Securing Interprocess Communication

Discover 12.1.8 and above supports the use of a new SSL certificate based mechanism for securing all inter-process communication between the Discover servers. This is important in a distributed environment with multiple servers, as the components of Discover communicate with each other over the network, using a variety of ports.

Note: The terms "SSL" and "TLS" are used interchangeably, even though the standard used is always TLS 1.2.
Prior to version 12.1.8 some of these communication channels were already secure, but the changes made in 12.1.8 introduces one overaching mechanism to secure all inter-process communication, superceeding previous ad-hoc security measures.
Implemeting this new mechanism is referred to below as "Enabling TLS" and involves the following steps:
  • Generating an SSL certificate pair
  • Copying this certificate pair to all Discover servers
  • Importing the certificate pair
  • Enabling TLS (telling Discover to use the new certificate pair)
  • Restarting Discover services
Note:
  • Enabling TLS is optional. If you do not enable TLS, Discover will continute to operate using the legacy inter-process communication mechanisms of ealier versions.
  • This section does not cover securing the pipeline through which captured session data flows within Discover. This data can also be secured using the same certificate pair generated for securing interprocess communication. For more information, see Securing the Pipeline.