Users Guide

84 Remote Access Controller

A CSR is a digital request to a 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 the security for your DRAC, it is strongly recommended that you

generate a CSR, submit the CSR to a CA, and upload the certificate returned

from the 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 Thwate and VeriSign.

Once 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 firmware. The CSR information stored on the

DRAC firmware must match the information contained in the certificate.

Generating a CSR

NOTICE: Each new CSR overwrites any previous CSR on the firmware. It is crucial

that the CSR on the firmware matches the certificate returned from a CA.

From the

Certificate Management

window, select the

Generate a new

CSR

option and click

The

Certificate Signing Request (CSR) Generation

window appears.

Type a value or choose a value from a drop-down menu for each listed

attribute and click

Generate

A message appears stating that the CSR was successfully generated and

giving the path where it was saved.

You are now ready to send your CSR to a CA.

Uploading a Certificate

To upload your server certificate or CA certificate to the DRAC firmware, the

certificate must reside on the DRAC’s host server. You must designate the

CSR type, the exact filename, and the absolute file path to the certificate on

the server. Then, click Upload.

NOTE: Failure to enter the correct path for the location of the certificate on the

host server does not result in a warning message.

book.book Page 84 Monday, July 7, 2008 2:59 PM