WebSphere Application Server & Liberty

WebSphere Application Server & Liberty

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  • 1.  Certificate question

    Posted 05/15/20 03:33 PM
    I am very new to WAS and my company is upgrading a 3rd party product that uses WAS as their application interface. The previous version used HTTP, and the newer version uses HTTPS so I understand that I need a certificate for this to work now.

    We use MQ to integrate with the 3rd party software from our IBMi custom applications. I have co-workers that understand MQ, and co-workers that understand the IBMi but not WAS.

    I have learned enough about WAS to navigate around, and stop/start the service. Is there a good resource to use to understand what I need to do to install the public cert?

    We have a number of other services that we integrate with from our IBMi that use SSL so my admins know how to get them configured, but WAS is a different story?

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Alan.

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    Alan Kreutzer
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  • 2.  RE: Certificate question



  • 3.  RE: Certificate question

    Posted 05/18/20 02:57 AM
    Hi Alan,
    there is an article that explains WAS with SSL.
    https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/prodconn_1.0.0/com.ibm.scenarios.wmqwassecure.doc/topics/cfgssl_was.htm

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    Matthias Jungbauer
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  • 4.  RE: Certificate question

    Posted 05/18/20 06:06 AM
    Hello Alan,
    from your update " ... previous version used HTTP, and the newer version uses HTTPS ..." it is not clear to me if you WAS installation is the client for the HTTP(s) traffic or the server? I.e. If you WAS accessed via HTTPS (i.e WAS is the server) or is the application running on WAS accessing external services via HTTPS (i.e WAS is the client) or both?

    If your WAS installation is the client you need to establish trust with the server/service. This is done in WAS by adding the signer certificate of the servers certificate (i.e. the certificate provided by the server/service you are accessing) to the respective trust store. The trust-store you can determine from the SSL Configuration being used (Security > Global Security > SSL  certificate and key management > SSL configurations). The SSL Configuration gives you the trust- and the keystore being used. By default this is the NodeDefaultTrustStore (for standalone installations) or the CellDefaultTrustSture (if you are running in an SSL configuration). To add the signer please follow the steps from the Link Oscar provided below or try the Retrieve Signers from a remove SSL Port capability of WAS.

    If your WAS installation is the server it depends on where in your architecture SSL is terminated. If the full data communication is is encrypted (what is recommended) you need to create a certificate on every hop and make sure that the previous hop trusts the signer of the certificate.
    For example if you have the following architecture: LoadBalancer > Reverse Proxy > HTTPServer > WAS then the LoadBalancer must trust the signer of the certificate provided be the Reverse Proxy, the Reverse Proxy must trust the signer of the certificate provided by the HTTP server etc. (that's standard HTTPS business).
    In a WAS environment you usually have an HTTP Server running the WAS Plugin which then balances the load to the WAS Application Server JVMs behind (which actually provide the service). As the HTTP server can be part of the WAS cell (depending on the HTTP server you use) trust between WAS Plugin and WAS Servers is established as you create and manage the certificates via the WAS Admin Console. The certificate provided ny the HTTP Server to the client however is independent from WAS as this is usually from a trusted CA.

    Talking about trusted CA. The WAS cell be default creates a signer CA which signs all certificates within the cell. Hence by default all WAS servers trust each other. However if that is not acceptable for your security requirements and you want for example us a different CA (many customers are using the in-house CA) you can replace the standard certificates with certificates signed by the in-house CA.

    Please see again Oscar's links below for how to create a CSR and import the signed certificate. The following link provides an overview of the required steps.

    Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have further questions - Hermann

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    Hermann Huebler
    2innovate IT Consulting GmbH
    Vienna
    Austria

    #IBMChampion
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