JobScheduler Universal Agent - HTTPS Agent and Master Authentication

Scope

The connection to JobScheduler Universal Agent can be secured by HTTPS.
This article describes the steps required to set up secure HTTPS communication without the need of using a reverse proxy (for this use case see JobScheduler Universal Agent - connecting via HTTPS through a proxy).

Prerequisites

The only prerequisite is to have the Java Keytools installed with your Java JRE or JDK.

Certificate Management

Private keys and public certificates should be distributed as follows:

The Agent's private key and certificate are added to the Agent's keystore. In case of a self-signed certificate the certificate is added to the Master's truststore as well. This step can be skipped if a CA-signed certificate is used as the Root Certificate and Intermediate Certificate in a Master's truststore are sufficient to verify any Agent certificates.

Set up a secure connection to the Agent

In the following the placeholders SCHEDULER_HOME, SCHEDULER_DATA specify the directories where JobScheduler Master is installed and configured on the JobScheduler Master's server. The placeholders AGENT_HOME, AGENT_DATA specify the directories where JobScheduler Agent is installed and configured on the JobScheduler Agent's server.

SCHEDULER_HOME is the installation path which is specified during the JobScheduler Master installation:
- C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\jobscheduler\scheduler (default on Windows)
- /opt/sos-berlin.com/jjobscheduler/scheduler (default on Linux)
SCHEDULER_DATA is the JobScheduler Master's configuration directory which is specified during the JobScheduler Master installation:
- C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\joc (default on Windows)
- /home/<setup-user>/sos-berlin.com/joc (default on Linux)
AGENT_HOME is the installation path which is specified during the JobScheduler Agent installation:
- C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\jobscheduler\jobscheduler_agent (default on Windows)
- /opt/sos-berlin.com/jjobscheduler/jobscheduler_agent (default on Linux)
AGENT_DATA is the JobScheduler Agent's configuration directory which is specified during the JobScheduler Agent installation:
- C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\jobscheduler\jobscheduler_agent (default on Windows)
- /home/<setup-user>/sos-berlin.com/jobscheduler_agent (default on Linux)

Step 1: Create the Java Keystore

On the JobScheduler Agent server create the Java Keystore using the Keytools from your Java JRE or JKD. Alternatively import a certificate that your received from your certificate authority:

Generate the Java Keystore with the private key and public certificate for the Agent and export the certificate to a second Keystore that is later on used by the Master or use the attached script keygen.sh to perform this task. The below examples suggest one possible approach for certificate management, however, there may be other ways how to achieve similar results.

Example for use of self-signed certificate

Example for use of self-signed certificate: generate Agent private key and export Agent public certificate

# generate Agent private key with alias name "agent-https" in a keystore (private-https.p12)
#   use the fully qualified hostname (FQDN) and name of your organization for the distinguished name
keytool -genkey -alias "agent-https" -dname "CN=hostname,O=organization" -validity 1461 -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -keypass jobscheduler -keystore "AGENT_DATA/config/private/private-https.p12" -storepass jobscheduler -storetype PKCS12

# export the Agent public certificate to a file in PEM format (agent-https.crt)
keytool -exportcert -rfc -noprompt -file "agent-https.crt" -alias "agent-https" -keystore "AGENT_DATA/config/private/private-https.p12" -storepass jobscheduler -storetype PKCS12

Example for use of CA signed certificate

Example for use of CA signed certificate: export Agent private key and Agent public certificate

# should your Agent private key and certificate by provided with a .jks keystore (keypair.jks) then temporarily convert the keystore to pkcs12 (keystore.p12)
#   for later use with openssl, assuming the alias name of the Agent private key is "agent-https"
# keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore keypair.jks -destkeystore keystore.p12 -deststoretype PKCS12 -srcalias agent-https

# assuming your Agent private key from a pkcs12 keystore (keystore.p12), store the Agent private key to a .key file in PEM format (agent-https.key)
openssl pkcs12 -in keystore.p12 -nocerts -out agent-https.key

# concatenate CA root certificate and CA intermediate certificate to a single CA Bundle certificate file (ca-bundle.crt)
cat RootCACertificate.crt > ca-bundle.crt
cat CACertificate.crt >> ca-bundle.crt

# Export Agent private key (agent-https.key), Agent public certificate in PEM format (agent-https.crt) and CA Bundle in PEM format (ca-bundle.crt) to a new keystore (agent-https.p12)
#   assume the fully qualified hostname (FQDN) of the Agent server to be agent.example.com
openssl pkcs12 -export -in agent-https.crt -inkey agent-https.key -chain -CAfile ca-bundle.crt -name agent.example.com -out agent-https.p12

# should you require use of a .jks keystore type then convert the pkcs12 keystore assuming the alias name of the Agent private key to be "agent-https"
# keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore agent-https.p12 -srcstoretype PKCS12 -destkeystore agent-https.jks -deststoretype JKS -srcalias agent-https

If not otherwise configured then JobScheduler Agent and Master by default use the password jobscheduler for the respective Keystore.
if you choose an individual password for the Agent Keystore then adjust the following properties in the <agent_data>/config/private/private.conf configuration file:
- Explanations
  - jobscheduler.agent.webserver.https.keystore.file is used for the path to the Keystore
  - jobscheduler.agent.webserver.https.keystore.password is used for the Keystore password
  - jobscheduler.agent.webserver.https.keystore.key-password is used for the password of your private HTTPS certificate
- Example
  Example for private.conf file with keystore specification
```
jobscheduler.agent.webserver.https.keystore {
  file = "C:/ProgramData/sos-berlin.com/jobscheduler/agent110/config/private/private-https.jks"
  # Backslashes are written twice (as in JSON notation):
  # file = "\\\\other-computer\\share\\my-keystore.jks"
  password = "jobscheduler"
  key-password = "jobscheduler"
}
```
For the Master the Truststore that contains the Agents' public certificate is expected with the password jobscheduler.

