# Octavia Certificate Configuration Guide

This document is intended for Octavia administrators setting up certificate authorities for the two-way TLS authentication used in Octavia for command and control of Amphora.

This guide does not apply to the configuration of TERMINATED_TLS listeners on load balancers. See the Load Balancing Cookbook for instructions on creating TERMINATED_TLS listeners.

## Two-way TLS Authentication in Octavia

The Octavia controller processes communicate with the Amphora over a TLS connection much like an HTTPS connection to a website. However, Octavia validates that both sides are trusted by doing a two-way TLS authentication.

Note

This is a simplification of the full TLS handshake process. See the TLS 1.3 RFC 8446 for the full handshake.

### Phase One

When a controller process, such as the Octavia worker process, connects to an Amphora, the Amphora will present its server certificate to the controller. The controller will then validate it against the server Certificate Authority (CA) certificate stored on the controller. If the presented certificate is validated against the server CA certificate, the connection goes into phase two of the two-way TLS authentication.

### Phase Two

Once phase one is complete, the controller will present its client certificate to the Amphora. The Amphora will then validate the certificate against the client CA certificate stored inside the Amphora. If this certificate is successfully validated, the rest of the TLS handshake will continue to establish the secure communication channel between the controller and the Amphora.

### Certificate Lifecycles

The server certificates are uniquely generated for each amphora by the controller using the server certificate authority certificates and keys. These server certificates are automatically rotated by the Octavia housekeeping controller process as they near expiration.

The client certificates are used for the Octavia controller processes. These are managed by the operator and due to their use on the control plane of the cloud, typically have a long lifetime.

See the Operator Maintenance Guide for more information about the certificate lifecycles.

## Creating the Certificate Authorities

As discussed above, this configuration uses two certificate authorities; one for the server certificates, and one for the client certificates.

Note

Technically Octavia can be run using just one certificate authority by using it to issue certificates for both roles. However, this weakens the security as a server certificate from an amphora could be used to impersonate a controller. We recommend you use two certificate authorities for all deployments outside of testing.

For this document we are going to setup simple OpenSSL based certificate authorities. However, any standards compliant certificate authority software can be used to create the required certificates.

1. Create a working directory for the certificate authorities. Make sure to set the proper permissions on this directory such that others cannot access the private keys, random bits, etc. being generated here.

       $ mkdir certs
       $ chmod 700 certs
       $ cd certs

2. Create the OpenSSL configuration file. This can be shared between the two certificate authorities.

       $ vi openssl.cnf

       # OpenSSL root CA configuration file.

       [ ca ]
       # `man ca`
       default_ca = CA_default

       [ CA_default ]
       # Directory and file locations.
       dir               = ./
       certs             = $dir/certs
       crl_dir           = $dir/crl
       new_certs_dir     = $dir/newcerts
       database          = $dir/index.txt
       serial            = $dir/serial
       RANDFILE          = $dir/private/.rand

       # The root key and root certificate.
       private_key       = $dir/private/ca.key.pem
       certificate       = $dir/certs/ca.cert.pem

       # For certificate revocation lists.
       crlnumber         = $dir/crlnumber
       crl               = $dir/crl/ca.crl.pem
       crl_extensions    = crl_ext
       default_crl_days  = 30

       # SHA-1 is deprecated, so use SHA-2 instead.
       default_md        = sha256

       name_opt          = ca_default
       cert_opt          = ca_default
       default_days      = 3650
       preserve          = no
       policy            = policy_strict

       [ policy_strict ]
       # The root CA should only sign intermediate certificates that match.
       # See the POLICY FORMAT section of `man ca`.
       countryName             = match
       stateOrProvinceName     = match
       organizationName        = match
       organizationalUnitName  = optional
       commonName              = supplied
       emailAddress            = optional

       [ req ]
       # Options for the `req` tool (`man req`).
       default_bits        = 2048
       distinguished_name  = req_distinguished_name
       string_mask         = utf8only

