Enabling SSL using OpenSSL

Securing client/server and server-server communications with OpenSSL

Note: Version 30.0.0 onwards, Open SSL 1.1 is deprecated.

The main steps in securing client/server and server-server communications with SSL are:

  1. Install OpenSSL on the server computer.
  2. Obtain and install the SSL certificate and keys.
  3. Enable and configure SSL in the server administration application (IBM® SPSS® Deployment Manager).
    Note: IBM SPSS Statistics Server supports the TLSv1 protocol. SSLv3 has proven to have a security vulnerability and should not be used.
  4. If using encryption certificates with a strength greater than 2048 bits, install unlimited strength encryption on the client computers.
  5. If using a self-signed certificate, copy the certificate on the client computer.
  6. Instruct users to enable SSL when connecting to the server.
Note: Occasionally a server product acts as a client. An example is IBM SPSS Statistics Server connecting to the IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services Repository. In this case, IBM SPSS Statistics Server is the client.