Wireless Access

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Why do you need to replace Aruba default certificate?

Have you ever tried to replace Aruba default certificate issued by GeoTrust DV SSL CA to securelogin.arubanetworks.com.  You found many reasons to change and read many articles how to do it, but it seemed too many details,  you gave up and forgot about it because things still worked.

Let’s try it again, at least, for the benefit shows in figure 1, the problem with security certificate.

This article based on Windows 2012 ROOT-CA.  Assuming you have - or you can request - a certificate from your ROOT-CA.  

Figure 1: By replacing default certificate, you can get rid of this annoying security certificate problem.

Getting the Certificate

Generate CSR at the controller

Figure 2: This step is straight forward.  Make sure the Common Name is the name you are using to access your controller.  In this lab, I use https://172.18.31.246:4343, so the CN is 172.18.31.246.  Although the Key Length minimum is 1024, but the standard is 2048, many Root-CA are no longer support 1024.

Request certificate

Click Generate New, and copy the text between -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- and ----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- inclusive.  Save to a text file. 

HTTPS to your Root-CA

 Figure 3: Https to Root-CA, click Request a certificate

Figure 4: Click submit an "advanced certificate request"

Figure 5: Paste the CSR that you saved to txt file in figure 2 above to Saved Request, change Certificate Template to Web Server, click Submit.

Figure 6: Keep default DER encoded, click “Download certificate”, and save it.  In my Root-CA, I configured the server to automatic assign certificate, so I can download the certificate right after I submit.  Some root-CA requires you come back later to download after the administrator issue it.

Figure 7: You can view the detail of certificate you just saved to ensure it is the right one

  Install Certificate to Controller

Figure 8: To install certificate to controller, click Management > Certificates > Upload.  Give it a name, find the certificate you downloaded.  Default name is download\certnew.cer

Figure 9: Configure controller to use new certificate for WebUI Management Authentication and Captive Portal.  Click Apply, Save Configuration, and log out.

Figure 10: Log back to controller, no more Problem with Website Security Certificate

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Attachment(s)

Apr MHC Aruba Cert.pdf   664 KB 1 version

If you want to go to town on this you can generate a custom cert  on linux!

sudo cp /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf  /etc/ssl/whatever.cnf

sudo vi /etc/ssl/whatever.cnf

edit the normal elements and add in alt_name section:

[alt_names]
DNS.1 = aruba-master.whatever.orVRRP.address.com

DNS.2 = controller1.whatever.com

DNS.3 = controller2.whatever.com

IP.1 = 10.1.1.1

IP.2 = 10.1.1.2

IP.3 = 10.1.1.3

IPs are cools as alot of the aruba master/local config links refer to ips and not fqdns

generate key:

sudo openssl genrsa -out ./whatever.key 4096

generate the cert:

sudo openssl req -new -key ./whatever.key -out ./whatever.csr -config ./whatever.cnf

get it signed by ca as per the last process.

package up a PCKS12:

sudo openssl pkcs12 -export -out whatever.pfx -inkey whatever.key -in ./whatever.cer -certfile whatever.intermediate_ca.cer -certfile whateverwhatever.root_ca.cer

Install on the both controllers and just use the VRRP resolved domain name!

 Very good and useful info for enterprise WLAN with multiple controllers.  I wonder if Windows server root CA can do it too.