Use an HSM cluster - Key Management Service - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Cloud Hardware Security Module provides the hardware security module (HSM) cluster feature. You can use the feature to associate and manage HSMs that reside in different zones in the same region and are used by the same service in a centralized manner. The feature provides high availability, load balancing, and scale-out capabilities on cryptographic operations for applications. This topic describes how to use an HSM cluster.

Note

If you want to create a hardware security module (HSM) cluster for Key Management Service (KMS) instances of the hardware key management type, see Configure an HSM cluster for a KMS instance of the hardware key management type.

Scenarios

Applications can access the same key by using whichever HSM within an cluster.
Applications operate in the production environment and depend on Cloud Hardware Security Module to deliver continuous services.

Usage notes

An HSM cluster includes one master HSM and multiple non-master HSMs. In a cluster, HSMs that reside in the same zone use the same VPC subnet.

Prerequisites

An HSM is purchased and enabled. For more information, see Purchase and enable an HSM.
Warning
- To ensure the data security of HSMs, we recommend that you do not use test keys in production environments.
- You need to enable the master HSM. You do not need to enable non-master HSMs.
An ECS instance that runs a CentOS 8 or an Alibaba Cloud Linux operating system is purchased. The ECS instance and the HSM reside in the same VPC. For more information, see Get started with Linux instances.
Note
The ECS instance is used to install the HSM management tool, not to serve as a business server.

Create and activate the HSM cluster

Log on to the Cloud Hardware Security Module console. In the top navigation bar, select the required region.
On the Instances page, find an HSM that you want to use as the master HSM and click Create Cluster in the Actions column.

In the Create and Activate Cluster panel, complete the Create Cluster step and click Next.

Parameter	Description
Cluster Name	The name of the cluster. The name must be unique and cannot exceed 24 characters in length.
Configure Whitelist	The range of the IP addresses that are allowed to access the cluster. If you do not configure a whitelist, all IP addresses are allowed to access the cluster. If you configure a whitelist, only the IP addresses in the whitelist are allowed to access the cluster. IP addresses and CIDR blocks are supported. You can specify one IP address or one CIDR block in each row. You can specify up to 10 rows in total. Important The whitelist of a cluster has a higher priority than the whitelist of an HSM in the cluster. For example, if you add 10.10.10.10 to the whitelist of an HSM and add 172.16.0.1 to the whitelist of the cluster that includes the HSM, you can access the HSM only from 172.16.0.1. The whitelist configuration of 0.0.0.0/0 is not supported. If you enter 0.0.0.0/0, requests from all IP addresses are allowed. For security reasons, we recommend that you do not allow requests from all IP addresses. If you need to allow requests from all IP addresses, do not configure the whitelist.
Specify vSwitches	The vSwitches that you need to select based on your business requirements. In an HSM cluster, you must configure at least two vSwitches to create and activate the cluster.

In the Create and Activate Cluster panel, complete the Activate Cluster step and click Next.

Import a cluster certificate.
1. In the Upload Cluster Certificate section, click Cluster CSR Certificate to download a certificate signing request (CSR) file. Then, upload the CSR file to the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance. In this example, the CSR file is named cluster.csr.
2. Create a private key and configure a password for the private key as prompted. In this example, the private key and the password are saved in the issuerCA.key file.
```
openssl genrsa -aes256 -out issuerCA.key 2048
```
3. Create a self-signed certificate. In this example, the self-signed certificate is saved in the issuerCA.crt file.
```
openssl req -new -x509 -days 3652 -key issuerCA.key -out issuerCA.crt
```
4. Sign the CSR and save the issued certificate in the cluster.crt file.
  Note
  In this step, the cluster.csr, issuerCA.key, and issuerCA.crt files are used.
```
openssl x509 -req -in cluster.csr -days 3652 -CA issuerCA.crt -CAkey issuerCA.key -set_serial 01 -out cluster.crt
```
5. Go to the Activate Cluster step in the Cloud Hardware Security Module console, import the cluster certificate, and then click Submit.
  - In the Enter the issuer certificate in the PEM format section, enter the content of the issuerCA.crt file.
  - In the Enter the issued cluster certificate in the PEM format section, enter the content of the cluster.crt file.

Initialize the master HSM.

Important

You can initialize the master HSM only by using the HSM management tool. You can install the HSM management tool only in Linux operating systems.

