DLm: ENCRYPTED certificates cannot be loaded when using DLMDR

Summary: Certificate failure when starting DLMDR with installed ENCRYPTED certificates.

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Symptoms



If an ENCRYPTED certificate was installed and SSL enabled on the DLm Console DR tab, the next config load shows this WARNING in the apply log:     
Start configuration operation at Thu Apr 16 10:49:01 2020
Install common settings at Thu Apr 16 10:49:03 2020
WARNING skip DLm DR service configuration update, SSL settings are not valid
REASON: private key file /opt/dlm_drd/certs/dlmaut-privkey.pem does not exist
 

This message is found in the /var/log/dlmtools/dlmdrlog:     
2020-04-16T10:52:05.338241-04:00 vte1 /opt/dlm_drd/dlm_drd_con.pl[85355]: DLmDRDTools:I: Info : Successfully read configuration file /opt/dlm_drd/config/config.cfg
2020-04-16T10:52:05.338801-04:00 vte1 /opt/dlm_drd/dlm_drd_con.pl[85355]: DLmDRDTools:I: Info : DLm PMAX-1 is found as a registered system in DLm property file
2020-04-16T10:52:05.338881-04:00 vte1 /opt/dlm_drd/dlm_drd_con.pl[85355]: DLmDRDTools:I: Info : DLm PMAX-2 is not found as a registered system in DLm property file
2020-04-16T10:52:05.338952-04:00 vte1 /opt/dlm_drd/dlm_drd_con.pl[85355]: DLmDRDTools:I: Info : Launching DLm TCP Server...
2020-04-16T10:52:05.339363-04:00 vte1 /opt/dlm_drd/dlm_drd_con.pl[85355]: DLmDRDTools:I: Info : NON-SSL Server initialized!
2020-04-16T10:52:05.339438-04:00 vte1 /opt/dlm_drd/dlm_drd_con.pl[85355]: DLmDRDTools:I: Info : SERVER waiting for client connection on port 9050

Cause

DLm  does NOT permit ENCRYPTED Certificates.

Resolution

When doing a  cat  on the private key certificate and the starting and ending lines show the private key to be ENCRYPTED:    
 
cat dlm8500.privkey.pem

-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
-----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----

Then the certificate must be converted to remove the encryption and password challenge. 

Run:     
openssl rsa -in dlm8500.privkey.pem -out dlm8500.deckey.pem

The resulting private key should have starting and ending lines:     

cat dlm8500.deckey.pem

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Proceed with the SSL Key installation as detailed using the decrypted private key.

Documentation is missing the handling of ENCRYPTED certificates when using DLMDR. 

Both of the below documents will be updated in later releases with this information. 
  • Installation Guide for DLm8500 with PowerMax in Chapter-17 Installing DLMDR SSL Certificates 
  • DLMDRD Software for DLm8500 with PowerMax Service Guide 302-005-782 in Chapter-6 DLMDRD SSL Certificates Installation.

Affected Products

Disk Library for mainframe DLm8500

Products

Disk Library for mainframe, Disk Library for mainframe DLm8500
Article Properties
Article Number: 000081911
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 03 Mar 2026
Version:  3
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