_backend
mode tcp
balance roundrobin
server vip-w-1_32443 "$IP_RANGE".131:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-2_32443 "$IP_RANGE".132:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-3_32443 "$IP_RANGE".133:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-4_32443 "$IP_RANGE".134:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-5_32443 "$IP_RANGE".135:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-6_32443 "$IP_RANGE".136:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-7_32443 "$IP_RANGE".137:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
backend vip_ingress-nodes_mgmt-nodeport
mode tcp
balance roundrobin
server vip-w-1_32443 "$IP_RANGE".131:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-2_32443 "$IP_RANGE".132:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-3_32443 "$IP_RANGE".133:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-4_32443 "$IP_RANGE".134:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-5_32443 "$IP_RANGE".135:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-6_32443 "$IP_RANGE".136:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server vip-w-7_32443 "$IP_RANGE".137:32443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
######################################################################################
Use the following commands to add 2nd IP address to one NIC on the main VMware Workstation Host, where NIC = eno1 and 2nd IP address = 192.168.2.111
nmcli dev show eno1
sudo nmcli dev mod eno1 +ipv4.address 192.168.2.111/24
VMware Workstation Hosts / Nodes
When building the VMware hosts, ensure that you use Guest Type “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 x64” to match the embedded Red Hat Core OS provided in an ISO image. Otherwise, DHCP services may not work correctly, and when the VMware host boots, it may not receive an IP address.
The VMware hosts for Control Planes Nodes are recommended to be 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, and 100 HDD. The VMware hosts for Worker Nodes are recommended to be 4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, and 100 HDD. OpenShift requires a minimum of three (3) Control Plane Nodes and two (2) Worker Nodes. Please check with any solution you may deploy and adjust the parameters as needed. We will deploy four (4) Worker Nodes for Symantec VIP Auth Hub solution. And horizontally scale the solution with more worker nodes for Symantec API Manager and Siteminder.
Before starting any of these images, create a local snapshot as a “before” state. This will allow you to redeploy with minimal impact if there is any issue.
Before starting the deployment, you may wish to create a new NAT VMware Network, to avoid impacting any existing VMware images on the same address range. We will be adjusting the dhcpd.conf and dhcpd.leases files for this network.
To avoid an issue with reverse DNS lookup within PODS and Containers, remove a default value from dhcpd.conf. Stop vmware network, remove or comment out the line “option domain-name localdomain;” , remove any dhcpd.leases information, then restart the vmware network.
OpenShift / Kubernetes / Helm Command Line Binaries
Download these two (2) client packages to have three (3) binaries for interfacing with OpenShift/Kubernetes API Server.
Download Openshift Binaries for remote management (on main host)
#########################
sudo su -
cd /tmp/openshift
curl -skOL https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/helm/latest/helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz ; tar -zxvf helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz
curl -skOL https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/x86_64/clients/ocp/stable/openshift-client-linux.tar.gz ; tar -zxvf openshift-client-linux.tar.gz
mv -f oc /usr/bin/oc
mv -f kubectl /usr/bin/kubectl
mv -f helm-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/helm
oc version
helm version
kubectl version
Start an OpenShift Cluster Deployment
OpenID Configuration with OpenShift
Post-deployment step: After you have deployed OpenShift cluster, you will be asked to create an IDP to authenticate other accounts. Below is an example with OpenShift and MS Azure. The image below showcases the parameters and values to be shared between the two solutions.
Entropy DaemonSet for OpenShift Nodes/Pods
We can validate the entropy on an OpenShift nodes or Pod via use of /dev/random. We prefer to emulate a 1000 password changes that showcase how rapidly the entropy pool of 4K is depleted when a security process accesses it. Example of the single line bash code.
Validate Entropy in Openshift Nodes [Before/After use of Haveged Deployment]
#########################
(counter=1;MAX=1001;time while [ $counter -le $MAX ]; do echo "";echo "########## $counter ##########" ; echo "Entropy = `cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail` out of 4096"; echo "" ; time dd if=/dev/random bs=8 count=1 2>/dev/null | base64; counter=$(( $counter + 1 )); done;)
If the number of OpenShift Workers is greater than two (2), then you will need to patch the OpenShift Ingress controller to scale up to the number of worker nodes.
WORKERS=`oc get nodes | grep worker | wc -l`
echo ""
echo "######################################################################"
echo "# of Worker replicas in OpenShift Ingress Prior to update"
echo "oc get -n openshift-ingress-operator ingresscontroller -o yaml | grep -i replicas:"
#echo "######################################################################"
echo ""
oc patch -n openshift-ingress-operator ingresscontroller/default --patch "{\"spec\":{\"replicas\": ${WORKERS}}}" --type=merge
LetsEncrypt Certs for OpenShift Ingress and API Server
The certs with OpenShift are self-signed. This is not an issue until you attempt to access the local OpenShift console with a browser and are stopped from accessing the UI by newer security enforcement in the browsers. To avoid this challenge, we recommend switching the certs to LetsEncrypt. There are many examples how to rotate the certs. We used the below link to rotate the certs. https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/4.12/security/certificates/replacing-default-ingress-certificate.html
echo "Installing ConfigMap for the Default Ingress Controllers"
oc delete configmap letsencrypt-fullchain-ca -n openshift-config &>/dev/null
oc create configmap letsencrypt-fullchain-ca \
--from-file=ca-bundle.crt=${CHAINFILE} \
-n openshift-config
oc patch proxy/cluster \
--type=merge \
--patch='{"spec":{"trustedCA":{"name":"letsencrypt-fullchain-ca"}}}'
echo "Installing Certificates for the Default Ingress Controllers"
oc delete secret letsencrypt-certs -n openshift-ingress &>/dev/null
oc create secret tls letsencrypt-certs \
--cert=${CHAINFILE} \
--key=${KEYFILE} \
-n openshift-ingress
echo "Backup prior version of ingresscontroller"
oc get ingresscontroller default -n openshift-ingress-operator -o yaml > /tmp/ingresscontroller.$DATE.yaml
oc patch ingresscontroller.operator default -n openshift-ingress-operator --type=merge --patch='{"spec": { "defaultCertificate": { "name": "letsencrypt-certs" }}}'
echo "Installing Certificates for the API Endpoint"
oc delete secret letsencrypt-certs -n openshift-config &>/dev/null
oc create secret tls letsencrypt-certs \
--cert=${CHAINFILE} \
--key=${KEYFILE} \
-n openshift-config
echo "Backup prior version of apiserver"
oc get apiserver cluster -o yaml > /tmp/apiserver_cluster.$DATE.yaml
oc patch apiserver cluster --type merge --patch="{\"spec\": {\"servingCerts\": {\"namedCertificates\": [ { \"names\": [ \"$LE_API\" ], \"servingCertificate\": {\"name\": \"letsencrypt-certs\" }}]}}}"
echo "#####################################################################################"
echo "true | openssl s_client -connect api.${DOMAIN}:443 --showcerts --servername api.${DOMAIN}"
echo ""
echo "It may take 5-10 minutes for the OpenShift Ingress/API Pods to cycle with the new certs"
echo "You may monitor with: watch -n 2 'oc get pod -A | grep -i -v -e running -e complete' "
echo ""
echo "Per Openshift documentation use the below command to monitor the state of the API server"
echo "ensure PROGRESSING column states False as the status before continuing with deployment"
echo ""
echo "oc get clusteroperators kube-apiserver "
Please reach out if you wish to learn more or have ANA assist with Kubernetes / OpenShift opportunities.
