Load balancing is essential for exposing new applications on production IP addresses and requires knowledge of the network from the network operations (NetOps) team to manage the process. Other teams must open a ticket when they need to load balance a new application. This type of dependency can lead to Shadow IT, where team members bypass NetOps completely and deploy infrastructure themselves in the cloud. This, in turn, creates security risks and non-compliance issues . What’s needed are solutions that serve all teams in ways that fit their unique goals.

HAProxy Fusion Control Plane bridges this gap. HAProxy Fusion Control Plane is a rich graphical interface for managing a fleet of HAProxy Enterprise instances.

Integration with AppViewX CERT+ Solves Certificate Management Challenges of HAProxy Fusion Control Plane

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, SSL/TLS certificates are the cornerstone of secure online communication. These certificates play a vital role in ensuring data confidentiality and trust between users and websites. However, the management of SSL/TLS certificates can be a complex and time-consuming task, particularly in environments with numerous certificates spread across various systems. To simplify and streamline this process, organizations can leverage the power of HAProxy Fusion Control Plane and AppViewX CERT+. In this blog, we will explore how you can automate the SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle management using HAProxy and AppViewX CERT+, streamlining the way certificates are managed.

SSL/TLS certificates help build digital trust by securing connections between clients and servers, encrypting data, and verifying the authenticity of websites. As these certificates have an expiration date, managing their lifecycle is critical to maintaining uninterrupted service and ensuring robust security. The SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle encompasses multiple stages – certificate issuance, renewal, installation, monitoring, and eventual retirement. Manual management of these stages can lead to errors, outages, and potential security vulnerabilities.

AppViewX CERT+ Integration with HAProxy Fusion Control Plane

• Centralized Hub: Connect to and manage HAProxy Enterprise instances using a centralized hub. Group load balancers into clusters and assign them to different teams. Control instances deployed on-premises or in the cloud.
• Self-Service: Fusion provides App developers with Load-Balancing-as-a-Service. Delegate ownership over application delivery using fine-grained, role-based access control. Versioning ensures that multiple users can make updates safely
• FirstClass API: With an API at the heart of Fusion, you can easily integrate CI/CD tools with your HAProxy Enterprise infrastructure. Leverage the same capabilities that support the user interface. Create new frontends, backends and servers programmatically while keeping the same access control safeguards.
• Security: Implement security measures consistently across your entire fleet of load balancers. The Web Application Firewall, rate limiting, and bot management features deter malicious behavior.

How AppViewX CERT+ Helps

The AppViewX platform specializes in automation and orchestration of digital identities and application infrastructure services. It is a comprehensive solution that helps organizations automate and streamline the management of digital identities at scale, configure and control application infrastructure processes, and create and enforce policies that meet internal and external compliance requirements.

• Certificate Request and Issuance: AppViewX CERT+ can initiate certificate requests through AppViewX’s APIs, automating the process of obtaining new certificates. This ensures consistency in certificate generation while minimizing manual intervention.
• Certificate Renewal: Through integration with HAProxy Fusion Control Plane, AppViewX CERT+ automates the renewal process, allowing organizations to receive timely alerts, and ensure certificates are updated before they expire – mitigating the risks of potential downtime and security weaknesses.
• Installation and Configuration: Together with HAProxy Fusion Control Plane, AppViewX CERT+ automates the installation of certificates across various servers and HAProxy endpoints. This reduces the risk of misconfiguration and ensures uniform deployment.
• Monitoring and Alerts: The certificate monitoring capabilities of AppViewX CERT+ combined with HAProxy Fusion Control Plane allows organizations to set up automated checks for certificate expiration, triggering alerts and actions if certificates are nearing their expiry date.
• Revocation and Retirement: With HAProxy Fusion Control Plane, AppViewX CERT+ can manage certificate revocation and retirement, ensuring that obsolete or compromised certificates are properly invalidated and removed from use.

What Goes on Behind the Scenes?

• The Visual Workflow (VW) is triggered on demand
• The Visual Workflow is activated through a REST API request from AppViewX CERT+ to Fusion Control Plane
• The Visual Workflow will allow the user to choose the Certificate Group
• The Visual Workflow will allow the user to choose the Fusion Cluster Group
• The REST API sends a request to Fusion Control Plane to acquire a list of the certificates that are currently in the Fusion Control Plane and need to be moved to the AppViewX environment.
• Condition 1:
  • “Conduct a comparison between the existing certificate inventory within Fusion Control Plane and integrate the valid certificates.”
• Condition 2:
  • “Utilize the API and incorporate the missing valid certificates to Fusion Control Plane.”
• The API request will fetch the following information:
  • Certificate Common Name
  • Serial Number
  • CA (Ex:Microsoft/Digicert)
  • Expiry Date
  • CSRReqID
  • SSL Certificate type (Server/client)
  • Group Name
  • caSettingsName
  • Requested Date Time
  • CSR Details
• A common credential will be stored in the AppViewX CERT+ credential list
• AppViewX CERT+ will manage the device (Fusion Control Plane) using credentials stored in the AppViewX CERT+ vault.
• After successfully receiving the request, AppViewX CERT+ will incorporate the requested certificates into its Fusion Control Plane in accordance with the specified conditions.
• On successful completion/failure of the certificates retrieval, the predefined Email ID (irrespective of the team) will be notified.

If you would like to learn more about how you can start automating certificate lifecycle management of HAProxy Fusion Control Plane with AppViewX CERT+, talk to one of our AppViewX experts today for a quick demo.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blogs Archive - AppViewX authored by Ramachandiran Thangaraj. Read the original post at: https://www.appviewx.com/blogs/appviewx-provides-certificate-lifecycle-management-for-haproxy-fusion-control-plane/