Starting version 1.9.8.2.4-1 (April 2019 build) your DMS can be configured to be accessible only via the https protocol (secure http). In this case, all communication between client computers and the DMS will be secured by encryption.

You can use encryption certificates that are issued by a suitable certificate issuer (eg. https://www.thawte.de, https://www.geotrust.com, https://letsencrypt.org, etc.), or you can use self signed certificates. Note that self signed certificates are generally considered less secure and may require to be trusted by the browsers used to access the DMS server. Please find a short guide how to create a self signed certificate here.

Setup DMS

In order to configure your DMS to use secured communication, the following steps must be followed:

  1. Create a directory that will hold the certificate- and key-files ('<certificateName>.cer' and '<certificateName>.key'). For example you can run

    mkdir /storage/nginx/
  2. Obtain a certificate- and key-file from one a certificate issuer or create a self signed certificate- and key-file and move them to the directory that was just created.
  3. Update your deploy scripts (Auto-deploy script section "Script Updates").
  4. git pull the most recent version of your client specific configuration - this is crucial so the the deploy using the new mechanism works correct.
  5. Edit the dms.conf file in the client specific git repository in the section 'HTTPS parameters'; uncomment and supplement the relevant settings. In addition, make sure the NUXEO_URL in this file does not specify a port number.
  6. Run the deploy command for all containers.

Other required setup

  1. If you access CaseBrowser directly through a web browser, such as Google Chrome, make sure that your URLs for accessing CaseBrowser do not include and ports, ie. the URL for casebrowser must be https://<dms-server>/casebrowser/ and the URL for accessing the nuxeo console must be https://<dms-server>/nuxeo/
  2. The address defined in Patricia Maintenance to access the DMS must be modified in the same manner. See Patricia Maintenance and Nuxeo Configuration, section "Configure DMS Links in Patricia Maintenance" bearing the modification outlined under item 1. in mind.
  3. Similarly, the address defined in the client side registry keys for the DocIntegrate Outlook communication to the server need to be modified for https access as per item 1. (DocIntegrateOutlook, section "Installing the registry settings on a client system")
  4. In Patricia Maintenance, Basic Configuration value 315 must not specify a port but only the server address.
  5. Make sure all client computers have DocIntegrate 2.0.9 or newer installed and running.
  6. In the PAT_DMS_SETTINGS table of the Patricia db, set https.enabled=TRUE (if this key is not present, add it) and restart the DMS.

Client side setup when self signed certificates are used

When self signed certificates are used, these certificates will require to be expressly trusted by the client computers. This step is not necessary when certificates are used that are issued by a certificate issuer. 

In order to make InternetExplorer and other windows services trust self signed certificates, please follow the steps described here.

Preparing a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) from your eDMS-server with OpenSSL


When you create a Certificate that you want to have signed by a CA (a commercial one or the one of your corporation) you can generate your csr inside the eDMS Virtual Machine.

in Order to make your cert also compatible with Google Chrome (the browser) you need to prepare a configuration file (here named SAN_CERT.conf) that holds the Additional Names for your certificate. These subjectAltName entries are the Internet Standard (RFC 822) that all browsers comply to, Google Chrome being the only at the Moment completely ignoring the Older Naming Schemes.

An Example is here

you need to edit this file and for all entries in <angle brackets> you have to enter your own data.

then copy this file to /storage/nginx

and execute

openssl req -new -sha256 -out patricia-edms.csr -config SAN_CERT.conf -keyout patricia-edms.key

where the filenames for patricia-edms.* can be replaced by your own choice.

The same goes for -sha256 you can replace it with a hash algorithm of your choice


What this Open SSL Call generates is a key file and a csr file. Send the csr file to your CA for signing. Do NOT send the key file. Indeed make sure the key file is secured since it is the Basis of your whole https Setup.

You should receive in return a certificate, which you should place in the same folder.