Which signed certificate is less administration in environments with many servers, such as CCE?

Using a Certificate Authority (CA) establishes a centralized trust anchor for the entire environment. In a multi-server deployment like Cisco Contact Center Enterprise (CCE), each server and component is configured to trust the single root certificate of the CA. The CA then issues individual certificates for each server. This model is significantly less administration-intensive because it eliminates the need to manually install every server's unique certificate into the trust store of every other communicating component. This centralized trust approach is scalable and simplifies certificate lifecycle management (issuance, renewal, revocation) across the many servers.

A. Self-signed: This requires manually distributing and trusting each individual server's certificate on all other servers, creating a complex and unmanageable web of trust that is highly administration-intensive.

C. 3rd party signed: This is a specific type of CA-signed certificate. While it also reduces administration, the term "Certificate Authority (CA)" is the broader, more fundamental concept that includes both private and public CAs, making it the most precise answer for the underlying principle.

D. Security Authority (SA): This is not a standard industry term for an entity that issues and manages digital certificates. The correct term is Certificate Authority (CA).

1. Cisco Unified CCE Security Guide

Release 12.6(1)

Chapter: Certificates

Section: Certificate Types.

The guide states

"In a production deployment

we recommend that you use CA-signed certificates. The administration of self-signed certificates on all the components that communicate with each other can be cumbersome. In a deployment with CA-signed certificates

you only need to install the Root CA certificate on all the components." This directly confirms that CA-signed certificates are preferred for reducing administrative effort.

2. Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Design Guide

Release 12.5

Chapter: Security

Section: Certificates.

This guide reinforces the best practice: "For a production system

it is a security best practice to use certificates that are signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). Using a CA-signed certificate simplifies the configuration of trust between the various CCE components." This highlights the simplification of configuration

which is synonymous with less administration.