Certificates and Keys Question while Installing

General Discussions
1

As an absolute beginner, I am following the documentation while installing the open source mender server. One of the instructions include:
“CERT_API_CN=mender.example.com CERT_STORAGE_CN=s3.example.com …/keygen”.
Once I run this command with the proper DNS, I get the error:
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘api-gateway’: File exists
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘storage-proxy’: File exists
There are Nginx files inside these directories, so I’m confused here, what should I do?

2

Are you in the production directory when you try running this scripts? Because you should not have any nginx files inside these directories as they are at the top.

Did a test run and I see no problems,

integration/production ((HEAD detached at 2.0.0))
$ CERT_API_CN=mender.example.com CERT_STORAGE_CN=s3.example.com ../keygen
Generating an EC private key
writing new private key to 'private.key'
-----
Generating an EC private key
writing new private key to 'private.key'
-----
.........................................................++++
..............................++++
writing RSA key
......................................................................................++++
...................................................................++++
writing RSA key
All Mender Server keys and certificates have been generated in directory /home/mirzak/project/northern.tech/src/integration/production/keys-generated.
Please include them in your docker compose and device builds.
For more information please see https://docs.mender.io/Administration/Certificates-and-keys.
3

Thank you so much for the response. Turns out I was not on production directory like you said. If you don’ mind me asking, this setup also requires me to have a DNS for the Mender API Gateway. I’m kind of confused about this, what exactly should I provide for that part? Sorry if this is a sidetrack but any response will be appreciated!

4

The Mender API gateway is the primary access point for all Mender clients. In the setup above this is the mender.example.com entry. The certificate validation requires a domain name and not an IP address, thus the DNS requirement.