Introduction

• When JOC Cockpit is installed for a high security level then deployment of scheduling objects forces external signing.
  • For the low security level the private key of the root account available with the JS7 database is used for all users.
  • For the medium security level the user's individual private key available with the JS7 database is used.
  • For the high security level signing is performed outside of JOC Cockpit.
• For details see JS7 - Security Architecture.

Prerequisites

Required: User Signing Certificate

Each user with the permission to deploy has to add their X.509 signing certificate to JOC Cockpit:

Optional: Root CA Certificate

In addition, the X.509 certificate of the Root CA which signed the user's signing certificate can be added to JOC Cockpit. There is a single Root CA certificate for all user profiles.

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• Any user signing certificates have to be rolled out to the Controller and Agents. Certificates are stored in the config/private/trusted-x509-keys folder of Controller and Agent installations.
• If a Root CA certificate is present in JOC Cockpit, then it is sufficient to add the Root CA certificate to the config/private/trusted-x509-keys folder of  Controller and Agent installations.
  • No further user signing certificates have to be added to the Controller or Agents as long as the user signing certificates is created by the given Root CA.
  • This mechanism implies that any user signing certificate signed by the same Root CA certificate will be accepted.
  • Users who do not wish to use this implicit mechanism should not add the Root CA certificate to the Controller and Agents but should only add individual user signing certificates.

Deployment Process Overview

• The user has to export the desired configuration of scheduling objects with the Export operation available from the Configuration view.

• Deployment tasks include:
  

  • Exporting scheduling objects with the checkbox "for Signing" checked to an archive file (.zip).

  • Unpacking the exported archive.
    • The archive contains a meta_inf file and the configurations.
  • Signing the configuration files of scheduling objects and storing the signature - base64 encoded - in a file in the same folder.
  • Note that each signature file has to use the same name as the original configuration file of the scheduling object with an additional filename extension.
    • for RSA/ECDSA signatures use the filename extension ".pem" or ".sig" respectively.
    • for PGP signatures use the default filename extension ".asc".
  • Packing the archive once again to add the signature files and make sure that the meta_inf file is still available with the root folder of the archive.
  • Uploading the archive using the Import And Deploy button.

Example

Export

• Click Export in the context menu of the folder to export or from the button in the top right corner:
  
  
  
  
• In the Export popup window check the checkbox for Signing:
  
  
  
  
• Select the scheduling objects to deploy.

Signing

It is recommended that the signing procedure is performed on a secure device. It is essential that the signing process is performed in a secure manner outside of the server running the JOC Cockpit.

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