Update security certificates with a different CAedit
If you have to trust a new CA from your organization, or you need to generate a new CA yourself, use this new CA to sign the new node certificates and instruct your nodes to trust the new CA.
Generate a new certificate for the transport layeredit
Create a new CA certificate, or get the CA certificate of your organization, and add it to your existing CA truststore. After you finish updating your certificates for all nodes, you can remove the old CA certificate from your truststore (but not before!).
The following examples use PKCS#12 files, but the same steps apply to JKS keystores.
-
Open the
ES_PATH_CONF/elasticsearch.yml
file and check the names and locations of the keystores that are currently in use. You’ll use the same names for your new keystores.In this example, the keystore and truststore are using different files. Your configuration might use the same file for both the keystore and the truststore.
These instructions assume that the provided certificate is signed by a trusted CA and the verification mode is set to
certificate
. This setting ensures that nodes to not attempt to perform hostname verification.xpack.security.transport.ssl.keystore.path: config/elastic-certificates.p12 xpack.security.transport.ssl.keystore.type: PKCS12 xpack.security.transport.ssl.truststore.path: config/elastic-stack-ca.p12 xpack.security.transport.ssl.truststore.type: PKCS12 xpack.security.transport.ssl.verification_mode: certificate
-
On any node in your cluster, generate a new CA certificate. You only need to complete this step one time. If you’re using the CA certificate of your organization, then skip this step.
./bin/elasticsearch-certutil ca --pem
Command parameters
-
--pem
- Generates a directory containing a CA certificate and key in PEM format instead of PKCS#12.
-
Enter a name for the compressed output file that will contain your
certificate and key, or accept the default name of
elastic-stack-ca.zip
. -
Unzip the output file. The resulting directory contains a CA certificate (
ca.crt
) and a private key (ca.key
).Keep these file in a secure location as they contain the private key for your CA.
-
-
On every node in your cluster, import the new
ca.crt
certificate into your existing CA truststore. This step ensures that your cluster trusts the new CA certificate. This example uses the Javakeytool
utility to import the certificate into theelastic-stack-ca.p12
CA truststore.keytool -importcert -trustcacerts -noprompt -keystore elastic-stack-ca.p12 \ -storepass <password> -alias new-ca -file ca.crt
Command parameters
-
-keystore
- Name of the truststore that you are importing the new CA certificate into.
-
-storepass
- Password for the CA truststore.
-
-alias
- Name that you want to assign to the new CA certificate entry in the keystore.
-
-file
- Name of the new CA certificate to import.
-
-
Check that the new CA certificate was added to your truststore.
keytool -keystore config/elastic-stack-ca.p12 -list
When prompted, enter the password for the CA truststore.
The output should contain both the existing CA certificate and your new certificate. If you previously used the
elasticsearch-certutil
tool to generate your keystore, the alias of the old CA defaults toca
and the type of entry isPrivateKeyEntry
.
Generate a new certificate for each node in your clusteredit
Now that your CA truststore is updated, use your new CA certificate to sign a certificate for your nodes.
If your organization has its own CA, you’ll need to generate Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs). CSRs contain information that your CA uses to generate and sign a security certificate.
-
Using the new CA certificate and key, create a new certificate for your nodes.
./bin/elasticsearch-certutil cert --ca-cert ca/ca.crt --ca-key ca/ca.key
Command parameters
-
--ca-cert
-
Specifies the path to your new CA certificate (
ca.crt
) in PEM format. You must also specify the--ca-key
parameter. -
--ca-key
-
Specifies the path to the private key (
ca.key
) for your CA certificate. You must also specify the--ca-cert
parameter.
-
Enter a name for the output file or accept the default of
elastic-certificates.p12
. - When prompted, enter a password for your node certificate.
-
-
On the current node in your cluster where you’re updating the keystore, start a rolling restart.
Stop at the step indicating Perform any needed changes, and then proceed to the next step in this procedure.
-
Replace your existing keystore with the new keystore, ensuring that the file names match. For example,
elastic-certificates.p12
.If your keystore password is changing, then save the keystore with a new filename so that Elasticsearch doesn’t attempt to reload the file before you update the password.
-
If you needed to save the new keystore with a new filename, update the
ES_PATH_CONF/elasticsearch.yml
file to use the filename of the new keystore. For example:xpack.security.transport.ssl.keystore.path: config/elastic-certificates.p12 xpack.security.transport.ssl.keystore.type: PKCS12 xpack.security.transport.ssl.truststore.path: config/elastic-stack-ca.p12 xpack.security.transport.ssl.truststore.type: PKCS12
- Start the node where you updated the keystore.
-
(Optional) Use the SSL certificate API to verify that Elasticsearch loaded the new keystore.
GET /_ssl/certificates
-
If you’re only updating certificates for the transport layer (and not the HTTP layer), then complete step 2 through step 6 one node at a time until you’ve updated all keystores in your cluster. You can then complete the remaining steps for a rolling restart.
Otherwise, do not complete a rolling restart. Instead, proceed to the steps for generating a new certificate for the HTTP layer.
-
(Optional) After replacing keystores on each node in your cluster, list the certificates in your truststore and then remove the old CA certificate.