Kubernetes was designed for the deployment of applications to cloud architecture with containers. Another way of thinking about Kubernetes; it gets us “out-of-the-install-binaries” business and focuses our efforts on the business value of a solution. We have documented our process of how we train our resources and partners. This process will help your team to excel and gain confidence with cloud technologies.
One of the business challenges of Kubernetes in the cloud architecture is the ongoing cost ($300-$600/month per resource) during the learning or development process. To lower this ongoing cost per resource, we focused on a method to use on-prem Kubernetes deployments.
We have found examples online of using minikube and Oracle Virtualbox to assist with keeping costs low while using an on-prem deployment but did not find many examples of using Vmware Workstation to our satisfaction. Our goal was to utilize a solution that we are very familiar with and has the supporting capabilities for rollback via snapshots.
We have used Vmware Workstation for many years while working on service projects. We cannot overstate its usefulness to offer a “play-ground” and development environment independent of a client’s environment. The features of snapshots allow for negative use-case testing or “what-if” scenarios to destroy or impact solutions being tested with minimal impact.
In this entry, we will discuss the use of Vmware Workstation and CentOS (or Ubuntu) as the primary Kubernetes Nodes. Both CentOS and/or Ubuntu OS are used by the cloud providers as their Kubernetes nodes, so this on-prem process will translate well.
Some of our team members run the Kubernetes environment from their laptop, a collection of individual servers, or a larger server that may scale to the number of vCPU/RAM required for the Kubernetes solution.
Decision 1: Choose an OS to be used.
Either CentOS or Ubuntu OS is acceptable to use for on-prem. When we checked the OSes used by the cloud providers, we noted they used one of these two (2) OS for Linux OS. We decided on CentOS 7, as iptables for routing are used within Kubernetes; and iptables are used by default in CentOS 7. You may find that other OSes will work fine as well.
Decision 2: Build a reference image
Identify all expected binaries to be used within this image. This reference image will be cloned for the Kubernetes control plane node (1) and the worker nodes (3-4). We will also use this image to build a supporting node (non-Kubernetes) for SiteMinder integration and a docker repository for the Kubernetes docker images. For a total of six (6) nodes.
Decision 3: DNS and Certificates
Recommendation: Please do not attempt to deploy a Kubernetes solution on-prem without having purchased a DNS domain/site and use wild card certificates tied to the DNS domain.
Without these two (2) supporting components, it is a challenge to have a working Kubernetes solution that reflects what you will experience in a cloud deployment.
For example, we purchased a domain for $12/year, and then created several “A” records that will host the IP addresses we may use to redirect to cloud or on-prem. Using sub-domains “A” records, we can have as many cloud addresses as we wish.
DNS "A" Records Example:
aks.iam.anapartner.net (MS Azure),
eks.iam.anapartner.net (Amazon),
gke.iam.anapartner.net (Google).
DNS "CNAME" Records Example:
alertmanager.aks.iam.anapartner.net,
grafana.aks.iam.anapartner.net,
jaeger.aks.iam.anapartner.net,
kibana.aks.iam.anapartner.net,
mgmt-ssp.aks.iam.anapartner.net,
sm.aks.iam.anapartner.net,
ssp.aks.iam.anapartner.net.
Example of using Synology DNS Server for Kubernetes cluster’s application. With “A” and “CNAME” records.
Finally, we prefer to use wildcard certificates for these domains to avoid challenges within our Kubernetes deployment. There are several services out there offering free certificates.
We chose Let’sEncrypt https://letsencrypt.org/. While Let’sEncrypt has automated processes to renew their certs, we chose to use their DNS validation process with a CertBot solution. We can renew these certificates every 90 days for on-prem usage. The DNS validation process requires a unique string generated by the Let’sEncrypt process to be populated in a DNS “TXT” record like so: _acme-challenge.aks.iam.anapartner.net . See the example at the bottom of this blog entry on this process.
Decision 4: Supporting Components: Storage, Load-Balancing, DNS Resolution (Local)
The last step required for on-prem deployment is where will you decide to place persistence storage for your Kubernetes cluster. We chose to use an NFS share.
We first tested using the control-plane node, then decided to move the NFS share to a Synology NAS solution. Similar for the DNS resolution option, at first we used a DNS service on the control-plane node and then moved to to the Synology NAS solution.
For Load-Balancing, Kubernetes has a service option of NodePort and LoadBalancing. The LoadBalancing service if not deployed in the cloud, will default to NodePort behavior. To introduce load balancing for on-prem, we introduced the HA-proxy service on the control-plane node, along with Kubernetes NodePort service to meet this goal.
After the decisions have been made, we can now walk through the steps to set up a Vmware environment for Kubernetes.
Reference Image
Step 1: Download the OS DVD ISO image for deployment on Vmware Workstation (Centos 7 / Ubuntu ).
Determine specs for the future solution to be deployed on Kubernetes. Some solutions have pods that may require minimal memory/disc space. For the solution we decided on deploying, we confirmed that we need 16 GBRAM and 4vCPU minimal. We have confirmed these specs were required by previously deploying the solution in a cloud environment.
Without these memory/cpu specs, the solution that we chose would pause the deployment of Kubernetes pods to the nodes. You may or may not see error messages in the deployment of pods stating that the nodes did not have enough resources for all or some of the pods.
