Users Guide

• Allow the client to authenticate itself to the server.
• Allow both systems to establish an encrypted connection.
This encryption process provides a high level of data protection. CMC employs the 128-bit SSL encryption standard, the most secure
form of encryption generally available for Internet browsers in North America.
The CMC Web server includes a Dell self-signed SSL digital certicate (Server ID). To ensure high security over the Internet, replace
the Web server SSL certicate by submitting a request to CMC to generate a new Certicate Signing Request (CSR).
At boot time, a new self-signed certicate is generated if:
• A custom certicate is not present
• A self-signed certicate is not present
• The self-signed certicate is corrupt
• The self-signed certicate is expired (within 30 day window)
The self-signed certicate displays the common name as <cmcname.domain-name> where cmcname is the CMC host name and
domain-name is the domain name. If domain name is not available it displays only the Partially Qualied Domain Name (PQDN),
which is the CMC host name.
Certicate Signing Request
A Certicate Signing Request (CSR) is a digital request to a certicate authority (referred to as a CA in the Web interface) for a
secure server certicate. Secure server certicates ensure the identity of a remote system and ensure that information exchanged
with the remote system cannot be viewed or changed by others. To ensure the security for your CMC, it is strongly recommended
that you generate a CSR, submit the CSR to a certicate authority, and upload the certicate returned from the certicate authority.
A certicate authority is a business entity that is recognized in the IT industry for meeting high standards of reliable screening,
identication, and other important security criteria. Examples of CAs include Thawte and VeriSign. After the certicate authority
receives your CSR, they review and verify the information the CSR contains. If the applicant meets the certicate authority’s
security standards, the certicate authority issues a certicate to the applicant that uniquely identies that applicant for transactions
over networks and on the Internet.
After the certicate authority approves the CSR and sends you a certicate, you must upload the certicate to the CMC rmware.
The CSR information stored on the CMC rmware must match the information contained in the certicate.
NOTE: To congure SSL settings for CMC, you must have Chassis Conguration Administrator privilege.
NOTE: Any server certicate you upload must be current (not expired) and signed by a certicate authority.
Related link
Generating a New Certicate Signing Request
Uploading Server Certicate
Viewing Server Certicate
Generating a New Certicate Signing Request
To ensure security, it is strongly recommended that you obtain and upload a secure server certicate to CMC. Secure server
certicates ensure the identity of a remote system and that information exchanged with the remote system cannot be viewed or
changed by others. Without a secure server certicate, CMC is vulnerable to access from unauthorized users.
To obtain a secure server certicate for CMC, you must submit a Certicate Signing Request (CSR) to a certicate authority of your
choice. A CSR is a digital request for a signed, secure server certicate containing information about your organization and a unique,
identifying key.
After generating the CSR, you are prompted to save a copy to your management station or shared network, and the unique
information used to generate the CSR is stored on CMC. This information is used later to authenticate the server certicate you
receive from the certicate authority. After you receive the server certicate from the certicate authority, you must then upload it
to CMC.
NOTE: For CMC to accept the server certicate returned by the certicate authority, authentication information
contained in the new certicate must match the information that was stored on CMC when the CSR was generated.
83