ConfigDump Tool

ENTERPRISE

The EJBCA ConfigDump tool allows you to export and import configurations in a human-readable (YAML) format. Exporting the current state of your installation is useful for auditing purposes and comparing configuration changes made in EJBCA. The import functionality allows you to import a complete configuration, or a configuration containing, for example a set of profiles, CAs, or any other previously exported object into EJBCA.

Since the configuration dump itself is human-readable, you can edit the fields in each object (for example, change the subject DN of an end entity profile) before import.

The following sections provide a short comparison between the ConfigDump tool, and our earlier Statedump configuration management tool, followed by information about how to build and run ConfigDump, and the commands to use for export and import.

Comparison Between ConfigDump and Statedump

ConfigDump serves as a partial replacement for the Statedump configuration management tool.

Statedump allows exporting and importing full EJBCA configurations on new instances using the export format XML that is not meant to be human-readable and thus makes it poorly suited as an audit tool.

The new ConfigDump tool instead produces a human-readable YAML output, which allows you to hand-modify exports.

The following provides a high-level comparison between ConfigDump and Statedump.

Functionality	ConfigDump	Statedump
Output format	YAML	XML
Can be easily edited	Yes	No
Export	Yes	Yes
Import	Yes	Yes
Ability to add comments to output files	Yes	No

Folder Structure and Output

Each EJBCA object is exported into its own file. Objects of different types will be put in different folders.

The following displays an example of a directory structure created by ConfigDump:

Directory structure

TEXT

> tree
.
├── certification-authorities
│   ├── PrimeKey TestNet.yml
├── validators
│   ├── My CAA Validator.yml
│   ├── My RSA Key Validator.yml

The following displays an example output from ConfigDump:

Configdump output example

TEXT

'Type': 'PARTITIONED_APPROVAL'
'Name': 'Partitioned approval profile test'
'Approval expiration period': '1d'
'Request expiration period': '2d'
'Max extension time': '3d'
'Allow self-approved request editing': !!bool 'true'
'Steps':
- 'Partitions':
  - 'Title': 'Partition 1'
    'Can approve':
    - 'Super Administrator'
    - 'RA Administrator 1'
    'Can view':
    - 'Super Administrator'
    - 'CA Administrator'
    - 'RA Administrator 1'
    - 'RA Administrator 2'
    - 'Supervisor'
    'Components':
    - 'Type': 'Text field'
      'Label': 'Text test'
      'Content': 'This is a multiline string.'
    - 'Type': 'Checkbox'
      'Label': 'Checkbox test'
      'Is checked?': !!bool 'true'
    - 'Type': 'Radio group'
      'Label': 'Radio test'
      'Selected choice': 'Blue'
      'Possible choices':
      - 'Green'
      - 'Blue'
      - 'Red'
  - 'Title': 'Partition 2'
    'Can approve':
    - 'Super Administrator'
    - 'RA Administrator 2'
    'Can view':
    - 'Anybody'
    'Administrator notification':
      'Sender': 'no-reply@admin.notification'
      'Recipients':
      - 'recipient1@admin.com'
      - 'recipient2.admin.com'
      'Subject': 'Admin notification subject'
      'Body': 'Admin notification body'
    'User notification':
      'Sender': 'no-reply@user.notification'
      'Subject': 'User notification subject'
      'Body': 'User notification body'
    'Components':
    - 'Type': 'Number'
      'Label': 'Integer test'
      'Value': !!int '42'
    - 'Type': 'Big number'
      'Label': 'Long test'
      'Value': !!int '9223372036854775807'

As we can see, this YAML file corresponds to a partitioned approval profile with one step and two partitions. Partition 1 contains a text field, a checkbox and a radio group with three radio buttons. Partition 2 contains a user notification, an administrator notification, and two number fields.

Exportable Object Types

The following lists available object types that can be exported using ConfigDump:

acme-config
admin-preferences
admin-roles
approval-profiles
available-protocols
certificate-profiles
certification-authorities
cmp-config
crypto-tokens
ct-logs
custom-certificate-extensions
end-entity-profiles
est-config
extended-key-usage
internal-key-bindings
oauth-key-configuration
ocsp-configuration
peer-connectors
publishers
scep-config
services
trusted-oauth-providers
validators

Version Field

The version of the exported object is used to keep track of object compatibility. The version number is incremented when there's an incompatible change, for example if an objects field is changed in between EJBCA versions. Upon import the version of the YAML file is compared to the internal object version and a warning is given if it's incompatible.

