Configuring SSL on Apache Tomcat and LDAP servers

The steps for configuring secure HTTPS connections with the HCL Launch server are similar to the steps for any Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition server.

Before you begin

To set up SSL security, you must have a certificate for the server. If you use certificates that are self-signed or certificates that are issued by a certificate authority that is not trusted, you must import these certificates into the trust store. A trust store contains trusted certificates from servers and certificate authorities. Import the self-signed certificates, certificate authority certificates, and intermediate certificate authority certificates to the JRE_install/jre/lib/security/cacerts file. For an example of importing a certificate to a trust store, see the Importing the Certificate Reply from the CA topic in the IBM® SDK, Java™ Technology Edition help.

In the case of LDAP servers, SSL certificates must have valid chains of authority. If you use your own certificate authority, add that certificate authority to the local trust store.

About this task

Because the HCL Launch server runs on Apache Tomcat, you can refer to the instructions for configuring security on Tomcat on the Apache Tomcat website. You can enable SSL security for Apache Tomcat when you install HCL Launch. If you enable SSL security during installation, a self-signed certificate is generated and added to the tomcat.keystore file. The common name (CN) in the self-signed certificate is set to 0.0.0.0.
Note: The presence of a self-signed certificate is flagged as a warning by many web browsers when you connect to an HCL Launch server that uses a self-signed certificate in the tomcat.keystore file.

Procedure

Setting up SSL security for the server involves these general steps:
  1. Transfer the files for the certificate to the computer that hosts the HCL Launch server.
  2. Add the certificate to the server keystore.
    The server has a default keystore in the server_install/opt/tomcat/conf/tomcat.keystore file. The default password for this keystore is changeit.
  3. Edit the tomcat.key.alias property in the installed.properties file. 
    tomcat.key.alias=alias_of_your_certificate_in_tomcat_keystore
  4. Restart the server.
  5. Similarly, add the same certificate to the keystore of each agent and agent relay.
    For example, the default location of an agent keystore is agent_install/conf/agent.keystore.
  6. Optional: To configure secure communication between the HCL Launch server and an LDAP server, add the LDAP server certificate to the JRE_install/jre/lib/security/cacerts file. This file is on the HCL Launch server. Use the installation folder of the JRE for JRE_install.