Redfish authentication and sessions

If you perform an HTTP operation on any other resource than the root /redfish/v1/ resource, you will receive an HTTP 401 Unauthorized error indicating that you don’t have the authentication needed to access the resource.

The following example shows the error displayed on a GET /redfish/v1/Systems/ request when no authentication is attempted:

cURLResponse codeResponse body (iLO 6)Response body (Superdome Flex 280 RMC)
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curl --include --insecure     \
     --location https://{IP}/redfish/v1/Systems/
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HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
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{
  "error": {
    "code": "iLO.0.10.ExtendedInfo",
    "message": "See @Message.ExtendedInfo for more information.",
    "@Message.ExtendedInfo": [
      {
        "MessageId": "Base.1.12.NoValidSession"
      }
    ]
  }
}
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{
  "error": {
    "code": "Base.1.8.GeneralError",
    "message": "A general error has occurred. See Resolution for information on how to resolve the error.",
    "@Message.ExtendedInfo": [
      {
        "@odata.type": "#Message.v1_1_0.Message",
        "MessageId": "Base.1.8.NoValidSession",
        "Message": "There is no valid session established with the implementation.",
        "MessageArgs": [],
        "Severity": "Critical",
        "MessageSeverity": "Critical",
        "Resolution": "Establish a session before attempting any operations."
      }
    ]
  }
}
TIP

HPE implements a Two Factor Authentication OEM extension in iLO firmware.

Basic authentication

The Redfish API allows you to use HTTP Basic Authentication with a valid Management Controller user name and password. The following example retrieves the /redfish/v1/Systems/ URI using cURL (with response headers), the HPE Redfish Python library and the DMTF Redfish Python library.

Warning

The DMTF Redfish Python library and the HPE Redfish Python library cannot co-exist in the same Python environment. You should uninstall one before installing the other one.

cURLDMTF Redfish Python libraryHPE Redfish Python library
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curl --include --insecure     \
     --user username:password \
     --location https://{IP}/redfish/v1/Systems/
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# The following example uses the DMTF Redfish Python library.
#
# NOTE: The HPE Redfish Python library cannot co-exist with the
#       DMTF Redfish Python library in the same Python environment.
#       You should uninstall one before installing the other one.
#
# pip uninstall python-ilorest-library
# pip install redfish

# The sources of the DMTF Redfish Python library is on GitHub at
# https://github.com/DMTF/python-redfish-library

import json
from redfish import redfish_client

# When running remotely connect using the BMC IP address, BMC account name, 
# and password to send https requests
bmc_host = "https://{IP}"
login_account = "admin"
login_password = "password"

## Create a REDFISH object
REDFISH_OBJ = redfish_client(base_url=bmc_host,username=login_account, \
                          password=login_password)

# Login into the server and create a basic authenticated session
REDFISH_OBJ.login(auth="basic")

# Do a GET on a given path
response = REDFISH_OBJ.get("/redfish/v1/systems/")

# Print out the response
print(json.dumps(RESPONSE.dict, indent=4, sort_keys=True))

# Logout of the current session
REDFISH_OBJ.logout()
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# The following example uses the HPE Redfish Python library.

# NOTE: The HPE Redfish Python library cannot co-exist with the
#       DMTF Redfish Python library in the same Python environment.
#       You should uninstall one before installing the other one.
#
# pip uninstall redfish
# pip install python-ilorest-library

# The sources of the HPE Redfish Python library is on GitHub at
# https://github.com/HewlettPackard/python-ilorest-library

import json
from redfish import RedfishClient

# When running remotely connect using the BMC IP address, BMC account name, 
# and password to send https requests
bmc_host = "https://{IP}"
login_account = "admin"
login_password = "password"

## Create a REDFISH object
REDFISH_OBJ = RedfishClient(base_url=bmc_host,username=login_account, \
                          password=login_password)

# Login into the server and create a basic authenticated session
REDFISH_OBJ.login(auth="basic")

# Do a GET on a given path
response = REDFISH_OBJ.get("/redfish/v1/Systems/")

# Print out the response
print(json.dumps(RESPONSE.dict, indent=4, sort_keys=True))

# Logout of the current session
REDFISH_OBJ.logout()
NOTE

cURL does not need a specific logout operation to delete the session opened in the Redfish service. However, you should always make sure Python or PowerShell scripts disconnect completely from the remote Management Controller. Management Controllers have a low limit of simultaneous connections. Reaching this limit prevents other connections.

Session authentication

For complex multi-resource operations, you should log in and establish a session in the Redfish service session manager object at the documented URI /redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions. To create such a session, POST a JSON object to the session manager.