For disc size, we selected 100 GB to future-proof the solution during testing. For networking, please select BRIDGED mode, to allow the Vmware images to have minimal network issues when routing within your local network. Please avoid double NAT’ing the deployment to reduce your headaches.
Step 2: Install useful base packages and disable any UI tools. Please install an Entropy Daemon to avoid delays due to certificates usage of /dev/random and low entropy.
### UI Update for CentOS7 was stopping yum deployment - not required for our solution to be tested (e.g. VIP Auth Hub)
# su to root to run the below commands. We will add sudo access later.
su -
systemctl disable packagekit; systemctl stop packagekit; systemctl status packagekit
### Installed base useful packages.
yum -y install dnf epel-release yum-utils nfs-utils
### Install useful 2nd tools.
yum -y install openldap-clients jq python3-pip tree
pip3 install yq
yum -y upgrade
### Install Entropy process (epel repo)
dnf -y install haveged
systemctl enable haveged --now
Step 3: Install docker and update the docker configuration for use with Kubernetes. Update the path & storage-driver for the docker images for initial deployment.
### Install Docker repo & docker package
yum-config-manager --add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
dnf -y install docker-ce
docker version
systemctl enable docker --now
docker version
### Update docker image info after deployment and restart service
cat << EOF > /etc/docker/daemon.json
{
"debug": false,
"data-root": "/home/docker-images",
"exec-opts": ["native.cgroupdriver=systemd"],
"log-driver": "json-file",
"log-opts": {
"max-size": "100m"
},
"storage-driver": "overlay2"
}
EOF
### Restart docker to load updated image info.
systemctl restart docker; systemctl status docker; docker version
Step 4: Deploy the three (3) primary Kubernetes & the HELM binaries.
Ensure you select a Kubernetes version that matches what solution you wish to deploy and work with. This can be a gotcha if the Kubernetes binaries update during a dnf / yum upgrade process and your solution has not been vetted for the newer release of Kubernetes. See the reference link below on how to upgrade Kubernetes binaries.
### Stop FirewallD - May add ports later for security
systemctl stop firewalld;systemctl disable firewalld; iptables -F
### Update OS Parameters for kubernetes
setenforce 0
sed -i --follow-symlinks 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g' /etc/sysconfig/selinux
modprobe br_netfilter
cat << EOF > /etc/sysctl.d/k8s.conf
net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-ip6tables = 1
net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables = 1
EOF
sysctl --system
### Note: IP forwarding is enabled by default.
sysctl -a | grep -i forward
### Note: Update /etc/fstab to comment out swap line with # character
### Warning: kubectl init will fail if swap is left on cp or any worker node.
swapoff -a
sed -i 's|UUID\=\(.*\)-\(.*\)-\(.*\)-\(.*\)-\(.*\) swap|#UUID\=\1-\2-\3-\4-\5 swap|g' /etc/fstab
cat /etc/fstab
Step 6: Create SSH key for root or other services IDs to allow remote script updates from CP to Worker Nodes
### Create SSH key for root to allow remote script updates from CP to Worker Nodes - Enter a Blank/Null PASSWORD.
su -
rm -rf ~/.ssh; echo y | ssh-keygen -b 4096 -C $USER -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
### Copy the public rsa key to authorized keys to avoid password between cp/worker nodes for remote ssh commands.
cp -r -p ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ~/.ssh/authorized_keys;chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys;ls -lart .ssh
### Test for remote connection with no password:
ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa root@localhost
### Copy the id_rsa key to your host system for ease of testing.
### Add your local non-root user to sudo wheel group. Change vip to your user ID.
LOCALUSER=vip
gpasswd -a $LOCALUSER wheel
### Update sudoers file to allow wheel group with no-password
sed -i 's|# %wheel|%wheel|g' /etc/sudoers
### View update wheel group.
grep "%wheel" /etc/sudoers
# Example of return query.
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
Step 7: Stop or adjust the OS network manager, shutdown the reference image, and create a Vmware Snapshot
### Adjust or Disable the OS NetworkManager (to avoid overwriting /etc/resolv.conf)
### Important when using an internal DNS server.
systemctl disable NetworkManager;systemctl stop NetworkManager
### reboot CentOS7 Image and validate no issues upon reboot.
reboot
### Shutdown image and manually create snapshot called "base"
Vmware Workstation Cloning
Step 8: Now that we have a reference image, we can now make clone images for the control-plane (1), the worker nodes (4), and the supporting node (1). This is a fairly quick process.
export BASE=/home/me/vmware/kub
export REF=/home/me/vmware/kub/CentOS7/CentOS7.vmx
VM=cp;mkdir -p $BASE/$VM; time vmrun -T ws clone $REF $BASE/$VM/$VM.vmx -cloneName=$VM -snapshot=base full
VM=worker01;mkdir -p $BASE/$VM; time vmrun -T ws clone $REF $BASE/$VM/$VM.vmx -cloneName=$VM -snapshot=base full
VM=worker02;mkdir -p $BASE/$VM; time vmrun -T ws clone $REF $BASE/$VM/$VM.vmx -cloneName=$VM -snapshot=base full
VM=worker03;mkdir -p $BASE/$VM; time vmrun -T ws clone $REF $BASE/$VM/$VM.vmx -cloneName=$VM -snapshot=base full
VM=worker04;mkdir -p $BASE/$VM; time vmrun -T ws clone $REF $BASE/$VM/$VM.vmx -cloneName=$VM -snapshot=base full
VM=sm;mkdir -p $BASE/$VM; time vmrun -T ws clone $REF $BASE/$VM/$VM.vmx -cloneName=$VM -snapshot=base full
Step 9: Start the clone images and remotely assign new hostname/IP addresses to the images
Step 12: Copy the root .ssh public cert to your main host, rename it to a useful name and these test your newly deployed clone images for DSN resolution using ssh. Please confirm this step is successful prior to continuing with the configuration of the control plane and worker nodes.
Step 13a: Copy files to CP Node from Vmware Workstation host and configure the CP node for dedicated CP usage. Recommend using two terminals/sessions to speed up the process. Install HAproxy for Load Balancing, copy the Let’s Encrypt wild card certificates, and copy the Kubernetes solution you will be deploying (scripts/yaml).