Step	Description
Step 1: Download the HSM management tool.	CentOS Method 1: Click here to download the HSM management tool. Method 2: Run the following command to download the HSM management tool. This operation requires the ECS instance to be connected to the Internet. `wget -O hsm-client-v2.03.15.10-1.x86_64.rpm 'https://yundun-hsm4.oss-ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com/hsm-client-v2.03.15.10-1.x86_64.rpm'` Method 3: On the Instances page, find the master HSM and click the icon in the Specifications column. Method 4: On the Activate Cluster page, click Download HSM Management Tool. Debian Visit hsm-client-2.03.15.10-20240710_1.x86_64.deb to download the HSM management tool.
Step 2: Install the HSM management tool.	Run the following command to install the program and client configuration file in the /opt/hsm directory: CentOS `sudo yum install -y hsm-client-v2.03.15.10-1.x86_64.rpm` Debian `sudo dpkg -i hsm-client-2.03.15.10-20240710_1.x86_64.deb`
Step 3: Modify the client configuration file.	Modify the configuration items in servers in the /opt/hsm/etc/hsm_mgmt_tool.cfg file. Replace name and hostname with the private IP address of the master HSM on the Instances page. Replace owner_cert_path with the path to the issuerCA.crt file. Example of the hsm_mgmt_tool.cfg file { "servers": [ { "name" : "172.16.XX.XX", "hostname" : "172.16.XX.XX", "port" : 2225, "certificate": "/opt/hsm/etc/client.crt", "pkey": "/opt/hsm/etc/client.key", "CAfile": "", "CApath": "/opt/hsm/etc/certs", "ssl_ciphers": "", "server_ssl" : "yes", "enable" : "yes", "owner_cert_path":"<issuerCA.crt file path>" }], "scard": { "enable": "no", "port": 2225, "ssl": "no", "ssl_ciphers": "", "certificate": "cert-sc", "pkey": "pkey-sc" } }
Step 4: Log on to the master HSM and query a list of users.	Run the following command to log on to the master HSM: `/opt/hsm/bin/hsm_mgmt_tool /opt/hsm/etc/hsm_mgmt_tool.cfg` Run the `listUsers` command to query users. `cloudmgmt>listUsers Users on server 0(172.16.XX.XX): Number of users found:2 User Id User Type User Name MofnPubKey LoginFailureCnt 2FA 1 PRECO admin NO 0 NO 2 AU app_user NO 0 NO`
Step 5: Change a precrypto officer (PRECO) to a crypto officer (CO).	Run the `loginHSM` command to log on to the master HSM as a PRECO. `server0>loginHSM PRECO admin password loginHSM success` Run the `changePswd` command to change the password of the PRECO. After you change the password, the PRECO changes to a CO. cloudmgmt>changePswd PRECO admin <NewPassword> ***********************CAUTION**************************** This is a CRITICAL operation, should be done on all nodes in the cluster. Cav server does NOT synchronize these changes with the nodes on which this operation is not executed or failed, please ensure this operation is executed on all nodes in the cluster. ************************************************************** Do you want to continue(y/n)?y Changing password for admin(PRECO) on 1 nodes Run the `listUsers` command to query users and check whether the PRECO changes to a CO. `cloudmgmt>listUsers Users on server 0(172.16.XX.XX): Number of users found:2 User Id User Type User Name MofnPubKey LoginFailureCnt 2FA 1 CO admin NO 0 NO 2 AU app_user NO 0 NO`
Step 6: Create a crypto user (CU).	Warning Before you add non-master HSMs to a cluster, you must create a CU. Otherwise, the CU information cannot be synchronized to the non-master HSMs. Run the `createUser` command to create a CU. The username and password of a CU can contain ASCII characters. The username can be up to 20 characters in length. The password can be 8 to 32 characters in length. In this example, the username is `crypto_user`. You can specify the username based on your business requirements. If you configure an HSM cluster for an instance of the hardware key management type, you can specify `kmsuser` as the username. `createUser CU crypto_user <enter password>` Run the `listUsers` command to check whether the CU is created. Expected output: `cloudmgmt>listUsers Users on server 0(172.16.XX.XX): Number of users found:3 User Id User Type User Name MofnPubKey LoginFailureCnt 2FA 1 CO admin NO 0 NO 2 AU app_user NO 0 NO 3 CU crypto_user NO 0 NO`
Step 7: Check the status of the master HSM.	In the Activate Cluster step, click the icon to refresh the status of the master HSM. Then, click Next.

In the Add HSM step, add non-master HSMs to the cluster as prompted and click Complete.
You can purchase more HSMs and add them to the cluster based on your business requirements.

Use the HSM cluster

To use an HSM cluster, you can use OpenSSL Dynamic Engine, the JCE provider, or the PKCS#11 library. For more information, see OpenSSL Dynamic Engine, JCE provider, or Install the PKCS #11 library.

Manage an HSM cluster

Scale out an HSM cluster

You can add HSMs in different zones to the same cluster and manage the HSMs in a centralized manner. This helps ensure the high availability of Cloud Hardware Security Module. HSMs can be added to a cluster only when the following requirements are met:

HSMs are not initialized.
HSMs are in the Enabled or New state.
HSMs are of the same type as the master HSM of the cluster.
No vSwitches are configured for HSMs, or the HSMs use the same vSwitch as the master HSM.

Important

If a whitelist is configured for an HSM and the HSM is added to a cluster, the whitelist of the cluster takes effect. The whitelist of the HSM is cleared.

On the Instances page, find the master HSM of the cluster that you want to scale out and click Expand Cluster in the Actions column.
Add HSMs to the cluster based on your business requirements.
- If no HSMs are available, click Purchase an HSM instance in the Add HSM dialog box to purchase HSMs.
  The purchased HSMs are automatically added to the cluster. Cloud Hardware Security Module automatically assigns IP addresses to the HSMs and synchronizes data in the cluster.
- If HSMs are available, perform the following operations: In the Add HSM dialog box, select the HSMs that you want to add, click the icon, and then click OK.

Change the name of a cluster and modify the whitelist of a cluster

On the Instances page, find the master HSM of the cluster that you want to manage and click the HSM ID.
In the Details panel, change the name and modify the whitelist of the cluster.
When you modify the whitelist, you can enter IP addresses and CIDR blocks. You can specify one IP address or one CIDR block in each row. You can specify up to 10 rows.

Remove a non-master HSM from a cluster

You can remove only a non-master HSM from a cluster. You cannot remove the master HSM from a cluster.

Disable the non-master HSM. Before you can remove a non-master HSM from a cluster, you must disable the non-master HSM.
1. On the Instances page, find the non-master HSM that you want to disable and click Disable in the Actions column.
2. In the message that appears, click Disable.
Remove the non-master HSM from the cluster.
1. Find the non-master HSM and click Remove from Cluster in the Actions column.
2. In the message that appears, click Remove from Cluster.

Promote a non-master HSM to the master HSM

You can promote a non-master HSM to the master HSM.

On the Instances page, find the non-master HSM that you want to promote to the master HSM and click Switch to Master in the Actions column.
In the message that appears, click Switch.