Configuring SSL/TLS between OpsCenter and the DataStax Agents

OpsCenter uses Transport Layer Security (TLS), referred to as its predecessor Secure Socket Layer (SSL), to encrypt the communication protocol and authenticate traffic between DataStax Agents and the main OpsCenter daemon. By default, SSL is disabled.

Running OpsCenter without SSL should only be done when running OpsCenter and DataStax Enterprise (DSE) under the following conditions:

  • On a secure internal network.

  • In a development environment where DataStax Agents and OpsCenter run on the same computer protected from network threats.

  • In a situation where there is no concern about someone listening to OpsCenter traffic.

Otherwise, configuring SSL between OpsCenter and DataStax Agents is strongly recommended as a security best practice.

Enabling SSL/TLS for OpsCenter and Agent communication - Package Installs

About this task

Enable SSL between OpsCenter and DataStax Agents by editing the opscenterd.conf configuration file.

The SSL key generation process is done automatically at package install time. Unless you need to regenerate SSL key files, skip to editing the proper configuration files to enable SSL.

The location of the opscenterd.conf file depends on the type of installation:

  • Package installations: /etc/opscenter/opscenterd.conf

  • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/opscenterd.conf

The location of the address.yaml file depends on the type of installation:

  • Package installations: /var/lib/datastax-agent/conf/address.yaml

  • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/address.yaml

Prerequisites

OpsCenter requires the .der file format for SSL. If the existing agents ssl_certfile in opscenterd.conf is in a .pem format, run the following command to convert the format:

openssl x509 -outform der -in /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.pem -out /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.der

For more information about SSL cert file formats, see converting SSL certificates.

The setup.py uses /usr/share/opscenter/conf/ssl.conf, which dictates the certificate common name. Modify the ssl.conf values before using setup.py.

Example ssl.conf

[ req ]
prompt=no
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name

[ req_distinguished_name ]
C = country_name
ST = state_abbreviation
L = city_name
O = company_name
OU = division_name
CN = common_certificate_name
emailAddress = opscenter.admin@email.com

Procedure

  1. If the SSL files already exist in the /usr/share/opscenter/ssl directory, they are not automatically recreated. Before running setup.py in

  2. Make sure that the /tmp directory does not have the noexec flag set.

    The setup.py script requires the /tmp directory to have exec permissions. See Setting and securing the tmp directory for the DataStax Agent.

  3. Run the OpsCenter setup.py script:

    sudo /usr/share/opscenter/bin/setup.py

    The script generates the SSL keys and certificates used by the OpsCenter daemon and the DataStax Agents to communicate with one another in the following directory: /usr/share/opscenter/ssl.

  4. Copy the following files to /var/lib/opscenter/ssl:

    • opscenter.key: OpsCenter SSL private key

    • opscenter.der: OpsCenter SSL certificate

    • agentKeyStore: DataStax Agent keystore

    • agentKeyStore.der: DataStax Agent SSL certificate

    • agentKeyStore.key: DataStax Agent keyfile

      The agentKeyStore.key keyfile is necessary only when configuring high availability (HA), so that the secondary OpsCenter instance can communicate with the primary OpsCenter instance. The failover opscenterd processes on the secondary OpsCenter instance use this key to establish a STOMP connection to the primary opscenterd instance.

      		 
      sudo cp /usr/share/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.key /var/lib/opscenter/ssl
      sudo cp /usr/share/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.der /var/lib/opscenter/ssl
      sudo cp /usr/share/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore /var/lib/opscenter/ssl
      sudo cp /usr/share/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore.der /var/lib/opscenter/ssl
      sudo cp /usr/share/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore.key /var/lib/opscenter/ssl

  5. Change ownership of the files copied in the previous step to the opscenter user and the opscenter group:

    sudo chown opscenter:opscenter /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.key
    sudo chown opscenter:opscenter /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.der
    sudo chown opscenter:opscenter /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore
    sudo chown opscenter:opscenter /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore.der

  6. If configuring HA, change the ownership for the agentKeyStore.key keyfile as well.

    sudo chown opscenter:opscenter /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore.key

  7. Open opscenterd.conf in an editor and add an [agents] section with the use_ssl option set to true.

    sudo vi /etc/opscenter/opscenterd.conf
    [agents]
use_ssl = true
ssl_keyfile =  /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.key
ssl_certfile = /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/opscenter.der
agent_keyfile = /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore
agent_keyfile_raw = /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore.key
agent_certfile = /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore.der

    The agent_keyfile_raw file is used only HA configurations.