If the session is created successfully, you receive an HTTP 201 (Created) response from the Management Controller. There will be also two important HTTP response headers.

  • X-Auth-Token Your session key (token). This is a unique string for your login session. It must be included as a header in all subsequent HTTP operations during the session lifetime.
  • Location The URI of the newly created session resource. The Management Controller allocates a new session resource describing your session. This is the URI that has to be DELETEd in order to log out.
Tips

It is a good practice to save the Location URI of the newly created session as well as the X-Auth-Token. This is your unique session information and will be needed later to issue other requests and to log out. High level Redfish libraries (i.e. HPE and DMTF Python Redfish libraries) save these two properties automatically in the Redfish object respectively at REDFISH_OBJ.session_location and REDFISH_OBJ.session\_key.

The following example creates a Redfish session using cURL, the DMTF Redfish Python Library and the HPE Python Library.

Warning

The DMTF and the HPE Python Redfish libraries cannot co-exist in the same Python environment. They contain identical classes names with different methods.

Session creation with cURLSession creation with the DMTF LibrarySession creation with the HPE library
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# The following Bash command creates a Redfish session and populates
# the $TokenAndUrl array with the Session Token and the Location URL.
TokenAndUrl=$(curl --silent --location --insecure --include \
              --request POST  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
              --data '@/tmp/data.json' \
              "https://${bmc_ip}/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/" | \
              awk  '/^Location/ || /^X-Auth-Token/ {print $NF}' | \
              sort | tr '\r' ' ')

# content of the data.json data file:
cat data.json
    {
      "UserName": "<your username>", 
      "Password": "<your password>"
    }
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# The following example uses the DMTF Python Redfish library
# to create a Redfish session and prints its session key (Token)
# and session URL/URI.

# Then, the session token is used transparently by the Python Redfish 
# to retrieve the content of a specific URI.

# NOTE: The HPE Redfish Python library cannot co-exist with the
#       DMTF Redfish Python library in the same Python environment.
#       You should uninstall one before installing the other one.
#
# pip uninstall python-ilorest-library
# pip install redfish

# The sources of the DMTF Redfish Python library is on GitHub at
# https://github.com/DMTF/python-redfish-library

import re
import json
from redfish import redfish_client

# When running remotely connect using the iLO address, iLO account name, 
# and password to send https requests
bmc_host = "https://{IP-BMC}"
login_account = "admin"
login_password = "password"

# Create a REDFISH object
REDFISH_OBJ = redfish_client(base_url=bmc_host,username=login_account, \
                          password=login_password)

# Login into the server and create a session
REDFISH_OBJ.login(auth="session")

# Session key and location are accessible from the Redfish object
sessionKey = REDFISH_OBJ.get_session_key()
sessionURL = REDFISH_OBJ.get_session_location()  # DMTF returns complete session URL
sessionURI = re.sub(r"https://.*/redfish", "/redfish", sessionURL)

print('Session Key: ' + str(sessionKey))
print('Session URI: ' + str(sessionURI) + "\n" )

# New HTTP requests performed with high level Redfish libraries
# places the Session Key transparently in the request headers.
RESPONSE = REDFISH_OBJ.get(sessionURI)

# Print out the response
print(json.dumps(RESPONSE.dict, indent=4, sort_keys=True))

# Logout of the current session
REDFISH_OBJ.logout()
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# The following example uses the HPE Python Redfish library
# to create a Redfish session and prints its session key (Token)
# and session URI.

# Then, the session token is used transparently by the Python Redfish 
# to retrieve the content of a specific URI.

# NOTE: The HPE Redfish Python library cannot co-exist with the
#       DMTF Redfish Python library in the same Python environment.
#       You should uninstall one before installing the other one.
#
# pip uninstall redfish
# pip install python-ilorest-library

# The sources of the HPE Redfish Python library is on GitHub at
# https://github.com/HewlettPackard/python-ilorest-library

import json
from redfish import RedfishClient

# When running remotely connect using the iLO address, iLO account name, 
# and password to send https requests
bmc_host = "https://{IP-BMC}"
login_account = "admin"
login_password = "password"

## Create a REDFISH object
REDFISH_OBJ = RedfishClient(base_url=bmc_host,username=login_account, \
                          password=login_password)

# Login into the server and create a session
REDFISH_OBJ.login(auth="session")

# Session key and URI (not URL) are accessible from the Redfish object
sessionKey = REDFISH_OBJ.session_key
sessionURI = REDFISH_OBJ.session_location

print('Session Key: ' + str(sessionKey))
print('Session URI: ' + str(sessionURI) + "\n")