       # SHA-1 is deprecated, so use SHA-2 instead.
       default_md          = sha256

       # Extension to add when the -x509 option is used.
       x509_extensions     = v3_ca

       [ req_distinguished_name ]
       # See <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_signing_request>.
       countryName                     = Country Name (2 letter code)
       stateOrProvinceName             = State or Province Name
       localityName                    = Locality Name
       0.organizationName              = Organization Name
       organizationalUnitName          = Organizational Unit Name
       commonName                      = Common Name
       emailAddress                    = Email Address

       # Optionally, specify some defaults.
       countryName_default             = US
       stateOrProvinceName_default     = Oregon
       localityName_default            =
       0.organizationName_default      = OpenStack
       organizationalUnitName_default  = Octavia
       emailAddress_default            =
       commonName_default              = example.org

       [ v3_ca ]
       # Extensions for a typical CA (`man x509v3_config`).
       subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
       authorityKeyIdentifier = keyid:always,issuer
       basicConstraints = critical, CA:true
       keyUsage = critical, digitalSignature, cRLSign, keyCertSign

       [ usr_cert ]
       # Extensions for client certificates (`man x509v3_config`).
       basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
       nsCertType = client, email
       nsComment = "OpenSSL Generated Client Certificate"
       subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
       authorityKeyIdentifier = keyid,issuer
       keyUsage = critical, nonRepudiation, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
       extendedKeyUsage = clientAuth, emailProtection

       [ server_cert ]
       # Extensions for server certificates (`man x509v3_config`).
       basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
       nsCertType = server
       nsComment = "OpenSSL Generated Server Certificate"
       subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
       authorityKeyIdentifier = keyid,issuer:always
       keyUsage = critical, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
       extendedKeyUsage = serverAuth

       [ crl_ext ]
       # Extension for CRLs (`man x509v3_config`).
       authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid:always

3. Make any locally required configuration changes to the openssl.cnf. Some settings to consider are:

   - The default certificate lifetime is 10 years.

   - The default bit length is 2048.

4. Make directories for the two certificate authorities.

       $ mkdir client_ca
       $ mkdir server_ca

5. Starting with the server certificate authority, prepare the CA.

       $ cd server_ca
       $ mkdir certs crl newcerts private
       $ chmod 700 private
       $ touch index.txt
       $ echo 1000 > serial

6. Create the server CA key.

   - You will need to specify a passphrase to protect the key file.

       $ openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -out private/ca.key.pem -aes-128-cbc -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:4096
       $ chmod 400 private/ca.key.pem

7. Create the server CA certificate.

   - You will need to specify the passphrase used in step 6.

   - You will also be asked to provide details for the certificate. These are up to you and should be appropriate for your organization.

   - You may want to mention this is the server CA in the common name field.

   - Since this is the CA certificate, you might want to give it a very long lifetime, such as twenty years shown in this example command.

       $ openssl req -config ../openssl.cnf -key private/ca.key.pem -new -x509 -days 7300 -sha256 -extensions v3_ca -out certs/ca.cert.pem

8. Moving to the client certificate authority, prepare the CA.

       $ cd ../client_ca
       $ mkdir certs crl csr newcerts private
       $ chmod 700 private
       $ touch index.txt
       $ echo 1000 > serial

9. Create the client CA key.

   - You will need to specify a passphrase to protect the key file.

       $ openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -out private/ca.key.pem -aes-128-cbc -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:4096
       $ chmod 400 private/ca.key.pem

10. Create the client CA certificate.

    - You will need to specify the passphrase used in step 9.

    - You will also be asked to provide details for the certificate. These are up to you and should be appropriate for your organization.

    - You may want to mention this is the client CA in the common name field.

    - Since this is the CA certificate, you might want to give it a very long lifetime, such as twenty years shown in this example command.

        $ openssl req -config ../openssl.cnf -key private/ca.key.pem -new -x509 -days 7300 -sha256 -extensions v3_ca -out certs/ca.cert.pem

11. Create a key for the client certificate to use.

    - You can create one certificate and key to be used by all of the controllers or you can create a unique certificate and key for each controller.

