Enterprise CA Signed Certificate Process

How-Tos for VMware Solutions

Audience
Public
Source Type
Documentation

The process of getting a CA-signed certificate imported for the VASA providers will be as follows:

  • Generate a CSR from the FlashArray CLI and copy down the request.
  • As the FlashArray does not allow setting Subject Alternate Names in generated CSRs, the CA will need to have the ability to set the SAN for the Certificate. Make sure that the CA that is going to sign the certificates has that option.
  • Provide the CSR's to the CA with the appropriate SAN entry.
  • Import the signed certificates to vasa-ct0 and vasa-ct1.

In the example below, a Microsoft Certificate Authority is used to sign the certificate through the Web service. In order to set SAN entries, the option had to be enabled, as it is disabled by default. Consult with your Security Team that manages the Certificate Authority and make sure that they know that a SAN entry for the IP address must be included. See these two articles for more information: Microsoft KB 1 and Microsoft KB 2.

Note:

As noted, by default the ability to set SAN entries in the Web Enrollment for the Microsoft CA is disabled. While it can be enabled (you can search for articles about "EDITF_ATTRIBUTESUBJECTALTNAME2" to find the posts detailing how), Microsoft does not recommend doing so or leaving it enabled (see the second KB linked). Currently, Everpure is working to add the ability to generate a CSR with SAN entries to the purecert command. Once that work is complete, then manually entering the SAN entry in the certificate request will not be required.

Creating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) from the FlashArray

The first step is to create a CSR for vasa-ct0 and vasa-ct1 from the FlashArray CLI. This can be done as any array admin user or as the local array admin user. The pureuser account is used in the example.

  1. SSH into the FlashArray as an Array Admin user.
    
    $ ssh pureuser@10.21.88.116
    
    pureuser@10.21.88.116's password:
    
    Welcome pureuser. This is Purity Version 5.3.0 on FlashArray sn1-405-c12-21
    http://www.purestorage.com/
    pureuser@sn1-405-c12-21>
    
    Once logged into the FlashArray, CLI the FA Certificates can be viewed or checked using the purecert command.
    
    pureuser@sn1-405-c12-21> purecert list
    Name        Status    Key Size  Issued To     Issued By  Valid From               Valid To                 Country  State/Province  Locality       Organization    Organizational Unit  Email  Common Name
    management  imported  4096      10.21.88.116  CA         2019-06-05 17:49:10 PDT  2021-06-04 17:49:10 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Solutions  Solutions            -      10.21.88.116
    vasa-ct0    imported  4096      10.21.88.117  CA         2019-06-05 17:41:47 PDT  2021-06-04 17:41:47 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Solutions  Solutions            -      10.21.88.117
    vasa-ct1    imported  4096      10.21.88.118  CA         2019-06-05 17:43:22 PDT  2021-06-04 17:43:22 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Solutions  Solutions            -      10.21.88.118
    
  2. Generate a CSR for vasa-ct0 and copy down the CSR in notepad and/or paste it into a new .csr file.
    
    pureuser@sn1-405-c12-21> purecert construct --certificate-signing-request --common-name 10.21.88.117 --country US --state California --locality 'Mountain View' --organization 'Pure Storage' --organizational-unit 'Solutions Engineering' vasa-ct0
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
    MIIC0DCCAbgCAQAwgYoxFjAUBgNVBAcMDU1vdW50YWluIFZpZXcxCzAJBgNVBAYT
    AlVTMRMwEQYDVQQIDApDYWxpZm9ybmlhMR4wHAYDVQQLDBVTb2x1dGlvbnMgRW5n
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    0FPTuzii2Q7WTHphlTeJdd+rluWSc06GaB4F8+x9OXfn/cGXzX+XdK8tIZdtdV/y
    AlEXepRtiX6JQsnji0DkJKBnY0i3dkwdkhdX5EM1cWQqWbHB9Bj6gHcbA55vgMRH
    CFbZgA==
    -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
    
  3. Repeat for vasa-ct1.
    
    pureuser@sn1-405-c12-21> purecert construct --certificate-signing-request --common-name 10.21.88.118 --country US --state California --locality 'Mountain View' --organization 'Pure Storage' --organizational-unit 'Solutions Engineering' vasa-ct1
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
    MIICzjCCAbYCAQAwgYgxFjAUBgNVBAcMDU1vdW50YWluIFZpZXcxCzAJBgNVBAYT
    AlVTMRMwEQYDVQQIDApDYWxpZm9ybmlhMR4wHAYDVQQLDBVTb2x1dGlvbnMgRW5n
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    ANQ=
    -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
    

Now that the CSRs are generated and saved, the next step is getting a self-signed certificate or signed certificate.

