FedFsInstallNsdbCertificates0.9

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Latest revision as of 16:59, 14 January 2013

Project: fedfs-utils

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Introduction

A Namespace Database, or NSDB, is the repository for fileset location information in a FedFS domain. At its core, an NSDB is simply an LDAP server with an NSDB Container Entry, or NCE, for short. FedFS data is stored as children of this entry.

In this article, we show how to create and distribute x.509 LDAP server certificates. With these certificates, NSDB clients (fileservers or NSDB administrative tools) can use TLS when communicating with NSDBs.

LDAP server configuration

For now, this bit is specific to OpenLDAP on Fedora. More to come.

Create a self-signed CA certicate

# cd /etc/pki/tls/misc
# ./CA -newca

Answer the questions. Choose a secure but easy-to-remember database password. The Common Name must match the FQDN of the LDAP/NSDB server.

The new CA cert is placed in /etc/pki/CA/cacert.pem

Create a certificate request and key for the LDAP server

# ./CA -newreq-nodes

Answer the questions. The Common Name must match the FQDN of the LDAP/NSDB server.

The new certificate request and key are placed in /etc/pki/tls/misc/newreq.pem

Sign the LDAP server certificate request with the CA certificate

# ./CA -sign

The signed certificate is placed in newcert.pem

Install and secure the new certificate material

# cp /etc/pki/CA/cacert.pem /etc/openldap/cacert.pem
# chmod 444 /etc/openldap/cacert.pem
# mv /etc/pki/tls/misc/newcert.pem /etc/openldap/server-cert.pem
# chmod 444 /etc/openldap/server-cert.pem
# chown ldap.ldap /etc/openldap/server-cert.pem
# mv /etc/pki/tls/misc/newreq.pem /etc/openldap/server-key.pem
# chmod 400 /etc/openldap/server-key.pem
# chown ldap.ldap /etc/openldap/server-key.pem

Configure the LDAP server to use the new certificates

On your LDAP/NSDB server, edit /tmp/ldif and add only these lines:

dn: cn=config
changeType: modify
add: olcTLSCACertificateFile
olcTLSCACertificateFile: /etc/openldap/cacert.pem
-
add: olcTLSCertificateFile
olcTLSCertificateFile: /etc/openldap/server-cert.pem
-
add: olcTLSCertificateKeyFile
olcTLSCertificateKeyFile: /etc/openldap/server-key.pem
-
add: olcTLSVerifyClient
olcTLSVerifyClient: never

Then:

$ ldapmodify -x -D "cn=Manager,cn=config" -W -f /tmp/ldif

Replace "cn=Manager" with your server's administrator DN, and supply an appropriate password when prompted.

Passing out the server's x.509 certificate

The CA cert created above (in the file /etc/openldap/cacert.pem) can now be distributed to fileservers that participate in your FedFS domain. The fileservers then use this certificate to authenticate your NSDB when performing junction resolution.

Suppose the name of your LDAP server is nsdb.example.net. After copying the file containing the certificate to /tmp/cert.pem on your fileserver, use this command on the fileserver to install the certificate:

# nsdbparams update -f /tmp/cert.pem nsdb.example.net

This operation copies the certificate material to a private directory, and saves the location of the copy in the fileserver's NSDB connection parameter database. Now, whenever the fileserver resolves a FedFS junction, it will use this certificate to establish a secure connection to nsdb.example.net.

To complete this task, copy the certificate and run the nsdbparams on each fileserver that will contain FedFS junctions.