  8. Restart the OpsCenter daemon.

  9. If you need to connect to a cluster in which DataStax Agents have already been deployed, log in to each of the nodes and reconfigure the address.yaml file.

    If you do not want to manually edit all of the node configuration files, follow the procedure to install DataStax Agents automatically.

    1. Copy /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore from the OpsCenter machine to /var/lib/datastax-agent/ssl/agentKeyStore on each node in the cluster.

      scp /var/lib/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore user@node:/var/lib/datastax-agent/ssl/

      Where user is the user ID on the node, and node is either the host name of the node or its IP address.

    2. Log in to each node in the cluster using ssh.

      ssh user@node

      Where user is the user ID on the node, and node is either the host name of the node or its IP address.

    3. Edit the address.yaml file, changing the value of use_ssl to 1.

      sudo vi /var/lib/datastax-agent/conf/address.yaml
      use_ssl: 1

      If your keystore and truststore files reside in a different location from the default, define the following parameters to indicate the location of the keystore and truststore, plus the password for each:

      opscenter_ssl_truststore: /etc/datastax-agent/key/dse-truststore.jks
opscenter_ssl_truststore_password: truststore_password
opscenter_ssl_keystore: /etc/datastax-agent/key/keystore.jks
opscenter_ssl_keystore_password: keystore_password

    4. Restart the DataStax Agent.

      sudo install_location/bin/datastax-agent

  10. After opscenterd and all DataStax Agents have been configured and restarted, verify proper connection through the Agent Status tab.

Enabling SSL/TLS for OpsCenter and Agent communication - Tarball Installations

About this task

To enable SSL for tarball installations, edit the configuration file and run a script to generate the keys used by OpsCenter and the DataStax Agents.

Prerequisites

OpsCenter requires the .der file format for SSL. If the existing agents ssl_certfile in opscenterd.conf is in a .pem format, run the following command to convert the format:

openssl x509 -outform der -in /install_location/ssl/opscenter.pem -out /install_location/ssl/opscenter.der

For more information about SSL cert file formats, see converting SSL certificates.

Procedure

  1. If the SSL files already exist in the install_location/ssl directory, they are not automatically recreated. Before running setup.py, remove the old SSL files from that directory.

  2. Run the OpsCenter setup.py script:

    sudo install_location/bin/jython/setup.py

    The script generates the SSL keys and certificates used by the OpsCenter daemon and the DataStax Agents to communicate with one another in the following directory: install_location/ssl

  3. Locate the opscenterd.conf file. The location of this file depends on the type of installation:

    • Package installations: /etc/opscenter/opscenterd.conf

    • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/opscenterd.conf

  4. Open opscenterd.conf in an editor and add an [agents] section with the use_ssl option set to true.

    sudo vi install_location/conf/opscenterd.conf
    [agents]
use_ssl = true
ssl_keyfile =  install_location/ssl/opscenter.key
ssl_certfile = install_location/ssl/opscenter.der
agent_keyfile = install_location/ssl/agentKeyStore
agent_keyfile_raw = install_location/ssl/agentKeyStore.key
agent_certfile = install_location/ssl/agentKeyStore.der

    The agent_keyfile_raw file is used only HA configurations.

  5. Restart the OpsCenter daemon.

  6. If you need to connect to a cluster in which DataStax Agents have already been deployed, log in to each of the nodes and reconfigure the address.yaml file.

    If you do not want to manually edit all of the node configuration files, follow the procedure to install DataStax Agents automatically.

    1. On each node in the cluster, copy install_location/ssl/agentKeyStore from the OpsCenter machine to agent_install_location/ssl/agentKeyStore.

      scp /opt/opscenter/ssl/agentKeyStore  user@node:*agent_install_location*/ssl/agentKeyStore

      Where user is the user ID on the node, and node is either the host name of the node or its IP address.

