Use a custom SSL certificate for the console

The Puppet Enterprise (PE) console uses a certificate signed by PE's built-in certificate authority (CA). Because this CA is specific to PE, web browsers don't know it or trust it, and you have to add a security exception in order to access the console. If you find that this is not an acceptable scenario, you can use a custom CA to create the console's certificate.

Before you begin:
  • You need a X.509 cert, signed by the custom party CA, in PEM format, with matching private and public keys.
  • If your custom cert is issued by an intermediate CA, the CA bundle must contain a complete chain, including the applicable root CA.
  • These keys and certs must be in PEM format.

diagram of certificate relationships in PE.

  1. Retrieve the custom certificate and private key.
  2. On your primary server, place the certificate and private key into the correct directory locations as follows:
    • Place the certificate in /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/certs/console-cert.pem, replacing any existing file named console-cert.pem.
    • Place the private key in /etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/private_keys/console-cert.pem, replacing any existing file named console-cert.pem.
      If your installation includes disaster recovery, repeat this step to place a certificate and a private key configured for your primary server replica in the corresponding directories on the replica.
  3. If you previously specified a custom SSL certificate, remove the browser_ssl_cert and browser_ssl_private_key parameters specified in the console or Hiera data.

    In the PE console, go to the Node groups page, expand the PE Infrastructure group, and select the PE Console node group. Then, on the Classes tab, locate the puppet_enterprise::profile::console class, remove any browser_ssl_cert and browser_ssl_private_key parameters, and commit changes.

    If you declared these parameters on the Configuration data tab, remove them from that tab and commit changes.

    If you declared these parameters with Hiera, remove them from your Hiera data. For more information, refer to Configure settings with Hiera.

  4. Run Puppet: puppet agent -t
Results

You can navigate to your console and see the custom certificate in your browser.

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