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SSL Certificates

You should obtain an SSL certificate for these situations:

• If you have Android, iOS, or Windows Phone 8 devices that you want to connect to Avalanche, you must have an SSL certificate. Connecting Smart devices also requires a GCM API for Android devices, and an APNS certificate for iOS devices.

• If you want to secure the connection between the Avalanche Console (a web browser) and the Avalanche web server. This step is optional. If you do not use an SSL certificate for the web server, it connects to the browser and devices using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is not encrypted.

• If you want to secure the connection between the Avalanche Remote Control server and the Remote Control viewer. This step is optional. The connection between the server and devices is automatically secured using PSK and does not require an SSL certificate.

When you use Avalanche with an SSL certificate for a secure connection, Wavelink strongly recommends that you purchase a certificate through a third-party certificate authority (such as Verisign). If you install the Avalanche web server, Smart device server, or Remote Control server on different systems, you need either a wildcard certificate or a certificate for each system where those Avalanche components are installed.

These instructions explain how to manipulate certificates using OpenSSL. Wavelink does not include OpenSSL with Avalanche. The install files can be found on the OpenSSL Web site. If you want to use a different tool, refer to the user guide for that tool for the process of creating a certificate request or self-signed certificate.

See the following sections for information on setting up SSL certificates for Avalanche:

• Creating a Certificate Request for a Certificate Authority

• Converting a Certificate

• Importing Certificates for the Smart Device Server

• Configuring Tomcat to Use an SSL Certificate

• Importing the Certificate for Avalanche Remote Control

If you choose to use self-signed certificates in order to set up a demo environment, see Creating a Self-Signed Certificate for more information about self-signed certificates. Wavelink strongly recommends using a certificate from a certificate authority for a production environment.