| # Generating Certs to Secure gRPC | |
| GoAlert can use x509 certificates to serve as authorization for sysapi access. | |
| ## Using GoAlert's Built-In Tools | |
| The GoAlert binary has built-in sub-commands to simplify generating required certifications for secure gRPC communication. | |
| It is broken into three steps: | |
| 1. Generate CA files for creating & verifying future certificates | |
| 2. Generate 1 or more server certificates to give to GoAlert | |
| 3. Generate 1 or more client certificates to give to plugins | |
| If setting up GoAlert for the first time, you can generate all files at once with `goalert gen-cert all`. | |
| ### 1. Generating CA Files | |
| Run `goalert gen-cert ca` to generate the CA files: | |
| - `system.ca.pem` | |
| - `system.ca.key` | |
| - `plugin.ca.pem` | |
| - `plugin.ca.key` | |
| Keep these files secure (esp. the `.key` files), as they are only used to generate the deployment cert files. | |
| ### 2. Generating the Server Certificates | |
| Run `goalert gen-cert server` to generate the server files: | |
| - `goalert-server.ca.pem` (gets passed to `--sysapi-ca-file`) | |
| - `goalert-server.pem` (gets passed to `--sysapi-cert-file`) | |
| - `goalert-server.key` (gets passed to `--sysapi-key-file`) | |
| These files should be deployed/provided to GoAlert itself. | |
| ### 3. Generating the Plugin Certificates | |
| Run `goalert gen-cert client` to generate the client files: | |
| - `goalert-client.ca.pem` | |
| - `goalert-client.pem` | |
| - `goalert-client.key` | |
| These files should be deployed/provided to the plugin/services that need access to the GoAlert SystemAPI. | |