### Open Terminal 1 to CP host.
### Add bash completion to have better use of TAB to view parameters.
CP=192.168.2.60
ssh -tt -i ~/vip_kub_root_id_rsa root@$CP
dnf -y install bash-completion
echo 'export KUBECONFIG=/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf' >>~/.bashrc
kubectl completion bash >/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl
echo "alias k=kubectl | complete -F __start_kubectl k" >>~/.bashrc
### Install HAProxy and replace the haproxy.cfg file.
dnf -y install haproxy
systemctl enable haproxy --now
netstat -anp | grep -i -e haproxy
### Open Terminal 2 to host and push files to CP node.
### Copy HAProxy configuration, certs, and scripts
scp -i ~/vip_kub_root_id_rsa haproxy.cfg root@$CP:/etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
scp -i ~/vip_kub_root_id_rsa cloud-certs-aks-eks-gke_exp-202X-01-12.tar root@$CP:
scp -i ~/vip_kub_root_id_rsa 202X-11-03_vip_auth_hub_working_centos7_v2.tar root@$CP:
### On Terminal 1 - on CP host - Restart to use new haproxy configuration file.
systemctl restart haproxy
netstat -anp | grep -i -e haproxy
### Extract CERTS to root home folder
tar -xvf cloud-certs-aks-eks-gke_exp-202X-01-12.tar
### Extract Working Scripts
tar -xvf 202X-11-03_vip_auth_hub_working_centos7_v2.tar
### Update env variables for unique environment within step00 file.
vi step00_kubernetes_env.sh
### Add the env variables to the .bashrc file
echo ". ./step00_kubernetes_env.sh"
Step 13b: Example of /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg configuration for Kubernetes Load Balancing functionality for on-prem worker nodes. HAproxy deployed on control plane (CP) node. The example configuration file will route TCP 80/443/389 to one (1) of the four (4) worker nodes. If a Kubernetes NodePort service is enabled for TCP 389 (31888) ports, then this load balancer will function correctly and route the traffic for LDAP traffic as well.
[root@cp ~]# cat /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
global
user haproxy
group haproxy
chroot /var/lib/haproxy
log /dev/log local0
log /dev/log local1 notice
defaults
mode http
log global
retries 2
timeout http-request 10s
timeout queue 1m
timeout connect 10s
timeout client 10m
timeout server 10m
timeout http-keep-alive 10s
timeout check 10s
maxconn 3000
frontend ingress
bind *:80
option tcplog
mode http
option forwardfor
option http-server-close
default_backend kubernetes-ingress-nodes
backend kubernetes-ingress-nodes
mode http
balance roundrobin
server k8s-ingress-0 worker01.aks.iam.anapartner.net:80 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server k8s-ingress-1 worker02.aks.iam.anapartner.net:80 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server k8s-ingress-2 worker03.aks.iam.anapartner.net:80 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server k8s-ingress-2 worker04.aks.iam.anapartner.net:80 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
frontend ingress-https
bind *:443
option tcplog
mode tcp
option forwardfor
option http-server-close
default_backend kubernetes-ingress-nodes-https
backend kubernetes-ingress-nodes-https
mode tcp
balance roundrobin
server k8s-ingress-0 worker01.aks.iam.anapartner.net:443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server k8s-ingress-1 worker02.aks.iam.anapartner.net:443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server k8s-ingress-2 worker03.aks.iam.anapartner.net:443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
server k8s-ingress-2 worker04.aks.iam.anapartner.net:443 check fall 3 rise 2 send-proxy-v2
frontend ldap
bind *:389
option tcplog
mode tcp
default_backend kubernetes-nodes-ldap
backend kubernetes-nodes-ldap
mode tcp
balance roundrobin
server k8s-ldap-0 worker01.aks.iam.anapartner.net:31888 check fall 3 rise 2
server k8s-ldap-1 worker02.aks.iam.anapartner.net:31888 check fall 3 rise 2
server k8s-ldap-2 worker03.aks.iam.anapartner.net:31888 check fall 3 rise 2
server k8s-ldap-2 worker04.aks.iam.anapartner.net:31888 check fall 3 rise 2
Deploy Solution on Kubernetes
Step 14: Validate that DNS and Storage are ready before deploying any solution or if you wish to have a base Kubernetes environment to use with the control-plane and four (4). worker nodes.
### Step: Setup NFS Share either on-prem remote server or Synology NFS
### Use version 4.x checkbox for Synology.
### Example of lines on remote Linux Host with NFS share.
yum -y install nfs-utils
systemctl enable --now nfs-server rpcbind
mkdir -p /export/nfsshare ; chown nobody /export/nfsshare ; chmod -R 777 /export/nfsshare
echo "/export/nfsshare *(rw,sync,no_root_squash,insecure)" >> /etc/exports
exportfs -rav; exportfs -v
firewall-cmd --add-service=nfs --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-service={nfs3,mountd,rpc-bind} --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
#### Setup DNS entries (A and CNAME) for twelve (12) items ( May be on-prem DNS or Synology DNS)
ns.aks.iam.anapartner.net A IP_ADDRESS (192.168.2.60)
aks.iam.anapartner.net NS ns.aks.iam.anapartner.net
cp.aks.iam.anapartner.net A IP_ADDRESS (192.168.2.60)
worker01.aks.iam.anapartner.net A IP_ADDRESS (192.168.2.61)
worker02.aks.iam.anapartner.net A IP_ADDRESS (192.168.2.62)
worker03.aks.iam.anapartner.net A IP_ADDRESS (192.168.2.63)
worker04.aks.iam.anapartner.net A IP_ADDRESS (192.168.2.64)
sm.aks.iam.anapartner.net A IP_ADDRESS (192.168.2.65)
kibana CNAME cp.aks.iam.anapartner.net
grafana CNAME cp.aks.iam.anapartner.net
jaeger CNAME cp.aks.iam.anapartner.net
alertmanager CNAME cp.aks.iam.anapartner.net
ssp CNAME cp.aks.iam.anapartner.net
ssp-mgmt CNAME cp.aks.iam.anapartner.net
### Pre-Step: Enable DNS resolution for external IP addresses
### Enable forwarding to external h/w router and 8.8.8.8
Step 15: Recommendation. Deploy your solution in steps using Kubernetes yaml or Helm charts to assist with debugging any deployment issues. Do not forget to use kubectl logs, and kubectl describe to isolate startup or cert issues.
