Use EQ/OS 10 SSL Certificate Store to Secure Multiple Websites

07/10/2012

By Mark Hoffman
Project Manager EQ/OS 10, Coyote Point Systems

Does your organization use Wildcard or Unified Communications SSL certificates to secure multiple HTTPS web sites?

Many businesses buy Wildcard or UC certificates to secure multiple websites, because it’s cheaper than getting a certificate for each individual website. Some load balancing products, including earlier versions of Coyote Point’s EQ/OS software, require that you upload the same SSL certificate to secure multiple virtual IP addresses hosted on the appliance. This is a time consuming and error prone process, both when first configuring the system as well as when you need to upgrade to new certificates.

Version 10 of EQ/OS has the answer: an SSL Certificate Store where all your SSL certificates can be uploaded, and then assigned to as many virtual IP addresses (or ‘clusters’) as you like. The certificate store (pictured below) allows you to associate a simple name with each certificate, and presents certificate details in an easy to understand interface.

When you need to associate an SSL certificate with a cluster, you just open the cluster’s configuration tab in the GUI and simply pick the appropriate certificate name from the drop-down box provided.

Now, when a certificate expires or has to be replaced for some reason, you can upload a new certificate to the same certificate name in the Certificate Store, and you are done – the change is automatically picked up for all clusters that refer to that certificate name.