Import and export requires /system_functionality/edit_systemconfiguration access rule permission. Import of available-protocols requires superadmin permission. For more information on permissions, see Roles and Access Rules.

Building

To build and run the ConfigDump tool from the command line, using the following build argument:

BASH

$ ant configdump

This results in a standalone JAR library deployed to dist/configdump/configdump.jar. To run it, use the following command:

BASH

$ ./dist/configdump/configdump.sh

Export

The following lists sub-commands for the export command.

To see the full manual file for the export command, run:

BASH

$ ./dist/configdump/configdump.sh export --help

The export command produces a complete YAML-based export of an EJBCA installation, meant to be human-readable. Thus, ID references for objects will be replaced with their proper names. Certificates and end entity information will not be included in this export.

Mandatory Parameters

Switch	Description
-l (may be omitted if this value is added first)	The output directory where YAML files will be written. It will be created automatically if non-existent. Provide absolute path to the directory e.g. /home/user/configdumpresult etc. Any existing dump files will be overwritten.

Optional Parameters

Switch	Description
--exclude	Names of items/types to exclude in the export, separated by a semicolon. Type and name are separated by a colon, and wildcards "" are allowed. Both are case-insensitive. E.g. --exclude ":Example CA; cryptotoken:Example; systemconfiguration:" Supported types are: ACMECONFIG, CA, CRYPTOTOKEN, PUBLISHER, APPROVALPROFILE, CERTPROFILE, EEPROFILE, SERVICE, ROLE, KEYBINDING, ENDENTITY, SYSCONFIG, ADMINPREFS, CMPCONFIG, OCSPCONFIG, PEERCONNECTOR, PEERCONFIG, SCEPCONFIG, ESTCONFIG, VALIDATOR, CTLOG, EXTENDEDKEYUSAGE, CERTEXTENSION, AVAILABLEPROTOCOLS
--ignore-errors	Print a warning instead of aborting and throwing an exception on errors.
--ignore-warnings	No warnings will be printed in the CLI output.
--include	Names of items/types to include in the export. The syntax is identical to that of --exclude. For items of types that aren't listed, everything is included.
--include-external-cas	Enables export of external CAs (i.e. CAs where there's only a certificate and nothing else).
--with-defaults	Also include fields having the default value.

An example usage of the include filter to only export CMP configuration to the directory dump would look like:

TEXT

./configdump.sh export --exclude "*:*" --include "CMPCONFIG:*" -l dump

Or exporting a specific EST Alias:

TEXT

./configdump.sh export --exclude "*:*" --include "ESTCONFIG:myAliasName*" -l dump

Export of Passwords and Secrets

Several configuration items have passwords or secrets stored, which are usually encrypted in the database. An example is the CMP RA Mode authentication secret. Secrets like these are replaced with the string placeholder during export.

When constructing configuration dump files for import, search and replace secrets set with placeholder with the values to be used for import, or edit it afterward using the EJBCA UI or the CLI.

The following shows an example output for a SCEP Alias with Intune configuration containing Azure Application API Secret and Intune EJBCA Proxy Password.

YML

Object Type: SCEP Configuration
Version: 2
Name: Intune
Operational Mode: RA
Authenticate through Microsoft Intune: 'true'
RA CA Name: IntuneCA
RA Authentication Password: placeholder
Azure Application ID: IntuneID
Azure Application API Secret: placeholder
Intune Tenant: My tennant
Intune EJBCA Proxy Password: placeholder

Import

The following lists sub-commands for the import command.

To see the full manual file for the import command, run:

BASH

$ ./dist/configdump/configdump.sh import --help

The import command reads from a YAML-based export of an EJBCA installation, or YAML files created following the same structure as an export.

Mandatory Parameters

Switch	Description
-l	The input directory to read dump YAML files from. This must point to the root directory of the YAML files. Specific sub-directories cannot be targeted.

