Operations

The following sections cover information on how to use the appliance and provide instructions for configuring the appliance using WebConf as well as other step-by-step instructions.

Basic Hardware Operations

Covers information on the different Audible Feedback (only applicable for Hardware Version 2) status sounds of the appliance, provides an introduction to Smart Card Handling and information on using smart cards and as well as example installation instructions, and includes information about the Battery Adapter used to buffer the internal HSM battery and extend its lifetime, for example when a Hardware Appliance is operated as offline (root) CA.

WebConf

WebConf is the web-based user interface for managing the base functionality of the Hardware Appliance. For more information on the WebConf functions, see WebConf - Configurator of Hardware Appliance.

Certificates and Trusted CAs

For information on certificates and Trusted CAs and step-by-step instructions, see Certificates and Trusted CAs.

Maintenance

For information about the Hardware Appliance different maintenance states, and reasons and effects, see Maintenance.

Setting up a Validation Authority

View step-by-step instructions for Setting up a Validation Authority (VA) either using OCSP connecting via the Peer Connector or using the CRL Downloader service.

Availability and Clustering

For the Hardware Appliance, availability and clustering are closely connected. Only with clusters of three or more nodes High Availability (HA) can be reached, a state in which the service keeps running with full data integrity for the applications on the Hardware Appliance that uses the internal SQL database. For more information on availability and clustering, see Availability and Clustering.

PKCS#11 Slot Smart Card Activation

The keys required by the Hardware Appliance and your infrastructure are organized in so-called slots, commonly used with the cryptographic API PKCS#11. For an introduction to PKCS#11 Slot Smart Card Activation and information on installation and configuration, see PKCS#11 Slot Smart Card Activation.