Sectigo.com
Shop Enterprise Partners Resources

Configuring network agents

Network agents are deployed locally to allow SSL certificate auto-installation to servers and allow network discovery tasks to scan internal networks. Once a server has been added to a network agent, the network agent will discover all server nodes and associated certificates.

SSL certificate auto-installation can be configured in two ways:

  • Local — A network agent is installed on each individual server. The network agent uses local commands to interact with the server software/configuration.

  • Remote — A single network agent is installed on a central server and configured with the server details of the other servers on your network. The network agent uses remote connections requiring authentication to interact with the server software and configuration.

SSL certificate auto-installation is limited as outlined in the following table.

Vendor Windows Linux

Apache 2.x

N/A

Local/Remote auto-installation

Tomcat 5.x, 6.x, 7.x

Local auto-installation

Local/Remote auto-installation

Microsoft IIS 7.x

Local/Remote auto-installation

N/A

F5 BIG-IP

Remote auto-installation

Remote auto-installation

Adding servers to a network agent

Server requirements

  • Microsoft IIS

  • Apache

  • Apache Tomcat

  • F5 BIG-IP

To add Microsoft IIS servers to a network agent, the following requirements must be satisfied:

  • User is part of local Administrators Group

To add Apache servers to a network agent, the following requirements must be satisfied:

  • Local:

    • The sectigo-network-agent service has, by default, all required permissions to manage an Apache web server.

  • Remote:

    • The account specified for remote access must have permissions on the remote Apache web server to do the following:

      • Execute apachectl

      • Read and write site configuration files in ServerRoot

      • Write certificate files to a remote certificates directory (default /var/sectigo-network-agent-certs)

To add Apache Tomcat servers to a network agent, the following requirements must be satisfied:

  • Local:

    • The sectigo-network-agent service has, by default, all required permissions to manage an Apache Tomcat web server.

  • Remote:

    • The account specified for remote access must have permissions on the remote Apache Tomcat web server to do the following:

      • Start and stop the Apache Tomcat service

      • Read and write site configuration files in the Tomcat installation folder

      • Write JKS certificate files to the Tomcat installation folder

To add F5 BIG-IP servers to a network agent, the following requirements must be satisfied:

  • User must have the Administrator role with CLI enabled in the F5 BIG-IP application

Add servers

  • Microsoft IIS

  • Apache

  • Apache Tomcat

  • F5 BIG-IP

  1. Navigate to Integrations  Network Agents.

  2. Select your agent and click Edit to open the Edit Network Agent window.

  3. Select the Servers tab and click Add.

  4. Provide a server name and select Microsoft IIS 7.x.

  5. (Optional) To perform a remote installation, select Remote.

    1. Enter the Domain Name/IP address of the remote server.

      It is not recommended to enter an IP address since it cannot be used with Kerberos authentication.

    2. Provide the username for accessing the server.

    3. Provide the password for accessing the server.

  6. Click Save.

  1. Navigate to Integrations  Network Agents.

  2. Select your agent and click Edit to open the Edit Network Agent window.

  3. Select the Servers tab and click Add.

  4. Provide a server name and select Apache 2.x.

  5. (Optional) Enter the path to the Apache control application.

    This can be left blank if the application is available in the PATH.

  6. (Optional) To perform a remote installation, select Remote.

    Remote installation is performed using SSH.

    1. Enter the Domain Name/IP address of the remote server.

    2. If the remote SSH server isn’t using the standard port, change the Port from 22.

    3. If required, change the path to the location where the certificates will be stored.

    4. Provide your authentication details based on whether your server is configured for SSH Key or Username/Password authentication.

      SSH Key

      1. Select Use key.

      2. Provide the path to SSH key on the network agent server.

      3. Provide the key file passphrase.

      Username/Password

      1. Provide the username for accessing the server.

      2. Provide the password for accessing the server.

  7. Click Save.

  1. Navigate to Integrations  Network Agents.

  2. Select your agent and click Edit to open the Edit Network Agent window.

  3. Select the Servers tab and click Add.

  4. Provide a server name and select Apache Tomcat 5.x, 6.x, 7.x.

  5. (Optional) Enter the path to the Tomcat installation.

    This can be left blank on Linux if the default install location was used.

  6. (Optional) To perform a remote installation, select Remote.

    Remote installation is performed using SSH.

    1. Enter the Domain Name/IP address of the remote server.

    2. If the remote SSH server isn’t using the standard port, change the Port from 22.

    3. Provide your authentication details based on whether your server is configured for SSH Key or Username/Password authentication.

      SSH Key

      1. Select Use key.

      2. Provide the path to SSH key on the network agent server.

      3. Provide the key file passphrase.

      Username/Password

      1. Provide the username for accessing the server.

      2. Provide the password for accessing the server.

  7. Click Save.

  1. Navigate to Integrations  Network Agents.

  2. Select your agent and click Edit to open the Edit Network Agent window.

  3. Select the Servers tab and click Add.

  4. Provide a server name and select F5 BIG-IP.

    Only remote auto-installation is supported on F5 BIG-IP. Remote installation is performed using the F5 REST API.

  5. Enter the Domain Name/IP address of the remote server.

  6. If the remote F5 server isn’t using the standard port, change the Port from 443.

  7. Provide the username for accessing the server.

  8. Provide the password for accessing the server.

  9. Click Save.

Once added, the server state is displayed as Init (initialized) until the network agent can validate the connection. Once the connection has been validated, the server state changes to Active.

Viewing Server Nodes

A server node is an instance of a server that handles web server operations and may have SSL enabled.

To view server nodes, navigate to Integrations  Network Agents, select your agent, and click Nodes.

Network agent server nodes

Each server is displayed as a collapsible heading that shows the name of the server, the vendor, and the server state.

Column Name Description

Name

The name of the node

Alias

The alias for the node (if available)

Protocol

Whether the node is connected through HTTP or HTTPS

IP Address

The IP Address of the node

Port

The port used to connect to the node

SSL

The order number of the certificate associated with the node.

Discovered certificates that have not been assigned to an organization or department are displayed as External.
Click the value in the SSL column for any given node to view or manage the associated SSL certificate.