    - You will need to specify a passphrase to protect the key file.

        $ openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -out private/client.key.pem -aes-128-cbc -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048

12. Create the certificate request for the client certificate used on the controllers.

    - You will need to specify the passphrase used in step 11.

    - You will also be asked to provide details for the certificate. These are up to you and should be appropriate for your organization.

    - You must fill in the common name field.

    - You may want to mention this is the client certificate in the common name field, or the individual controller information.

        $ openssl req -config ../openssl.cnf -new -sha256 -key private/client.key.pem -out csr/client.csr.pem

13. Sign the client certificate request.

    - You will need to specify the CA passphrase used in step 9.

    - Since this certificate is used on the control plane, you might want to give it a very long lifetime, such as twenty years shown in this example command.

        $ openssl ca -config ../openssl.cnf -extensions usr_cert -days 7300 -notext -md sha256 -in csr/client.csr.pem -out certs/client.cert.pem

14. Create a concatenated client certificate and key file.

    - You will need to specify the CA passphrase used in step 11.

        $ openssl rsa -in private/client.key.pem -out private/client.cert-and-key.pem
        $ cat certs/client.cert.pem >> private/client.cert-and-key.pem

## Configuring Octavia

In this section we will configure Octavia to use the certificates and keys created during the Creating the Certificate Authorities section.

1. Copy the required files over to your Octavia controllers.

   - Only the Octavia worker, health manager, and housekeeping processes will need access to these files.

   - The first command should return you to the “certs” directory created in step 1 of the Creating the Certificate Authorities section.

   - These commands assume you are running the octavia processes under the “octavia” user.

   - Note, some of these steps should be run with “sudo” and are indicated by the “#” prefix.

       $ cd ..
       # mkdir /etc/octavia/certs
       # chmod 700 /etc/octavia/certs
       # cp server_ca/private/ca.key.pem /etc/octavia/certs/server_ca.key.pem
       # chmod 700 /etc/octavia/certs/server_ca.key.pem
       # cp server_ca/certs/ca.cert.pem /etc/octavia/certs/server_ca.cert.pem
       # cp client_ca/certs/ca.cert.pem /etc/octavia/certs/client_ca.cert.pem
       # cp client_ca/private/client.cert-and-key.pem /etc/octavia/certs/client.cert-and-key.pem
       # chmod 700 /etc/octavia/certs/client.cert-and-key.pem
       # chown -R octavia.octavia /etc/octavia/certs

2. Configure the [certificates] section of the octavia.conf file.

   - Only the Octavia worker, health manager, and housekeeping processes will need these settings.

   - The “<server CA passphrase>” should be replaced with the passphrase that was used in step 6 of the Creating the Certificate Authorities section.

       [certificates]
       cert_generator = local_cert_generator
       ca_certificate = /etc/octavia/certs/server_ca.cert.pem
       ca_private_key = /etc/octavia/certs/server_ca.key.pem
       ca_private_key_passphrase = <server CA key passphrase>

3. Configure the [controller_worker] section of the octavia.conf file.

   - Only the Octavia worker, health manager, and housekeeping processes will need these settings.

       [controller_worker]
       client_ca = /etc/octavia/certs/client_ca.cert.pem

4. Configure the [haproxy_amphora] section of the octavia.conf file.

   - Only the Octavia worker, health manager, and housekeeping processes will need these settings.

       [haproxy_amphora]
       client_cert = /etc/octavia/certs/client.cert-and-key.pem
       server_ca = /etc/octavia/certs/server_ca.cert.pem

5. Start the controller processes.

       # systemctl start octavia-worker
       # systemctl start octavia-healthmanager
       # systemctl start octavia-housekeeping

this page last updated: 2026-03-10 18:02:42

Except where otherwise noted, this document is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. See all OpenStack Legal Documents.

found an error? report a bug