Signing the CSR

The process of getting the Certificate Authority to sign the CSR will depend on what type of Certificate Authority your environment has. Consult your security team or the team managing the certificates for the process to submit the certificate requests. In the example below the CSR is signed by a Microsoft CA.

  1. Navigating to the CA websrv, the CSR and SAN are provided.

    Request a new certificate

    Then submit an advanced certificate request

    In the request the CSR is provided along with the SAN for the IP address of the controller

    Download the base 64 certificate once the certificate is generated

  2. Repeat the same steps for vasa-ct1.
  3. Once both certificates are issued, open both of them up in a text editor, such as notepad/notepad++, and copy down the certificates.

Both vasa-ct0 and vasa-ct1's certificates can now be imported as they are signed and saved.

Importing the Signed Certificate

Much like the self-signed certificate process, this must be done from the FlashArray CLI. The difference is that the private key does not need to be provided.

  1. Use purecert to import the signed certificate, just as it was done with the self-signed method Web Guide: Configuring Multiple Non-Linked vCenters with the FlashArray VASA Provider.
    Note:

    An Important Reminder. Once the certificate is imported this will cause any existing storage providers that are registered with the VASA provider to go offline. Due to the new certificate being imported and causing an authentication failure with the existing storage providers.

  2. Here is an example of that process. Please note that when you are setting the certificate and key attributes (using purecert setattr) or creating a certificate on the array (purecert create), you will need to press enter once after pasting the text for the certificate and key but before pressing control+D:
    
    ## vasa-ct0 ##
    pureuser@sn1-405-c12-21> purecert setattr --certificate vasa-ct0
    Please enter certificate followed by ^D:
    
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    MIIGmTCCBIGgAwIBAgITWgAAADlTEezzts+dsAAAAAAAOTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsF
    ADBVMRMwEQYKCZImiZPyLGQBGRYDY29tMRswGQYKCZImiZPyLGQBGRYLcHVyZXN0
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    nqc/GczJkyi12qoKAw==
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    
    Name      Status    Key Size  Issued To     Issued By  Valid From               Valid To                 Country  State/Province  Locality       Organization    Organizational Unit    Email  Common Name
    vasa-ct0  imported  2048      10.21.88.117  CA         2019-09-04 07:20:40 PDT  2021-09-03 07:28:44 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Storage  Solutions Engineering  -      10.21.88.117
    
    
    ## vasa-ct1 ##
    pureuser@sn1-405-c12-21> purecert setattr --certificate vasa-ct1
    Please enter certificate followed by ^D:
    
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    MIIGlzCCBH+gAwIBAgITWgAAADqWwSQe/KWTqQAAAAAAOjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsF
    ADBVMRMwEQYKCZImiZPyLGQBGRYDY29tMRswGQYKCZImiZPyLGQBGRYLcHVyZXN0
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    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    
    Name      Status    Key Size  Issued To     Issued By  Valid From               Valid To                 Country  State/Province  Locality       Organization  Organizational Unit    Email  Common Name
    vasa-ct1  imported  2048      10.21.88.118  CA         2019-09-04 07:21:48 PDT  2021-09-03 07:21:48 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Storage  Solutions Engineering  -      10.21.88.118
    
    
    ## purecert list output ##
    pureuser@sn1-405-c12-21> purecert list
    Name        Status    Key Size  Issued To     Issued By  Valid From               Valid To                 Country  State/Province  Locality       Organization    Organizational Unit    Email  Common Name
    management  imported  2048      10.21.88.116  CA         2019-08-02 08:44:43 PDT  2021-08-01 08:44:43 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Solutions  Solutions              -      10.21.88.116
    vasa-ct0    imported  2048      10.21.88.117  CA         2019-09-04 07:20:40 PDT  2021-09-03 07:28:44 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Storage    Solutions Engineering  -      10.21.88.117
    vasa-ct1    imported  2048      10.21.88.118  CA         2019-09-04 07:21:48 PDT  2021-09-03 07:21:48 PDT  US       California      Mountain View  Pure Storage    Solutions Engineering  -      10.21.88.118
    
    

    Now there are signed certificates imported for both CT0 and CT1.

    Note:

    When trying to import by pasting in the certificates, it may say "Error: Certificate requires a private key"

    Try using the following if the customer has both cert and private key available.

    
    purecert setattr --certificate --key vasa-ct0
    purecert setattr --certificate --key vasa-ct1