On the JobScheduler Agent server store the Keystore with the private key in the directory <agent_data>/config/private
- Default file name: private-https.jks

On the JobScheduler Master server store the Truststore with the public certificate of the Agent in the directory <master_data>/config

Default file name: agent-https.jks



    FEATURE AVAILABILITY STARTING FROM RELEASE 1.13.3

The location, type and password of the Master Truststore can be specified:

Example for specification of Master Truststore with Agent public certificates

jobscheduler.master.agents.https.keystore {
  file = "/var/sos-berlin.com/jobscheduler/apmaccs_4444/config/agent-https.p12"
  # Backslashes are written twice (as in JSON notation):
  # file = "\\\\other-computer\\share\\my-keystore.jks"
  password = "jobscheduler"
  key-password = "jobscheduler"
}

Example for import of an Agent public certificate to a Master Truststore in pkcs12 format:

Example for import of Agent public certificate to a pkcs12 Master Truststore

# import Agent public certificate to a truststore (agent-https.p12) by specifying the Agent public certificate file (agent-https.crt) and alias name (agent-https)
keytool -importcert -noprompt -file "agent-https.crt" -alias "agent-https" -keystore "SCHEDULER_DATA/config/agent-https.p12" -storepass jobscheduler -storetype PKCS12 -trustcacerts

Example for import of an Agent public certificate to a Master Truststore in jks format (specifying the default values for location, type and password):

Example for import of Agent public certificate to a jks Master Truststore

# import Agent public certificate to a truststore (agent-https.p12) by specifying the Agent public certificate file (agent-https.crt) and alias name (agent-https)
keytool -importcert -noprompt -file "agent-https.crt" -alias "agent-https" -keystore "SCHEDULER_DATA/config/agent-https.jks" -storepass jobscheduler -trustcacerts

Step 2: Set up authentication between Master and Agent

On the JobScheduler Master server configure the Master password in a file on the Master in the <master_data>/config/private directory:
- File name: private.conf
- The file should contain the following entry that specifies a plain text password myjobscheduler4444 that is used by the Master to authenticate against Agents:
  Example for Master private.conf file with Master password specification
```
jobscheduler.master.credentials.password = "myjobscheduler4444"
```
On the JobScheduler Agent server specify the same Master password in a file in the directory <agent_data>/config/private
- File name: private.conf
- Specify the Master that will authenticate with the Agent by its JobScheduler ID and password. For example, for two Masters with JobScheduler ID scheduler_4444 and scheduler_5555 this file would look like this assuming that the Master password is myjobscheduler4444:
  Example for Agent private.conf file with specification of Master Scheduler ID and password
```
jobscheduler.agent.auth.users {
  scheduler_4444 = "plain:myjobscheduler4444"
  scheduler_5555 = "sha512:9184ddcaa87eb2f95c32f12741035c1e55cef93f7834905f926c4bc419fbc5613e2e141d39fb05d0ec7c66c9bd9e4c8b95b74598e0107f863b7f2bd942a9aea0"
}
```
- For each entry the JobScheduler ID is used as key, the value (in double quotes) includes the hash algorithm followed by a colon and the hashed password.
  - Using plain for the hash algorithm requires a plain text password to be specified. Use of plain text passwords is not recommended as they could be visible to jobs running on that Agent.
  - Using sha512 for the hash algorithm requires a password that is hashed with the respective algorithm. A number of command line utilities to create an sha512 hash from a plain text password can easily be found.

Step 3: Start the Agent for HTTPS

On the JobScheduler Agent server start the Agent with the corresponding parameters:
- Example (using port 44445 for HTTPS): <agent_data>/bin/jobscheduler_agent -https-port=44445
- The HTTP port will always be used, even if the Agent is started for communicating over HTTPS. If no HTTP port is indicated when starting the Agent, then the default port (4445) will be used. The reason for this behavior is the requirement that the Agent can be locally controlled by its start script without further need for authentication.
- HTTPS has to be indicated when starting an Agent by use of the parameter -https-port.
- The Agent requires a data directory for configuration files and temporary files The data directory has to be indicated when starting the Agent by using the parameter -data-directory.
- The above mentioned parameters can be specified as environment variables with the Agent instance script, see Installation & Operation.

Step 4: Create a Process Class assignment for Agents using HTTPS

On the JobScheduler Master server create a Process Class for a job chain or a job.
- Add the Agent URL to the process class using the HTTPS protocol.
- Assign the process class to the job chain or job.
- Example:
  Example of process class specification for use with Agents
```
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
 <process_class max_processes="30" remote_scheduler="https://my_agent:44445"/>
```

Caveat

In order to apply modifications to ./config/private/private.conf files of the Master or the Agent a restart of the respective component is required.
Modifications to a Master Truststore are applied without a restart for FEATURE AVAILABILITY STARTING FROM RELEASE 1.13.3 , see JS-1874 - Getting issue details... STATUS
For releases before FEATURE AVAILABILITY STARTING FROM RELEASE 1.10.7 the problem JS-1675 - Getting issue details... STATUS occurs. Consider to apply the workaround as specified from the issue.

Change Management References

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