### Run scripts one-by-one. They will have a watch command in each that will
### provide feedback on the startup processes.
### Total startup from scratch to final with VIP Sample App is about 15-20 minutes.
### Note: Step04 has a different chart variables for on-prem for Symantec Directory.
### Note: /step00_kubernetes_env.sh is called by each script.
./step01_kubernetes_cluster_init_with_worker_nodes.sh
./step02_kubernetes_cluster_with_ingress_and_other_charts.sh
./step03_kubernetes_cluster_with_vip_auth_hub_charts.sh
./step04_kubernetes_cluster_with_vip_auth_hub_sample_app.sh
Docker Registry for On-Prem
There are two (2) types of docker registries we have found useful.
a. The standard Mirror method will capture all docker images from “docker.io” site to a local mirror. When Kubernetes or Helm deployments are used, the docker configuration file can be adjusted to check the local mirror without updating Kubernetes yaml files or Helm charts.
b. The second method is a full query of all images after they have been deployed once, and using the docker push process into a local registry. The challenge of the second method is that the Kubernetes yaml files and/or Helm charts do have to be updated to use this local registry.
Either method will help lower bandwidth cost to re-download the same docker images, if you use a docker prune method to keep your worker nodes disc size “clean”. If the docker prune process is not used, you may notice that the worker nodes may run out of disc space due to temporary docker images/containers that did not clean up properly.
#!/bin/bash
#################################################################################
# Create a local docker mirror registry for docker-ios
# and local docker non-mirror registry for all other images
# to minimize download impact
# during restart of the kubernetes solution
#
# All registry iamges will be placed on NFS share
# mount -v -t nfs 192.168.2.30:/volume1/nfs /mnt &>/dev/null
#
# Certs will be provided by Let's Encrypt every 90 days
#
# For docker-io mirror registry, all clients must have the following line in
# /etc/docker/daemon.json {Note: Use commas as needed}
#
# "registry-mirrors":
# [
# "https://sm.aks.iam.anapartner.net:444"
# ],
#
#
#
# ANA 11/2021
#
#################################################################################
# To remove all containers - to allow restart of process
docker rm -f `docker ps -a | grep -v -e CONTAINER | awk '{print $1}'` ; docker image rm `docker image ls | grep -v -e REPOSITORY | grep -e minutes -e hour -e days -e '2 weeks'| awk '{print $3}'` &>/dev/null
#################################################################################
# Update HOST name for local server for docker image
HOST=sm.aks.iam.anapartner.net
NFS_SERVER=192.168.2.30
NFS_SHARE=/volume1/nfs
#################################################################################
function start_registry {
local_port=$1
remote_registry_name=$2
if [ "$3" == "" ]; then
remote_registry_url=$remote_registry_name
else
remote_registry_url=$3
fi
echo -e "$local_port $remote_registry_name $remote_registry_url"
mount -v -t nfs $NFS_SERVER:$NFS_SHARE /mnt &>/dev/null
mkdir -p /mnt/registry/${remote_registry_name} &>/dev/null
docker run -d --name registry-${remote_registry_name}-mirror \
-p $local_port:443 \
--restart=always \
-e REGISTRY_HTTP_ADDR=0.0.0.0:443 \
-e REGISTRY_PROXY_REMOTEURL="https://${remote_registry_url}/" \
-e REGISTRY_HTTP_TLS_CERTIFICATE=/certs/fullchain.pem \
-e REGISTRY_HTTP_TLS_KEY=/certs/privkey.pem \
-e REGISTRY_COMPATIBILITY_SCHEMA1_ENABLED=true \
-v /mnt/registry/certs:/certs \
-v /mnt/registry/${remote_registry_name}:/var/lib/registry \
registry:latest
sleep 1
echo "#################################################################################"
curl -s -X GET https://$HOST:$local_port/v2/_catalog | jq
echo "#################################################################################"
}
#################################################################################
# start_registry <local_port> <remote_registry_name> <remote_registry_url>
#################################################################################
start_registry 444 docker-io registry-1.docker.io
#################################################################################
# Non-Proxy configuration to allow 'docker tag & docker push' for all other images
#################################################################################
remote_registry_name=all
local_port=455
mkdir -p /var/lib/docker/registry/${remote_registry_name} &>/dev/null
docker run -d --name registry-${remote_registry_name}-mirror \
-p $local_port:443 \
--restart=always \
-e REGISTRY_HTTP_ADDR=0.0.0.0:443 \
-e REGISTRY_HTTP_TLS_CERTIFICATE=/certs/fullchain.pem \
-e REGISTRY_HTTP_TLS_KEY=/certs/privkey.pem \
-e REGISTRY_COMPATIBILITY_SCHEMA1_ENABLED=true \
-v /mnt/registry/certs:/certs \
-v /mnt/registry/${remote_registry_name}:/var/lib/registry \
registry:latest
sleep 1
echo "#################################################################################"
curl -s -X GET https://$HOST:$local_port/v2/_catalog | jq
echo "#################################################################################"
docker ps -a
echo "#################################################################################"
echo "##### To tail the log of the docker-io container - useful for monitoring helm deployments #####"
echo "docker logs `docker ps -a --no-trunc | grep -v NAMES | grep 'docker-io' | awk '{print $1}'` -f "
echo "#################################################################################"
echo "##### To tail the log of the ALL container - useful for monitoring helm deployments #####"
echo "docker logs `docker ps -a --no-trunc | grep -v NAMES | grep 'all' | awk '{print $1}'` -f "
echo "#################################################################################"
echo "##### Location of Registry Files on NFS share #####"
echo "ls -lart /mnt/registry/docker-io/docker/registry/v2/repositories"
echo "ls -lart /mnt/registry/all/docker/registry/v2/repositories"
echo "#################################################################################"
Example of the /etc/docker/daemon.json configuration file to use a local mirror for docker.io. See the parameter of “registry-mirrors”. Unfortunately, we were unable to use this process for the other docker registries.
Use Let’sEncrypt Certbox and manual DNS validation, to create our 90-day wild card certificates. Manual DNS validation allows us to avoid setting up a public-facing component for our internal labs.
# Step 1: Install SNAP service for Certbot usage on your host OS
cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.3 (Ootpa)
sudo yum install -y snapd
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Package snapd-2.49-2.el8.x86_64 is already installed.
systemctl enable --now snapd.socket
### Wait 1 min
snap install core; sudo snap refresh core
# Step 2: Remove prior certbot (if installed by yum/dnf)
yum remove -y certbot.
