Generate and sign an SSL keystore

To secure RMI communication in PPM through SSL, you need to create a keystore. Use the Java keytool to set up and manage your own keystore. Detailed information on this topic is available in the documentation Keytool - Key and Certificate Management Tool (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/tools/windows/keytool.html).

Warning

The following describes the generation of the keystore and the Certificate Signing Requests using simple examples and demo data. The values of the individal parameters used in the examples need to be adadpted to their local environment (particularly the information on the "-dname" parameter). The meaning of the individual parameters is described in the documentation Keytool - Key and Certificate Management Tool.

Procedure

  1. Use the keytool to create a keystore with the following parameters.

    keytool

    -keystore ppm_keystore

    -alias ppm

    -keypass changeit

    -storepass changeit

    -genkey

    -v

    -keyalg RSA

    -dname "CN=PPM Admin , OU=PPM , O=SAG , L= Saarbruecken , S=SAL , C=DE"

  2. Use the keytool to create the Certificate Signing Request with the following parameters.

    keytool

    -certreq

    -alias ppm

    -file ppm_keystore.csr

    -keystore ppm_keystore

    The program generates two files: a key (extension: .key) and the actual certificate request (extension: .csr).

  3. Submit the content of the file with the .csr extension to a certification authority.

    It will sign the certificate with a valid root certificate that is usually acknowledged by all browsers and the default Java Runtime Environments.

  4. Use the keytool to import the signed certificate into your keystore.

    keytool

    -import

    -trustcacerts

    -alias ppm

    -file <FileName>

    -keystore ppm_keystore

The file ppm_keystore can now be used for SSL encryption in PPM.