    2. Log in to each node in the cluster using ssh.

      ssh user@node

      Where user is the user ID on the node, and node is either the host name of the node or its IP address.

    3. Locate the address.yaml file. The location of this file depends on the type of installation.

      • Package installations: /var/lib/datastax-agent/conf/address.yaml

      • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/address.yaml

    4. Edit the address.yaml file, changing the value of use_ssl to 1.

      sudo vi /var/lib/datastax-agent/conf/address.yaml
      use_ssl: 1

      If your keystore and truststore files reside in a different location from the default, define the following parameters to indicate the location of the keystore and truststore, plus the password for each:

      opscenter_ssl_truststore: /etc/datastax-agent/key/dse-truststore.jks
opscenter_ssl_truststore_password: truststore_password
opscenter_ssl_keystore: /etc/datastax-agent/key/keystore.jks
opscenter_ssl_keystore_password: keystore_password

    5. Restart the DataStax Agent.

      sudo install_location/bin/datastax-agent

  7. After opscenterd and all DataStax Agents have been configured and restarted, verify proper connection through the Agent Status tab.

Disabling SSL/TLS for OpsCenter and Agent communication - Package Installations

To disable SSL for package installations, modify the OpsCenter configuration file and restart OpsCenter.

About this task

By default SSL is turned off in OpsCenter. Perform this task if you have configured the DataStax Agents on a cluster to use SSL previously and now need to turn SSL off.

Procedure

  1. Locate the opscenterd.conf file. The location of this file depends on the type of installation:

    • Package installations: /etc/opscenter/opscenterd.conf

    • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/opscenterd.conf

  2. Open opscenterd.conf in an editor and set the value of the use_ssl option to false to disable SSL.

    sudo vi install_location/opscenterd.conf
    [agents]
use_ssl = false

  3. Restart the OpsCenter daemon.

  4. Reconfigure the DataStax Agents.

    If you do not want to manually edit all of the node configuration files, follow the procedure to install DataStax Agents automatically.

    1. Log in to each node in the cluster using ssh.

      ssh user@node

      Where user is the user ID on the node, and node is either the host name of the node or its IP address.

    2. Locate the address.yaml file. The location of this file depends on the type of installation:

      • Package installations: /var/lib/datastax-agent/conf/address.yaml

      • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/address.yaml

    3. Edit the address.yaml file, changing the value of use_ssl to 0.

      sudo vi install_location/address.yaml
      use_ssl: 0

    4. Restart the DataStax Agent.

      sudo install_location/bin/datastax-agent

  5. After opscenterd.conf and all DataStax Agents have been configured and restarted, verify proper connection through the Agent Status tab.

Disabling SSL/TLS for OpsCenter and Agent communication - Tarball Installations

To disable SSL for tarball installations, modify the OpsCenter configuration file and restart OpsCenter.

About this task

By default, SSL is turned off in OpsCenter. You only need to perform this task if you have previously configured the DataStax Agents on a cluster to use SSL and now want to turn SSL off.

Procedure

  1. Locate the opscenterd.conf file. The location of this file depends on the type of installation:

    • Package installations: /etc/opscenter/opscenterd.conf

    • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/opscenterd.conf

  2. Open opscenterd.conf in an editor and set the value of the use_ssl option to false to disable SSL.

    vi install_location/conf/opscenterd.conf
    [agents]
use_ssl = false

  3. Restart the OpsCenter daemon.

  4. Reconfigure the DataStax Agents.

    If you do not want to manually edit all of the node configuration files, follow the procedure to install DataStax Agents automatically.

    1. Log in to each node in the cluster using ssh.

      ssh user@node

      Where user is the user ID on the node, and node is either the host name of the node or its IP address.

    2. Locate the address.yaml file. The location of this file depends on the type of installation.

      • Package installations: /var/lib/datastax-agent/conf/address.yaml

      • Tarball installations: install_location/conf/address.yaml

    3. Edit the address.yaml file, changing the value of use_ssl to 0.

      sudo vi install_location/conf/address.yaml
      use_ssl: 0

    4. Restart the DataStax Agent.

      sudo install_location/bin/datastax-agent

  5. After opscenterd and all DataStax Agents have been configured and restarted, verify proper connection through the Agent Status tab.

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