# Step 3: Install new "classic" Certbot
sudo snap install --classic certbot
certbot 1.17.0 from Certbot Project (certbot-eff✓) installed
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
# Step 4: Issue certbot command with wildcard cert & update your DNS TXT record with the string provided.
sudo certbot certonly --manual --preferred-challenges dns -d *.aks.iam.anapartner.org --register-unsafely-without-email
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server. Do you agree?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Y)es/(N)o: Y
Account registered.
Requesting a certificate for *.aks.iam.anapartner.org
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Please deploy a DNS TXT record under the name:
_acme-challenge.iam.anapartner.org.
with the following value:
u2cXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXc
Before continuing, verify the TXT record has been deployed. Depending on the DNS
provider, this may take some time, from a few seconds to multiple minutes. You can
check if it has finished deploying with aid of online tools, such as the Google
Admin Toolbox: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/#TXT/_acme-challenge.iam.anapartner.org.
Look for one or more bolded line(s) below the line ';ANSWER'. It should show the
value(s) you've just added.
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# Step 5: In a 2nd terminal, validate that the DNS record has been updated and can be seen by a standard DNS query. Have the 2nd console window open to test the DNS record, prior to <ENTER> key on verification request
# Example:
nslookup -type=txt _acme-challenge.aks.iam.anapartner.org
Non-authoritative answer:
_acme-challenge.aks.iam.anapartner.org text = "u2cXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXc"
# Step 6: Press <ENTER> after you have validated the TXT record.
Press Enter to Continue
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges
Subscribe to the EFF mailing list (email: nala@baugher.us).
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
/etc/letsencrypt/live/aks.iam.anapartner.org/fullchain.pem
Your key file has been saved at:
/etc/letsencrypt/live/aks.iam.anapartner.org/privkey.pem
# Step 7: View certs of fullchain.pem & privkey.pem
cat /etc/letsencrypt/live/aks.iam.anapartner.org/fullchain.pem
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
<REMOVED>
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
<REMOVED>
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
cat /etc/letsencrypt/live/aks.iam.anapartner.org/privkey.pem
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
<REMOVED>
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
# Step 8: Use the two files for your kubernetes solution
# Step 9: Ensure domain on host OS, cp, worker nodes in /etc/resolv.conf is set correctly to aks.iam.anapartner.org to allow the certs to be resolved correctly.
# Step 10: Ensure Synology NAS DNS service is configurated with all alias
# Step 11: Optional: Validate certs with openssl
# Show the kubernetes self-signed cert
true | openssl s_client -connect kibana.aks.iam.anapartner.org:443 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -inform pem -noout -text
# Show the new wildcard cert for same hostname & port
curl -vvI https://kibana.aks.iam.anapartner.org/app/home#/curl -vvI https://kibana.aks.iam.anapartner.org/app/home#/ 2>&1 | awk 'BEGIN { cert=0 } /^\* SSL connection/ { cert=1 } /^\*/ { if (cert) print }'
nmap -p 443 --script ssl-cert kibana.aks.iam.anapartner.org
Kubernetes Side Note: Let's Encrypt certs do NOT show up within the Kubernetes cluster certs check process.
kubeadm certs check-expiration
View of the DNS TXT records to be updated with your DNS service provider. The Let’sEncrypt Certbot will need to be able to query these records for it to assign you wildcard certificates. Create the _acme-challenge hostname entry as a TXT type, and paste in the string provided by the Let’sEncrypt Certbot process. Wait 5 minutes or test the TXT record with nslookup, then upon positive validation, continue the Let’sEncrypt Certbot process.
View your kubernetes cluster / nodes for any constraints
After your cluster is created and you have worker nodes joined to the cluster, you may wish to monitor for any constraints of your on-prem deployment. Kubectl command with the action verb of describe or top is very useful for this goal.
kubectl describe nodes worker01kubectl top node / kubectl top pod
Kubernetes Training (Formal)
If you are new to Kubernetes, we recommend the following class. You may need to dedicate 4-8 weeks to complete the course and then take the CKA exam via the Linux Foundation.
The recent DNS challenges for a large organization that impacted their worldwide customers bring to mind a project we completed this year, a global password reset redundancy solution.
We worked with a client who desired to manage unplanned WAN outages to their five (5) data centers for three (3) independent MS Active Directory Domains with integration to various on-prem applications/ endpoints. The business requirement was for self-service password sync, where the users’ password change process is initialed/managed by the two (2) different MS Active Directory Password Policies.
Without the WAN outage requirement, any IAM/IAG solution may manage this request within a single data center. A reverse password sync agent process is enabled on all writable MS Active Directory domain controllers (DC). All the world-wide MS ADS domain controllers would communicate to the single data center to validate and resend this password change to all of the users’ managed endpoint/application accounts, e.g. SAP, Mainframe (ACF2/RACF/TSS), AS/400, Unix, SaaS, Database, LDAP, Certs, etc.
With the WAN outage requirement, however, a queue or components must be deployed/enabled at each global data center, so that password changes are allowed to sync locally to avoid work-stoppage and async-queued to avoid out-of-sync password to the other endpoint/applications that may be in other data centers.
We were able to work with the client to determine that their current IAM/IAG solution would have the means to meet this requirement, but we wished to confirm no issues with WAN latency and the async process. The WAN latency was measured at less than 300 msec between remote data centers that were opposite globally. The WAN latency measured is the global distance and any intermediate devices that the network traffic may pass through.
To review the solution’s ability to meet the latency issues, we introduced a test environment to emulate the global latency for deployment use-cases, change password use-cases, and standard CrUD use-cases. There is a feature within VMWare Workstation, that allows emulation of degraded network traffic. This process was a very useful planning/validation tool to lower rollback risk during production deployment.
VMWare Workstation Network Adapter Advance Settings for WAN latency emulation
The solution used for the Global Password Rest solution was Symantec Identity Suite Virtual Appliance r14.3cp2. This solution has many tiers, where select components may be globally deployed and others may not.
We avoided any changes to the J2EE tier (Wildfly) or Database for our architecture as these components arenot supported for WAN latency by the Vendor. Note: We have worked with other clients that have deployment at two (2) remote data centers within 1000 km, that have reported minimal challenges for these tiers.
