Enable Certificate Management Automation for Citrix ADC with Sectigo

Citrix ADC’s SSL offload feature transparently improves the performance of web sites that conduct SSL transactions. Offloading CPU-intensive SSL encryption and decryption tasks from the local web server to the appliance ensures secure delivery of web applications without the performance penalty incurred when the server processes the SSL data. For end users, it results in faster web page load and more reliable access to the contents.

Configuring SSL offloading requires an SSL certificate and key pair, which must be obtained from a Certificate Authority (CA). Other SSL-related tasks include managing certificates, managing certificate revocation lists, configuring client authentication, and managing SSL actions and policies.

It’s common practice to deploy the Citrix ADC in a bank of servers in an enterprise environment. Some large organizations have a need to roll them out by the hundreds. Manually managing this volume of certificates is inefficient. You can save significant amount of time and cost by leveraging automation for this process.

This is a key reason why Citrix and Sectigo have partnered to make certificate management streamlined on Citrix ADCs. We are pleased to announce that Sectigo Certificate Manager is now Citrix Ready with the latest versions of Citrix ADC.

As a PKI vendor, Sectigo can provide and manage these certificates. In addition, Sectigo has developed a solution to fully automate their issuance, installation and renewal. The Sectigo solution enables certificate enrollment for a multitude of Citrix ADCs from a single client with a single command—an incredible improvement over the current, manual process.

Figures 1 and 2 below show the deployment scenarios.

The Sectigo automation solution leverages the standards-based protocol, Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME), along with additional custom client software, to address the end-to end-automation of certificate management. Our software will iterate through the Citrix ADCs to obtain SSL certificates from the Sectigo Cloud and install them to each instance without human intervention. The system is automatically set up to renew certificates when they near expiry. Doing so prevents outages caused by expired certificates. If you require to have 100 percent availability of your service, this solution is a must-have.

Many of our customers use the DevOps process to accelerate deployment and maintenance of their IT environment. To streamline their work, we have developed a Docker container-based solution to manage the lifecycle of certificates in Citrix ADC. The container is based on a low footprint, hardened OS to ensure security, and rapid deployment. This ready-to-go approach also reduces human error in setting the system up.

Sectigo provides user friendly, scalable automation for the Citrix ADC platform. Contact us, if you require additional information or assistance.

Sectigo Certificate Manager is listed on Citrix Ready Marketplace.