Scenario: Enhancing system SSL performance

 

In this scenario, a company orders and installs 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator is a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) card. This card is specially designed to accelerate the very compute intensive processing required when establishing a SSL/TLS session. The scenario specifies the steps this company makes to get the card configured to enhance the SSL performance of its system running the i5/OS operating system.

 

Situation:

A company's system handles thousands of secured Internet transactions per day. The company's transactions utilize the Secure Sockets layer and Transport Layer Security protocols (SSL and TLS) – a common method for securing Internet transactions. This company's system administrator, Sue, wants to free up system resources for additional application processing, including the ability to support even more SSL transactions. Sue is looking for a solution that fits these objectives:

• A sizeable increase in the available system resources for application processing, including additional SSL transactions

• Minimal installation and configuration effort

• Minimal resource management requirements

Based on these objectives, Sue orders and installs an IBM^® 2058 e-Business Cryptographic Accelerator. (hereafter referred to as a 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator). The 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator is a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) card, which is specially designed to accelerate the very compute intensive processing required when establishing a SSL/TLS session. You can obtain the IBM 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator by ordering hardware feature code 4805.

 

Details:

1. The system has a 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator installed and configured.

2. The system receives a high number of SSL transaction requests from the network.

3. The 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator performs the cryptographic processing in the initiation of SSL transactions, and caches the private keys that are associated with the digital certificates for SSL transactions.

Prerequisites and assumptions:

This scenario assumes that Sue has planned for the installation of the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator, and then configured the card properly. This scenario also assumes that Sue has already set up a digital certificate for SSL.

 

Configuration steps:

Sue completes the following steps to enhance the SSL performance of her company's system:

1. Order Hardware Feature code 4805, which provides the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator.

2. Install the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator.

3. Create a device description for the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator, and vary-on the device.

 

Parent topic:

2058 Cryptographic Accelerator

Related concepts
Features Planning for the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator Planning for the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator

Related tasks
Configuring the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator Configuring the 2058 Cryptographic Accelerator