We focused our efforts on the Provisioning Tier and Connector Tier. The Provisioning Tier consists of the Provisioning Server and Provisioning Directory.
The Provisioning Server has no shared knowledge with other Provisioning Servers. The Provisioning Directory (Symantec Directory) is where the provisioning data may be set up in a multi-write peer model. Symantec Directory is a proper X.500 directory with high redundancy and is designed to manage WAN latency between remote data centers and recovery after an outage. See example provided below.
The Connector Tier consists of the Java Connector Server and C++ Connector Server, which may be deployed on MS Windows as an independent component. There is no shared knowledge between Connector Servers, which works in our favor.
Requirement:
Three (3) independent MS Active Directory domain in five (5) remote data centers need to allow self-service password change & allow local password sync during a WAN outage. Passwords changes are driven by MS ADS Password Policies (every N days). The IME Password Policy for IAG/IAM solution is not enabled, IME authentication is redirected to an ADS domain, and the IMPS IM Callback Feature is disabled.
Below is an image that outlines the topology for five (5) global data centers in AMER, EMEA, and APAC.
The flow diagram below captures the password change use-case (self-service or delegated), the expected data flow to the user’s managed endpoints/applications, and the eventual peer sync of the MS Active Directory domain local to the user.
Observation(s):
The standalone solution of Symantec IAG/IAM has no expected challenges with configurations, but the Virtual Appliance offers pre-canned configurations that may impact a WAN deployment.
During this project, we identified three (3) challenges using the virtual appliance.
Two (2) items needed the assistance of the Broadcom Support and Engineering teams. They were able to work with us to address deployment configuration challenges with the “check_cluster_clock_sync -v ” process that incorrectly increments time delays between servers instead of resetting a value of zero between testing between servers.
Why this is important? The “check_cluster_clock_sync” alias is used during auto-deployment of vApp nodes. If the time reported between servers is > 15 seconds then replication may fail. This time check issue was addressed with a hotfix. After the hot-fix was deployed, all clock differences were resolved.
The second challenge was a deployment challenge of the IMPS component for its embedded “registry files/folders”. The prior embedded copy process was observed to be using standard “scp”. With a WAN latency, the scp copy operation may take more than 30 seconds. Our testing with the Virtual Appliance showed that a simple copy would take over two (2) minutes for multiple small files. After reviewing with CA support/engineering, they provided an updated copy process using “rsync” that speeds up copy performance by >100x. Before this update, the impact was provisioning tier deployment would fail and partial rollback would occur.
The last challenge we identified was using the Symantec Directory’s embedded features to manage WAN latency via multi-write HUB groups. The Virtual Appliance cannot automatically manage this feature when enabled in the knowledge files of the provisioning data DSAs. Symantec Directory will fail to start after auto-deployment.
Fortunately, on the Virtual appliance, we have full access to the ‘dsa’ service ID and can modify these knowledge files before/after deployment. Suppose we wish to roll back or add a new Provisioning Server Virtual Appliance. In that case, we must disable the multi-write HUB group configuration temporarily, e.g. comment out the configuration parameter and re-init the DATA DSAs.
Six (6) Steps for Global Password Reset Solution Deployment
We were able to refine our list of steps for deployment using pre-built knowledge files and deployment of the vApp nodes in blank slates with the base components of Provisioning Server (PS) and Provisioning Directory) with a remote MS Windows server for the Connector Server (JCS/CCS).
Step 1: Update Symantec Directory DATA DSA’s knowledge configuration files to use the multiple group HUB model. Note that multi-write group configuration is enabled within the DATA DSA’s *.dxc files. One Directory servers in each data center will be defined as a “HUB”.
To assist this configuration effort, we leveraged a serials of bash shell scripts that could be pasted into multiple putty/ssh sessions on each vApp to replace the “HUB” string with a “sed” command.
After the HUB model is enabled (stop/start the DATA DSAs), confirm that delayed WAN latency has no challenge with Symantec Directory sync processes. By monitoring the Symantec Directory logs during replication, we can see that sync operation with the WAN latency is captured with the delay > 1 msecs between data centers AMER1 and APAC1.
Step 2: Update IMPS configurations to avoid delays with Global Password Reset solution.
Note for this architecture, we do not use external IME Password Policies. We ensure that each AD endpoint has the checkbox enabled for “Password synchronization agent is installed” & each Global User (GU) has “Enable Password Synchronization Agent” checkbox enabled to prevent data looping. To ensure this GU attribute is always enabled, we updated an attribute under “Create Users Default Attributes”.
Step 3a: Update the Connector Tier (CCS Component)
Ensure that the MS Windows Environmental variables for the CCS connector are defined for Failover (ADS_FAILOVER) and Retry (ADS_RETRY).
Step 3b: Update the CCS DNS knowledge file of ADS DCs hostnames.
Important Note: Avoid using the refresh feature “Refresh DC List” within the IMPS GUI for the ADS Endpoint. If this feature is used, then a “merge” will be processed from the local CCS DNS file contents and what is defined within the IMPS GUI refresh process. If we wish to manage the redirection to local MS ADS Domain Controllers, we need to control this behavior. If this step is done, we can clean out the Symantec Directory of extra entries. The only negative aspect is the local password change may attempt to communicate to one of the remote MS ADS Domain Controllers that are not within the local data center. During a WAN outage, a user would notice a delay during the password change event while the CCS connector timed out the connection until it connected to the local MS ADS DC.
Step 3c: CCS ADS Failover
If using SSL over TCP 636 confirm the ADS Domain Root Certificate is deployed to the MS Windows Server where the CCS service is deployed. If using SASL over TCP 389 (if available), then no additional effort is required.
If using SSL over TCP 636, use the MS tool certlm.msc to export the public root CA Certificate for this ADS Domain. Export to base64 format for import to the MS Windows host (if not already part of the ADS Domain) with the same MS tool certlm.msc.
Step 4a: Update the Connector Tier for the JCS component.
Add the stabilization parameter “maxWait” to the JCS/CCS configuration file. Recommend 10-30 seconds.
Step 4b: Update JCS registration to the IMPS Tier
You may use the Virtual Appliance Console, but this has a delay when pulling the list of any JCS connector that may be down at this time of the check/submission. If we use the Connector Xpress UI, we can accomplish the same process much faster with additional flexibility for routing rules to the exact MS ADS Endpoints in the local data center.
Step 4c: Observe the IMPS routing to JCS via etatrans log during any transaction.
