Configuring Admin Tools to Run as HTTPS

Option 1: Using an Existing IIS PFX Certificate (RECOMMENDED)

1. Export the certificate from IIS:
   a. From your Start menu, open “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager”
   b. Click on the server name in the "Connections" pane (located left-hand side) 
   c. In the middle pane, double-click "Server Certificates" (under IIS section)
   d. Select the certificate you want to export
   e. Click "Export" in the "Actions" pane (located on the right-hand side)
   f. Follow the wizard to export the certificate as a .pfx file (Note: remember the passphrase you specified to protect the cert)
   g. Export the PFX to your GEO Jobe product’s main folder
   (Note: if you don’t have an export option you may need to re-import the certificate to IIS with the allow export option)

2. Open the command prompt and navigate to the Admin Tools 2.0 main directory and insert:

index pfx <INSERT PASSPHRASE HERE> 

(Note: This will save the passphrase as an encrypted string in the MongoDB database.)

3. In the product’s main application directory, locate the config/nodeconfig.json and make the following modifications in the JSON file:

   "useHTTPS": true,  
   "certs": {
       "certificate": "",
       "key": "",
       "pfx": "ADD PFX FILE NAME HERE" --> example: "pfxCert.pfx"
     },

(Note: If you are using an absolute path in your nodeconfig.json, be sure to use double backslashes, such as "C:\\BackupMyOrg\\Certificates\certificate.pem" or "C:\\CleanMyOrg\\Certificates\certificate.pem". Please also ensure that the name of your PFX file is added to the “pfx” property. An example is shown above.)

4. Restart your Admin Tools 2.0 service

   1. Then, load https://localhost:9181 or https://yourwebdomain:9181

  "certs": {
    "certificate": "", <-- Follow example here 
    "key": "",         <-- Follow example here 
    "pfx": "<pfx filepath>/cert.pfx"
  },

Option 2: Using a key and pem file

1. Both a certificate and key .pem file are required. (If you need to generate these, you can do so by downloading OpenSSL at: https://slproweb.com/download/Win64OpenSSL_Light-3_4_0.msi

2. Open the command prompt in Windows.

3. Run the following commands to generate your private key and public certificate:

openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout key.pem -x509 -days 365 -out certificate.pem
openssl x509 -text -noout -in certificate.pem

4. Once you have the cert and key files, copy them to your Admin Tools folder.

5. Edit the config/nodeconfig.json file and make the following modifications:

“useHTTPS”: true,
“certificate”: <name of your certificate.pem file>,
“key”: <name of your key.pem file>

4. Restart your Admin Tools 2.0 service.

   1. Then, load https://localhost:9181 or https://yourwebdomain:9181

See A "Not Secure" Warning On Your Browser?

If you have created a self-signed certificate, those will always appear as not trusted.

You will need to buy a certificate from a trusted source (such as Verisign) to have a signed certificate from an authority.

Option 3: Convert an existing IIS Certificate into a key/pem

To convert an IIS certificate to a .key and .pem format for use in Admin Tools 2.0 you can follow these steps:

1. Export the certificate from IIS:
   a. From your Start menu, open “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager”
   b. Click on the server name in the "Connections" pane (located on the left-hand side) 
   c. In the middle pane, double-click on "Server Certificates"
   d. Select the certificate you want to export
   e. Click "Export" in the "Actions" pane (located on the right-hand side)
   f. Follow the wizard to export the certificate as a .pfx file (remember the password you specified to protect the cert)
   (Note: if you don’t have an export option you may need to re-import the certificate to IIS with the allow export option)

2. Convert the .pfx file to a .pem file using OpenSSL:
   a. Install OpenSSL on your computer if it is not already installed (Windows version can be found at: https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html
   b. Copy the .pfx file to the OpenSSL /bin folder
   c. Open a command prompt or terminal window
   d. Navigate to the OpenSSL bin directory
   e. Run the following command (changing exported cert name as necessary):

openssl pkcs12 -in exportedCert.pfx -out yourcert.pem -nodes

This command will prompt you for the password you used to protect the .pfx file. Enter the password and press Enter. The command will create a .pem file in the same directory as the .pfx file.

3. Extract the private key from the .pem file using OpenSSL:
   a. Run the following command in the same directory where the .pem file is saved:

openssl rsa -in yourcert.pem -out yourkey.key

This command will extract the private key from the .pem file and save it as a separate .key file in the same directory.

4. Copy the .pem and .key to the application directory and configure config/nodeconfig.json
   a. Copy the new .pem and .key file to your application root directory
   b. Open <application directory>\config\nodeconfig.json
   c. Modify the settings as follows (changing names as necessary):

"useHTTPS": true,
  "certs": {
    "certificate": "yourcert.pem",
    "key": "yourkey.key"
  },

5. Restart the Admin Tools server, and open the browser using the HTTPS location.

Finalizing Configuration for PFX Certificate Configuration (for All Options Above)

• In web.config file, Adjusted line 33 to set https for secure connection:

// On line 33 of web.config...
<action type="Rewrite" url="https://localhost:9181/{R:1}" />

Related Articles:

📘 Configuring Backup My Org to Run as HTTPS

📘 Configuring Clean My Org to Run as HTTPS