[Freeipa-users] ipa-server-install --external-cert-file and exporting dogtag certificates

[Florence Blanc-Renaud]

On 08/02/2016 04:52 AM, Richard Harmonson wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 1, 2016 at 10:15 AM, Petr Vobornik <pvoborni at redhat.com
> <mailto:pvoborni at redhat.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 07/31/2016 07:45 AM, Richard Harmonson wrote:
>     > I having challenges resuming ipa-server-install --external-ca. I
>     am reasonably
>     > confident I am not providing the right certificate and/or format
>     from my
>     > off-line root CA using 389 and Dogtag.
>     >
>     > Does anyone have instructions on how to accomplish the task of
>     exporting the
>     > correct certificates in the expected format?
>     >
>     > Thank you.
>     >
>
>     The IPA procedure with prerequisites is described at
>     https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Linux_Domain_Identity_Authentication_and_Policy_Guide/install-server.html#install-server-external-ca
>
>     Or are you rather asking for specific PKI instructions?
>
>     e.g.
>     *
>     http://pki.fedoraproject.org/wiki/PKI_Certificate_CLI#Submitting_a_Certificate_Request
>
>     *
>     http://pki.fedoraproject.org/wiki/CA_Certificate_Profiles#caCACert:_Manual_Certificate_Manager_Signing_Certificate_Enrollment
>     --
>     Petr Vobornik
>
>
> I read the suggested document, previously, but its an excellent shared
> reference for this discussion.
>
> I have successfully submitted and approved the csr. Dogtag provides a
> web UI which provides a Base 64 encoded certificate or Base 64 encoded
> certificate with CA certificate chain in pkcs7 format.
>
> For the servercert2010601.pem (the signed CSR request signing CA
> certificate 0x9) referenced in the article, do I  copy and paste
> (-----BEGIN .. END-----) the base 64 (not pkcs7) to a file using *.pem
> then submit using one of the two --external-cert-file?
>
> For the cacert.pem (the Root CA signing certificate 0x1) referenced in
> the article, do I copy and paste the base 64 with ca in pkcs7 format to
> a file using *.pkcs7 (or pem or does it matter?) then submit using the
> second --external-cert-file?
>
> Your guidance is much appreciated.
>
>
Hi Richard,

I tested the following steps to install FreeIPA with a certificate 
signed by an external Dogtag instance:

1- IPA installation on host ipaserver with:
ipaserver$ ipa-server-install [options] --external-ca

This step produces the Certificate Signing Request /root/ipa.csr that 
must be provided to the Dogtag server.

2- On the Dogtag machine, configure Dogtag client authentication (to be 
able to use the command-line):

dogtagsrv$ pki -c password client-init

This step creates a NSSDB in ~/.dogtag/nssdb where the certificates for 
client->dogtag server authentication will be stored.

dogtagsrv$ pk12util -i /root/.dogtag/pki-tomcat/ca_admin_cert.p12 -d 
/root/.dogtag/nssdb/

This step imports the caadmin certificate that was created during Dogtag 
installation into the client NSSDB. The client will be able to 
authenticate as "caadmin" when using Dogtag CLI. Please note the 
certicate nickname that can be found using

dogtagsrv$ certutil -L -d ~/.dogtag/nssdb/
[...]
PKI Administrator for <security domain>         u,u,u

3- On the Dogtag machine, submit the CSR and approve:
dogtagsrv$ pki ca-cert-request-submit --profile caCACert --request-type 
pkcs10 --csr-file  /path/to/ipa.csr

This step submits the csr to Dogtag, using the caCACert profile in order 
to produce a Certificate that can be used for a Certificate Authority. 
Note the Request ID in the output as it will be used in the next command 
to approve the CSR and produce the cert:

dogtagsrv$ pki -c password -d ~/.dogtag/nssdb/ -n "PKI Administrator for 
<security domain>"  cert-request-review <id> --action approve

4- On the Dogtag machine, export the certificate and the dogtag CA cert:

dogtagsrv$ pki -c password -d ~/.dogtag/nssdb/ -n "PKI Administrator for 
<security domain>"  cert-show 7 --encoded --output  ipa.cert
dogtagsrv$ pki ca-cert-show 1 --encoded --output dogtagca.cert

5- Resume ipa server installation with

ipaserver$ ipa-server-install --external-cert-file=ipa.cert 
--external-cert-file=dogtagca.cert

With those steps, I was able to install FreeIPA server with a 3rd-party 
signed Certificate Authority. Please let me known if you have issues 
with those instructions,

Flo.