If you previously used the
elasticsearch-certutil
tool to generate your keystore, the alias of the old CA defaults toca
and the type of entry isPrivateKeyEntry
.keytool -delete -noprompt -alias ca -keystore config/elastic-stack-ca.p12 \ -storepass <password>
Command parameters
-
-alias
- Name of the keystore alias for the old CA certificate that you want to remove from your truststore.
-
What’s next?edit
Well done! You’ve updated the keystore for the transport layer. You can also update the keystore for the HTTP layer if necessary. If you’re not updating the keystore for the HTTP layer, then you’re all set.
Generate a new certificate for the HTTP layeredit
You can generate certificates for the HTTP layer using your new CA certificate and private key. Other components such as Kibana or any of the Elastic language clients verify this certificate when they connect to Elasticsearch.
If your organization has its own CA, you’ll need to
generate Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs). CSRs contain
information that your CA uses to generate and sign a security certificate
instead of using self-signed certificates that the elasticsearch-certutil
tool
generates.
-
On any node in your cluster where Elasticsearch is installed, run the Elasticsearch HTTP certificate tool.
./bin/elasticsearch-certutil http
This command generates a
.zip
file that contains certificates and keys to use with Elasticsearch and Kibana. Each folder contains aREADME.txt
explaining how to use these files.-
When asked if you want to generate a CSR, enter
n
. -
When asked if you want to use an existing CA, enter
y
. -
Enter the absolute path to your new CA certificate, such as the path to
the
ca.crt
file. -
Enter the absolute path to your new CA certificate private key, such as
the path to the
ca.key
file. -
Enter an expiration value for your certificate. You can enter the
validity period in years, months, or days. For example, enter
1y
for one year. -
When asked if you want to generate one certificate per node, enter
y
.Each certificate will have its own private key, and will be issued for a specific hostname or IP address.
-
When prompted, enter the name of the first node in your cluster. Use the
same node name as the value for the
node.name
parameter in theelasticsearch.yml
file. -
Enter all hostnames used to connect to your first node. These hostnames will be added as DNS names in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) field in your certificate.
List every hostname and variant used to connect to your cluster over HTTPS.
- Enter the IP addresses that clients can use to connect to your node.
- Repeat these steps for each additional node in your cluster.
-
When asked if you want to generate a CSR, enter
- After generating a certificate for each of your nodes, enter a password for your keystore when prompted.
-
Unzip the generated
elasticsearch-ssl-http.zip
file. This compressed file contains one directory for both Elasticsearch and Kibana. Within the/elasticsearch
directory is a directory for each node that you specified with its ownhttp.p12
file. For example:/node1 |_ README.txt |_ http.p12 |_ sample-elasticsearch.yml
/node2 |_ README.txt |_ http.p12 |_ sample-elasticsearch.yml
/node3 |_ README.txt |_ http.p12 |_ sample-elasticsearch.yml
-
If necessary, rename each
http.p12
file to match the name of your existing certificate for HTTP client communications. For example,node1-http.p12
. -
On the current node in your cluster where you’re updating the keystore, start a rolling restart.
Stop at the step indicating Perform any needed changes, and then proceed to the next step in this procedure.
-
Replace your existing keystore with the new keystore, ensuring that the file names match. For example,
node1-http.p12
.If your keystore password is changing, then save the keystore with a new filename so that Elasticsearch doesn’t attempt to reload the file before you update the password.
-
If you needed to save the new keystore with a new filename, update the
ES_PATH_CONF/elasticsearch.yml
file to use the filename of the new keystore. For example:xpack.security.http.ssl.enabled: true xpack.security.http.ssl.keystore.path: node1-http.p12
-
If your keystore password is changing, add the password for your private key to the secure settings in Elasticsearch.
./bin/elasticsearch-keystore add xpack.security.http.ssl.keystore.secure_password
-
Start the node where you updated the keystore.
Use the cat nodes API to confirm that the node joined the cluster:
GET _cat/nodes
-
(Optional) Use the SSL certificate API to verify that Elasticsearch loaded the new keystore.
GET /_ssl/certificates
- One node at a time, complete step 5 through step 10 until you’ve updated all keystores in your cluster.
- Complete the remaining steps for a rolling restart, beginning with the step to Reenable shard allocation.
What’s next?edit
Well done! You’ve updated the keystore for the HTTP layer. You can now update encryption between Kibana and Elasticsearch.
Update encryption between Kibana and Elasticsearchedit
When you ran the elasticsearch-certutil
tool with the http
option, it
created a /kibana
directory containing an elasticsearch-ca.pem
file. You
use this file to configure Kibana to trust the Elasticsearch CA for the HTTP
layer.
-
Copy the
elasticsearch-ca.pem
file to the Kibana configuration directory, as defined by theKBN_PATH_CONF
path.KBN_PATH_CONF
contains the path for the Kibana configuration files. If you installed Kibana using archive distributions (zip
ortar.gz
), the path defaults toKBN_HOME/config
. If you used package distributions (Debian or RPM), the path defaults to/etc/kibana
. -
If you modified the filename for the
elasticsearch-ca.pem
file, editkibana.yml
and update the configuration to specify the location of the security certificate for the HTTP layer.elasticsearch.ssl.certificateAuthorities: KBN_PATH_CONF/elasticsearch-ca.pem
- Restart Kibana.