If any JCS service is unavailable (TCP 20411), then the routing rules process will report a value of 999.00, instead of a low value of 0.00-1.00.
Step 5: Update the Remote Password Change Agent (DLL) on MS ADS Domain Controllers (writable)
Step 6a: Validation of Self-Service Password Change to selected MS ADS Domain Controller.
Using various MS Active Directory processes, we can emulate a delegated or self-service password change early during the configuration cycle, to confirm deployment is correct. The below example uses MS Powershell to select a writable MS ADS Domain Controller to update a user’s password. We can then monitor the logs at all tiers for completion of this password change event.
A view of the password change event from the Reverse Password Sync Agent log file on the exact MS Domain Controller.
Step 6b: Validation of password change event via CCS ADS Log.
Step 6c: Validation of password change event via IMPS etatrans log
Note: Below screenshot showcases alias/function to assist with monitoring the etatrans logs on the Virtual Appliance.
Below screen shot showcases using ldapsearch to check timestamps for before/after of password change event within MS Active Directory Domain.
We hope these notes are of some value to your business and projects.
Appendix
Using the MS Windows Server for CCS Server
Get current status of AD account on select DC server before Password Change:
PowerShell Example:
get-aduser -Server dc2012.exchange2020.lab "idmpwtest" -properties passwordlastset, passwordneverexpires | ft name, passwordlastset
LdapSearch Example: (using ldapsearch.exe from CCS bin folder - as the user with current password.)
C:\> & "C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\Identity Manager\Connector Server\ccs\bin\ldapsearch.exe" -LLL -h dc2012.exchange2012.lab -p 389 -D "cn=idmpwtest,cn=Users,DC=exchange2012,DC=lab" -w "Password05" -b "CN=idmpwtest,CN=Users,DC=exchange2012,DC=lab" -s base pwdLastSet
Change AD account's password via Powershell:
PowerShell Example:
Set-ADAccountPassword -Identity "idmpwtest" -Reset -NewPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText "Password06" -Force) -Server dc2016.exchange.lab
Get current status of AD account on select DC server after Password Change:
PowerShell Example:
get-aduser -Server dc2012.exchange2020.lab "idmpwtest" -properties passwordlastset, passwordneverexpires | ft name, passwordlastset
LdapSearch Example: (using ldapsearch.exe from CCS bin folder - as the user with NEW password)
C:\> & "C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\Identity Manager\Connector Server\ccs\bin\ldapsearch.exe" -LLL -h dc2012.exchange2012.lab -p 389 -D "cn=idmpwtest,cn=Users,DC=exchange2012,DC=lab" -w "Password06" -b "CN=idmpwtest,CN=Users,DC=exchange2012,DC=lab" -s base pwdLastSet
Using the Provisioning Server for password change event
Get current status of AD account on select DC server before Password Change:
LDAPSearch Example: (From IMPS server - as user with current password)
LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never ldapsearch -LLL -H ldaps://192.168.242.154:636 -D 'CN=idmpwtest,OU=People,dc=exchange2012,dc=lab' -w Password05 -b "CN=idmpwtest,OU=People,dc=exchange2012,dc=lab" -s sub dn pwdLastSet whenChanged
Change AD account's password via ldapmodify & base64 conversion process:
LDAPModify Example:
BASE64PWD=`echo -n '"Password06"' | iconv -f utf8 -t utf16le | base64 -w 0`
ADSHOST='192.168.242.154'
ADSUSERDN='CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=exchange2012,DC=lab'
ADSPWD='Password01!’
ldapmodify -v -a -H ldaps://$ADSHOST:636 -D "$ADSUSERDN" -w "$ADSPWD" << EOF
dn: CN=idmpwtest,OU=People,dc=exchange2012,dc=lab
changetype: modify
replace: unicodePwd
unicodePwd::$BASE64PWD
EOF
Get current status of AD account on select DC server after Password Change:
LDAPSearch Example: (From IMPS server - with user's account and new password)
LDAPTLS_REQCERT=never ldapsearch -LLL -H ldaps://192.168.242.154:636 -D 'CN=idmpwtest,OU=People,dc=exchange2012,dc=lab' -w Password06 -b "CN=idmpwtest,OU=People,dc=exchange2012,dc=lab" -s sub dn pwdLastSet whenChanged
Ensure the hostname entry is a FQDN or alias. It can not be an IP address if MS Exchange is to be managed through this connector, due to conflict with Kerberos authentication and IP addresses. If the object was created with an IP address, it may be changed via Jxplorer for two (2) attributes: eTADSprimaryServer and eTADSServerName.
2. General Information on the ADS Endpoint Logging Tab and where this information is stored. Only two (2) the Destination have value with current deployment, e.g. Text File & System Log (MS Windows Event viewer) for Active Directory (ADS). The “Text File” will output data to two (2) files: jcs\logs\ADS\<endpoint-name>.log and ccs\logs\ADS\<endpoint-name>.log
4. Additionally, the User ID may be in one of three (3) formats: UPN (serviceid@exchange.lab), NT ( domain\serviceid ), LDAP DN ( cn=serviceid,ou=people,dc=exchange,dc=lab). We recommend UPN or NT format to allow the embedded API features for MS Exchange powershell management to correctly function. If the ID is to be changed, a password update must be done as well, since the User ID is part of the seed for the encrypted password for the service ID to be stored in CA Directory on the ADS endpoint object.
Note: SASL is encrypted traffic. If wireshark is used to intercept the traffic, the service ID may be seen during initial authentication, but NOT the password nor the payload data.
Notes on SASL validation for Active Directory. {Pro: No need to worry about TLS certificates rotation on client connections – all TLS is managed by the server}
:: Search ADS / LDAP store what is offered for SASL (use -x for simple connection) ldapsearch -x -h dc2016.exchange.lab -p 389 -b “” -LLL -s base supportedSASLMechanisms
SASL appears to connect on TCP 636 briefly, then use TCP 389 extensively. Other ports are 80 (Service), 135 (lsass.exe for home folders), 6405 (lsass.exe). If Kerberos authentication is defined for the service ID, then other ports will be used, e.g. 3268/3269. TCP 4104/4105 are for the legacy CAM/CAFT agents (typically not used any more).
Recommendation: Add these TCP Ports to any Firewall between the IM JCS/CCS Server and the Active Directory Domain Controllers to improve performance and avoid time-out delays.
