Introduction
The security of API communication is fundamental to ensuring data integrity and privacy protection. Certificate management is a crucial component of securing API communications. Traditional certificate management methods often face numerous challenges, such as complex configuration processes and unclear connections between services and certificates. These issues not only increase the workload for operations and maintenance personnel but can also lead to security risks due to management oversights.
To address these challenges, API7 Enterprise has introduced a new feature: SNI (Server Name Indication) Resource Management. This feature presents the connections between services and certificates in a visual manner, significantly simplifying the certificate management process and improving operational efficiency.
SNI Resource Management Overview
The SNI in API7 Enterprise is a key entity that represents the many-to-many mapping relationship between service hostnames and certificates. This flexible mapping mechanism allows a single certificate object to be shared by multiple services via SNI, maximizing the utilization of certificate resources and avoiding redundant certificate configurations and management, thereby greatly improving resource efficiency.
Feature Advantages
Visual Interface: The SNI Resource Management feature in API7 Enterprise is equipped with an intuitive and powerful visual interface. Through this interface, operations and maintenance personnel can clearly see the connections between certificates, SNI, and services. A quick glance allows them to quickly understand the usage status of each certificate.
Enhanced Certificate Lifecycle Management: This feature supports the full lifecycle management of certificates, including creation, viewing, updating, and deletion. The system automatically monitors the validity period of certificates and reminds users to renew them before expiration, preventing service interruptions caused by expired certificates.
Multi-Certificate Management: It supports the management of multiple certificates and allows flexible configuration based on different services and environments. Operations and maintenance personnel can assign appropriate certificates to each service or environment according to specific needs, achieving precise security control.
Certificate Encryption Management: Considering the sensitivity of certificate information, API7 Enterprise provides robust certificate encryption management capabilities. It supports storing sensitive certificate information through AWS Secret Manager and HashiCorp Vault, offering a more secure and reliable certificate management solution for enterprises.
Step-by-Setp Guidance
1. Prepare and Upload Certificates
API7 Enterprise will detect and show alerts for expired certificates, as well as all the SNI associated with the certificates.
2. Associate Certificates with Domains
When creating SNI resources, associate the certificates based on the domain. The CN of the certificate must match the domain of the SNI.
3. Configure Hosts for Services
The service matches the domain in the SNI via hosts and uses the associated certificate configured in the SNI. The service does not directly associate with the certificate.
4. View Certificate Usage
You can view the connections and usage between the certificate, SNI, and service in the usage details.
Summary
The introduction of the SNI Resource Management feature in API7 Enterprise marks an important step in the field of API gateway certificate management. It greatly simplifies the complexity of certificate management, reduces the difficulty and workload for operations and maintenance personnel, and significantly improves operational efficiency. In practical applications, this feature effectively prevents security risks and service interruptions caused by improper certificate management, providing robust security for the stable operation of API communications.
Looking ahead, as enterprises continue to deepen their digital transformation, the application scenarios for APIs will become increasingly widespread, and the requirements for API communication security will also rise. API7 Enterprise will continue to focus on technological innovation and functional optimization, continuously improving the SNI Resource Management feature to enhance its usability, security, and reliability.
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