Provisioning a network appliance

• US 20090138946A1
• Filed: 11/27/2007
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Schneider, James P., Riemers, Bill C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,191,122 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/33 using certificates

Abstract

A method and system for generating identity certificates. The method may include receiving a user login at a network appliance, determining that the network appliance is not initialized, and requesting and receiving a unique identifier from a service provider, where the unique identifier is used for identifying the network appliance. The method may include generating a certificate signing request (CSR) and sending the CSR with the unique identifier to the service provider. Upon receiving a signed certificate from the service provider at the network appliance, the network appliance is initialized using the received signed certificate.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving a user login having user credentials at a network appliance;

determining that the network appliance is not initialized;

logging on to a server;

receiving from the server a unique identifier at the network appliance for identifying the network appliance;

generating a certificate signing request (CSR);

sending the CSR and the user identifier to the server;

receiving a signed certificate from the server at the network appliance; and

initializing the network appliance using the received signed certificate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user credentials comprise identifying information and authenticating information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the server has compared the unique identifier sent to the network appliance with the unique identifier sent by the network appliance to determine whether to send the signed certificate to the network appliance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the network appliance is not initialized comprises evaluating whether the network appliance has a signed certificate.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the CSR has been evaluated by the server by using a location of the network appliance, the location including an IP address.

6. A computer implemented method, comprising:

determining whether a network appliance possesses a signed certificate from a service provider;

if the network appliance does not have a signed certificate, logging into the service provider using login credentials and requesting activation, and in response, receiving a unique identifier from the service provider;

generating a certificate signing request (CSR) at the network appliance that includes the received unique identifier for identifying the network appliance;

sending the CSR and the provisionally unique identifier to the service provider to determine whether the network appliance is to be activated; and

in response to receiving a signed certificate, initializing the network appliance.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the CSR is associated with user credentials of a user who has logged into the network appliance.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending a notification message to the user that the network appliance has been activated.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the signed certificate has been evaluated to determine whether the unique identifier sent in the CSR is the same as the unique identifier sent by the service provider, and in response, the signed certificate is signed.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the CSR includes time sensitive information about the network appliance, configuration information, or credential information for the network appliance.

11. A machine-accessible medium including instructions that, when executed by a first machine, cause the first machine to perform a computer implemented method comprising:

determining that the network appliance is not initialized;

requesting and receiving a unique identifier from a service provider for identifying the network appliance

generating a certificate signing request (CSR);

sending the CSR and the received unique identifier to the service provider;

receiving a signed certificate from the service provider at the network appliance; and

initializing the network appliance using the received signed certificate.

12. The machine-accessible medium of claim 11, further comprising receiving credential information of a user logged into the network appliance.

13. The machine-accessible medium of claim 11, wherein the unique identifier is encapsulated within the CSR.

14. The machine-accessible medium of claim 11, wherein the certificate signing request has been automatically generated by the network appliance upon a user logging into the network appliance and subsequently logging into the service provider.

15. The machine-accessible medium of claim 11, further including instructions that, when executed by a second machine, cause the second machine to perform a computer implemented method comprising:

comparing whether the unique identifier sent to the network appliance is the same as the unique identifier sent by the network appliance before signing the certificate.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

signing the signed certificate in response to validating credential information of a user logged in at the network appliance.

17. A computing system, comprising:

a data store to store a signed certificate of a network appliance; and

a login initializer, coupled to the data store, to receive a user login for the network appliance, to receive credentials for logging on to a service provider, to determine whether the signed certificate exists on the network appliance, and if not, requesting and receiving a unique identifier from the service provider.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

the service provider networked with the network appliance, to receive a certificate signing request (CSR) from the network appliance, the CSR including the received unique identifier, and to sign a certificate for the network appliance if the unique identifier in the CSR is derived from the unique identifier sent by the service provider.

19. The computing system of claim 17, wherein the certificate is signed if the CSR is associated with a timestamp that has not expired.

20. The computing system of claim 17, further comprising:

a client networked with the network appliance to permit a user to login to the network appliance.

21. The computing system of claim 17, wherein the unique identifier is known by the service provider before a request is received for the unique identifier.