Optional Parameters

Switch	Description
--ignore-errors	Print a warning instead of aborting and throwing an exception on errors.
--ignore-warnings	No warnings will be printed in the CLI output.
--initialize	Generate initial certificate for CAs on import. Also generate certificates for Remote Authentication or OCSP Responder key bindings key bindings when enrollment information is provided since 8.3.0.
--non-interactive	Set non-interactive mode. Mode must be one of: <continue> or <abort>
--overwrite	Don't prompt for overwrite. Mode must be one of: <update> or <skip>. When an object from the YAML file already exists in the database, this object should be skipped from import or be updated.
--resolve-reference	Don't prompt for reference problem. Mode must be one of: <default> or <skip>. When an object to be imported is referencing a missing object, this object should get a default value for the missing object or be skipped from import.
--expand-variables	Replace variable references in form ${CONFIGDUMP_VARIABLE_NAME} with values of matching environment variables. Keep CONFIGDUMP_ prefix for the variable.

Known Limitations

The following objects are available for ConfigDump export, though not yet importable in version 7.5.

admin-preferences

ConfigDump REST Interface

Import and export are supported in the EJBCA REST Interface. For more information, see EJBCA REST Interface.

To allow automation via the REST interface, superadmins can access the REST interface without enabling it beforehand. By enabling ConfigDump or other protocols, the superadmin can support further operations without access to the CLI or UI. To update the protocol and/or interface configuration, superadmins need to import the available-protocol object with overwrite parameter set to true.

Troubleshooting

If EJBCA is running as a different user than ConfigDump (which may happen whenever you log in as foo but EJBCA is running as e.g. wildfly) you may run into the following problem when exporting:

CODE

Exporting to directory: /home/foo/configdump
java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /home/foo/configdump
[....]

The solution is to create the folder manually with the proper group ownership, according to the following example:

CODE

mkdir ~/configdump
sudo chown foo:wildfly ~/configdump

ConfigDump Initialization Feature

ConfigDump import allows initilalization of certain EJBCA objects. It can be enabled by using initialize command line flag or REST query parameter. This can be especially helpful during automation. This feature is only available in CA nodes.

Initialize CA

Creates CA certificate and CRL and activates it. This allows the imported CA to generate certificates in future without any manual intervention.

Initialize Key Bindings

This allows multiple steps to be automated from a single ConfigDump import which greatly simplifies setup process of Remote Authentication or OCSP Responder key bindings. The "Enrollment Info" section of the ConfigDump must be populated for the key binding. During this EJBCA:

Generates key pairs in the designated cryptotoken (if needed)
Enrolls certificate for the key binding
Enables the key binding for remote peer connection or OCSP

These attributes must be populated:

Enrollment info: Key Binding SubjectDN
Enrollment info: Signing CA SubjectDN
Enrollment info: Certificate profile
Enrollment info: End entity profile
Enrollment info: Key spec or curve

Please see the example below for reference.

So for example, this following ConfigDump shows an example where remote authentication key binding is initialized and then used in a peer connection. It should be noted peer-connector is also imported here to demonstrate an use case. Only "internal-key-bindings" need to be imported to leverage the initialization functionality.

It should be noted, the cryptotoken refenced here i.e. peer-key1 is already created and is auto-activated. The key pair signKey002 may be created before hand or EJBCA can create it during ConfigDump.

The final result of this imported ConfigDump is an active key binding and a peer connection.

Key binding configdump

JS

{
  "peer-connectors": {
    "va-peer1": {
      "Object Type": "Peer Connector",
      "Version": 1,
      "Name": "va-peer1",
      "Peer Enabled": true,
      "URL": "https://172.17.2.47:8443/ejbca/peer/v1",
      "Long Hanging Connections Enabled": false,
      "Min Long Hanging Connections": 1,
      "Max Long Hanging Connections": 2,
      "Authentication Key Binding": "peer-key1"
    }
  },
  "internal-key-bindings": {
    "peer-key1": {
      "Object Type": "Internal Key Binding",
      "Version": 1,
      "Name": "peer-key1",
      "Type": "AuthenticationKeyBinding",
      "Status": "ACTIVE",
      "Crypto Token": "peer-token",
      "Key Pair Alias": "signKey002",
      "Next Key Pair Alias": null,
      "Signature Algorithm": "SHA256WithRSA",
      "Enrollment info: Key Binding SubjectDN": "CN=peer-key1",
      "Enrollment info: Signing CA SubjectDN": "CN=1CA2ruleThemALL",
      "Enrollment info: Certificate profile": "ENDUSER",
      "Enrollment info: End entity profile": "EMPTY",
	  "Enrollment info: Key spec or curve": "RSA2048",
      "Trusted certificates": {},
      "Signed on behalf of CAs": {},
      "Properties": {
        "Protocol and Cipher Suite": "TLSv1.2;TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256"
      }
    }
  }
}