Avocent SPC420 manual Server certificates, Security alerts

Chapter 5: DSView 3 Servers 61

The selected port must be available on the DSView 3 server. If DSView 3 software clients are located on an external connection, the specified port must be open on the firewall.

4.Click Save. A confirmation dialog box will appear.

A web browser error message will appear when Save is clicked. This error message is a normal occurrence. To reestablish connection to the DSView 3 software, you must reconnect to the hub server by typing the URL with the new port number. For example, if you changed the port number to 334 for a hub server with an IP address of 10.0.0.1, type https://10.0.0.1:334/ dsview to access the DSView 3 management software.

5.Confirm or cancel the change.

Server certificates

DSView 3 software administrators manage server certificates. See Certificates on page 46 for a description of certificate types and procedures to manage certificate policy and the system trust store.

Security alerts

The DSView 3 software uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to securely communicate between the DSView 3 software hub server and DSView 3 software clients. SSL provides secure authentication using certificates, which is data that identifies the PC with which communication will occur. A certificate is typically verified by another certificate from a trusted certificate authority.

When the DSView 3 software is initially installed, it generates a self-signed certificate for use with DSView 3 software clients. To replace this, a DSView 3 software administrator may create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to submit to a trusted third party Certificate Authority (CA) for signature. The administrator may then replace the generated certificate with the new one. If the generated certificate is not replaced, the web browser will prompt a user whether to trust the generated certificate when a DSView 3 software client session is started.

Three tests are performed on a certificate each time a DSView 3 software client connects to the DSView 3 software hub server:

•Does the client web browser trust the certificate issuer?

•Has the certificate expired?

•Does the name on the DSView 3 server certificate match the name the DSView 3 software client used to access the DSView 3 server?

A Security Alert dialog box will appear if the answer to any of the three questions is No. To prevent the Security Alert message box from appearing when you connect to a the DSView 3 software hub server, all three questions must be answered Yes. When a Security Alert dialog box appears, you have the following choices:

•If you click Yes, a connection will be made with the DSView 3 software hub server and the DSView 3 software login window will appear, but the Security Alert dialog box will continue to appear each time you connect to the hub server.

•If you click No, a connection will not be made with the DSView 3 software hub server.