Installing security certificates for the ACL Connector for Analytics Exchange

The ACL Connector for Analytics Exchange supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption on the connections between client machines and AX Server. If SSL is enabled, the connector uses OpenSSL to encrypt all data moving across the network connections between client machines and the server.

To configure SSL using certificates, you must generate a set of SSL certificates on the server machine. You can generate one of the following certificate types for the SSL connection:

  • Self-signed certificate
  • Certificate Authority (CA) certificate

Before you begin

Download and install OpenSSL and then add the path to the openssl.exe executable to your PATH environment variable.

Note

Like many open source software projects, the OpenSSL project does not distribute any code in binary form. Instead you must download the project source code and build the binary or locate a binary that is distributed for your operating system from a third-party source.

For more information, see the OpenSSL documentation.

Generating an SSL certificate for self-signing

Use OpenSSL to generate a key file and certificate file on the server machine. Self-signed certificates are useful during development or testing, when you do not need to purchase a commercial certificate.

Generating an SSL certificate with a Certificate Authority (CA)

Like self-signed certificates, Certificate Authority (CA) certificates ensure no third-party can easily access the connection. However, CA certificates provide additional trust because an independent, trustworthy certificate authority validates the server's authenticity.

Distributing the SSL certificates

Once you generate a self-signed or CA certificate, you have a full set of SSL certificates that you can distribute:

  • the CA-cert.pem file required by any client to connect to the ACL Connector for Analytics Exchange over SSL using a Certificate Authority certificate
  • the Server Key file (server-key.pem) and the Server Certificate file (server-cert.pem) required when you run the ACL Connector for Analytics Exchange installer on AX Server if you want to enable SSL
Analytics Exchange 14.1 Client Help