Certmanager Options - Using CM's GenerateCMCA API

This article describes how to use the certmanager’s GenerateCMCA API. It generates the CMCA, which is an OpenSSL self-signed cert and CA directory. It creates and signs the certificate for the CM host. Creates an “internal” truststore with the CA certificate only. If trusted certificates were given, loads them into a “global” truststore. certmanager is part of the CM agent package.

Name

certmanager setup- generates CMCA and certificates for the host.

Description

This command initializes the certmanager and setup the certificates for the CM server to run on this host, using those certificates.

The --location option (if any) given to certmanager will decide the location of the directory root where the certmanager will keep its files. This directory will contain sensitive files. It must be backed up and protected accordingly. This directory must not exist prior to calling this command, but must be create-able. (i.e. either its ancestors must exist, or must be create-able).

Options

--configconfig-file-or-dir
Path for configuration to use. If a directory, read and use all .ini files within it. If a file, must point to a config .ini file.
--overrideSection.Property=Value
Override config file setting.
--hostnamedns-or-ip
Alternate name of local host (for SSL certificates). Only applies if CA type is 'internal'
--altnamealt-name
Alternate name of to add to generated SSL certificates. Multiple names may be supplied by repeating the option. Only applies if CA type is 'internal'.
--write-cm-init / --skip-cm-init
Writes a CM init file to set Auto-TLS related parameters. If disabled, only the CA directory will be created, and the init file contents will be printed to stdout.
--rotate / --no-rotate
Rotates the CA keys and certificates. If disabled, the command fails if the CA directory already exists.
--configure-services / --no-configure-services
Configure new services to use Auto-TLS certificates. If disabled, only agents will use TLS certificates.
--trusted-ca-certstrusted_certs.pem
Path to trusted CA certs bundle in PEM format. These certs will be imported into the truststore for all hosts.
--skip-invalid-ca-certs / --fail-invalid-ca-cert
Whether to skip invalid CA certs in the trusted CA certs bundle. If false, setup will fail if any certs are invalid orduplicates.
--stop-at-csr / --dont-stop-at-csr
Whether to stop at signing the CSR. If true, continue the setup by running setup and passing in --signed-ca-cert.
--signed-ca-certsigned_ca_chain.pem
Path to signed CA cert chain. Pass this after running setup with the --stop-at-csr option.
--help
Show this message and exit.

How to customize CSR fields

You can customize the CSR fields by using the “--override“ command-line option. The properties available for the --override parameter are mentioned below. An example of how to use the API follows this table.


Property	Default Value	Description
email_address	-	Additional subject alternate names to add to the certioficate.
subject_suffix	-	The subject suffix to be appended to the CN.
ca_key_algo	rsa	CA Key encryption algorithm to be used. Valid values are "rsa", "dsa", "ec".
ca_key_args	3072	Integer value determining the number of bits for the key.
ca_sig_hash_algo	sha256	The hashing algorithm to use when signing.
ca_dn	-	The Subject DN to add to the CSR.
ca_expiration	5 years	"YYYMMDD" format date for when certificate expires.Certificate expires at 23:59:59 on the given date at GMT time.
host_expiration	1 year	"YYYMMDD" format date for when host expires.
ca_name	SCM Local CA on <host_fqdn>	Common Name to be used while generating the subject for the certificate.
host_key_algo	rsa	The asymmetric key algorithm to use to generate a CSR for a host.
host_key_args	3072	The parameter to the key algorithm (# bits, curve name, etc.) to generate a CSR for a host.
host_sig_hash_algo	sha256	The hashing algorithm to use in the signature when using the internal CA to sign the given host's CSR.
key_encryption_algo	aes256	The algo to use to encrypt the private key to generate a CSR for a host.

Examples

This example shows how you can use additionalArguments property to pass any override parameters to the certmanager using generateCMCA API.

curl -X POST "https://tkarkera-1.tkarkera.root.hwx.site:7183/api/v45/cm/commands/generateCmca" -H "accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d 
      "{
        "sshPort": 22,
        "userName": "...",
        "password": "...",
        "privateKey": "...",
        "passphrase": "...",
        "location": "/opt/cloudera/CMCA",
        "customCA": false,
        "interpretAsFilenames": true,
        "cmHostCert": "host-cert.pem",
        "cmHostKey": "host-key.pem",
        "caCert": "ca-cert.pem",
        "keystorePasswd": "keystore.pw.txt",
        "truststorePasswd": "truststore.pw.txt",
        "trustedCaCerts": "cacerts.pem",
        "additionalArguments": [
        "--override",
        "ca_expiration=301010",
        "--override",
        "ca_key_args=4096",
        "--override",
        "host_key_args=4096"
        ],
        "hostCerts": [
        {
        "hostname": "...",
        "certificate": "host-cert.pem",
        "key": "host-key.pem",
        "subjectAltNames": [
        "DNS:example.cloudera.com",
        "..."
        ]
        },
        {
        "hostname": "...",
        "certificate": "...",
        "key": "...",
        "subjectAltNames": [
        "...",
        "DNS:example.cloudera.com"
        ]
        }
        ],
        "configureAllServices": true
        }“