Users Guide

80 Managing and Recovering a Remote System
Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
A CSR is a digital request to a Certificate Authority (CA) for a secure server
certificate. Secure server certificates 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 this security for your DRAC 4, it is strongly
recommended that you generate a CSR and submit the CSR to a CA.
A Certificate Authority is a business entity that is recognized in the IT industry
for meeting high standards of reliable screening, identification, and other
important security criteria. Examples of CAs include Thawte and VeriSign.
After the CA receives your CSR, they review and verify the information the
CSR contains. If the applicant meets the CA’s security standards, the CA issues
a certificate to the applicant that uniquely identifies that applicant for
transactions over networks and on the Internet.
After the CA approves the CSR and sends you a certificate, you must upload
the certificate to the DRAC 4 firmware. The CSR information stored on the
DRAC 4 firmware must match the information contained in the certificate.
Viewing a Server Certificate
Use the Server Certificate Information page to view a server certificate for
your DRAC 4. Table 4-11 provides information about the server certificate.
Table 4-11. Server Certificate Information
Field Description
Attribute Valu e
Ty p e Type of certificate; server certificate
Serial Certificate serial number
Key Size Encryption key size
Valid From Issue date of the certificate
Valid To Expiry date of the certificate
Subject Certificate attributes entered by the subject
Issuer Certificate attributes returned by the issuer