Certificate generation

This recipe will demonstrate how to create and sign a certificate request using plain openssl commands. This is slightly different from using the easy-rsa scripts, but very instructive.

Getting ready

Set up the easy-rsa certificate environment using the first recipe from Chapter 2, Client-server IP-only Networks, by sourcing the vars file. This recipe was performed on a computer running Fedora 12 Linux but it can easily be run on Windows or MacOS.

How to do it...

Before we can use plain openssl commands to generate and sign a request, there are a few environment variables that need to be set. These variables are not set in the vars file by default.

1. Add the missing environment variables:

          $ cd /etc/openvpn/cookbook
          $ . ./vars
          $ export KEY_CN=dummy
          $ export KEY_OU=dummy
          $ export KEY_NAME=dummy
          $ export OPENSSL_CONF=/etc/openvpn/cookbook/openssl.cnf
   

   Note that the openssl.cnf file is part of the easy-rsa distribution and should already...