Preparing server certificates

Generate SSL certificates for client-to-node encryptions or node-to-node encryption.

This topic provides information about generating SSL certificates for client-to-node encryption or node-to-node encryption. If you generate the certificates for one type of encryption, you do not need to generate them again for the other: the same certificates are used for both.

All nodes must have all the relevant SSL certificates on all nodes. A keystore contains private keys. The truststore contains SSL certificates for each node and doesn't require signing by a trusted and recognized public certification authority.

Procedure

To prepare server certificates:

  1. Generate the private and public key pair for the nodes of the cluster leaving the key password the same as the keystore password:
    keytool -genkey -alias dse_node0 -keyalg RSA -keystore .keystore
  2. Repeat the previous step on each node using a different alias for each one.
  3. Export the public part of the certificate to a separate file and copy these certificates to all other nodes.
    keytool -export -alias dse -file dse_node0.cer -keystore .keystore
  4. Add the certificate of each node to the truststore of each node, so nodes can verify the identity of other nodes.
    A prompt for setting a password for the newly created truststore appears.
    keytool -import -v -trustcacerts -alias dse_node0 -file dse_node0.cer -keystore .truststore
    keytool -import -v -trustcacerts -alias dse_node1 -file dse_node1.cer -keystore .truststore
    . . .
    keytool -import -v -trustcacerts -alias dse_nodeN -file dse_nodeN.cer -keystore .truststore
  5. Make sure .keystore is readable only by the DSE daemon and not by any user of the system.