User`s guide

®
USER’S GUIDE AUTOMATIC TRANSFER SWITCH
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Choosing a method for your system
Using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol, you can choose any of the
following methods for using digital certificates.
Method 1: Use the auto-generated default certificate. When you
enable SSL, you must reboot the Automatic Transfer Switch. During
rebooting, if no server certificate exists on the Automatic Transfer Switch,
the Automatic Transfer Switch generates a default server certificate that is
self-signed but that you cannot configure.
This method has the following advantages and disadvantages:
• Advantages:
– Before they are transmitted, the user name and password for
Automatic Transfer Switch access and all data to and from the
Automatic Transfer Switch are encrypted.
– You can use this default server certificate to provide encryption-
based security while you are setting up either of the other two digital
certificate options, or you can continue to use it for the benefits of
encryption that SSL provides.
• Disadvantages:
– The Automatic Transfer Switch takes up to 5 minutes to create this
certificate, and the Web interface is not available during that time.
(This delay occurs the first time you log on after you enable SSL.)
– This method does not include the browser-based authentication
provided by a CA certificate (a certificate signed by a Certificate
Authority) as Methods 2 and 3 provide. There is no CA Certificate
cached in the browser. Therefore, whenever you log on to the
Automatic Transfer Switch, the browser generates a security alert,
indicating that a certificate signed by a trusted authority is not
available and asking if you want to proceed.