# New HTTP requests performed with high level Redfish libraries places the Session Key transparently in the request headers.
RESPONSE = REDFISH_OBJ.get(sessionURI)

# Print out the response
print(json.dumps(RESPONSE.dict, indent=4, sort_keys=True))

# Logout of the current session
REDFISH_OBJ.logout()

Examples of headers and body responses of a successful session creation using the Python scripts of the above example:

Response HeadersResponse Body (iLO 6)Response Body (Superdome Flex 280)
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Cache-Control: no-cache
Connection: keep-alive
Content-length: 163
Content-type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2016 22:23:39 GMT
ETag: W/"C84E3EA9"
Link: </redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/{item}/>; rel=self
Location: https://{IP-BMC}/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/{item}/
OData-Version: 4.0
Server: HPE-iLO-Server/1.30
X-Auth-Token: 1b6cd3e49f2ffbe54347112d7315d8fd
X-Frame-Options: sameorigin
X_HP-CHRP-Service-Version: 1.0.3
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Session Key: 1b6cd3e49f2ffbe54347112d7315d8fd
Session URI: /redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/admin0000000063bc4f87659ddce4

{
    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#Session.Session",
    "@odata.etag": "W/\"21064D3B\"",
    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/admin0000000063bc4f87659ddce4",
    "@odata.type": "#Session.v1_0_0.Session",
    "Description": "Manager User Session",
    "Id": "admin0000000063bc4f87659ddce4",
    "Name": "User Session",
    "Oem": {
        "Hpe": {
            "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#HpeiLOSession.HpeiLOSession",     
            "@odata.type": "#HpeiLOSession.v2_1_0.HpeiLOSession",
            "AccessTime": "2023-01-09T17:31:51Z",
            "LoginTime": "2023-01-09T17:31:51Z",
            "MySession": true,
            "Privileges": {
                "HostBIOSConfigPriv": true,
                "HostNICConfigPriv": true,
                "HostStorageConfigPriv": true,
                "LoginPriv": true,
                "RemoteConsolePriv": true,
                "SystemRecoveryConfigPriv": true,
                "UserConfigPriv": true,
                "VirtualMediaPriv": true,
                "VirtualPowerAndResetPriv": true,
                "iLOConfigPriv": true
            },
            "UserExpires": "2023-01-09T18:01:51Z",
            "UserIP": "192.168.249.2",
            "UserTag": "REST",
            "UserType": "Local"
        }
    },
    "UserName": "admin"
}
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{
    "@odata.etag": "\"bb8be42aa0b43c2c9c9a9499c299e3aa\"",
    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/administratorbe3ce14106fb4d02a0880b886ea9a6d5",
    "@odata.type": "#Session.v1_2_1.Session",
    "Id": "administratorbe3ce14106fb4d02a0880b886ea9a6d5",
    "Name": "User Session administratorbe3ce14106fb4d02a0880b886ea9a6d5",
    "Oem": {
        "Hpe": {
            "@odata.type": "#HpeSession.v1_0_0.HpeSession",
            "InitialRole": "Administrator"
        }
    },
    "UserName": "administrator"
}

Session management

This section explains how to manually use the session location and the session key (token) with low level Redfish clients (ex: Postman, cURL). Higher level Redfish clients (iLOrest, PowerShell Cmdlets, Python scripts using Redfish libraries) should not require such manual session management.

Using a session

To use a newly created session, simply include the X-Auth-Token header with its all Redfish requests. The left part of the following example creates a session and saves the token and the session location URL in an array. The middle part of the example includes the X-Auth-Token header and its value and retrieves the properties of the just created session location (${TokenAndUrl[1]}). The right part shows the response body of an iLO 6 Redfish service.

Session creation with cURLUsing a session Token with cURLResponse Body (iLO 6)
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# The following Bash command creates a Redfish session and populates
# the $TokenAndUrl array with the Session Token and the Location URL.
TokenAndUrl=( $(curl --silent --location --insecure --include \
              --request POST  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
              --data '@/tmp/data.json' \
              "https://${bmc_ip}/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/" | \
              awk  '/^Location/ || /^X-Auth-Token/ {print $NF}' | \
              sort | tr  '\r' ' '))

# content of the data.json data file:
cat data.json
    {
      "UserName": "admin", 
      "Password": "<admin password>"
    }
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curl --insecure \
     --header "X-Auth-Token: ${TokenAndUrl[0]}" \
     "${TokenAndUrl[1]}" | \
     jq
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{
    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#Session.Session",
    "@odata.etag": "W/\"21064D3B\"",
    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/admin0000000063bc4f87659ddce4",
    "@odata.type": "#Session.v1_0_0.Session",
    "Description": "Manager User Session",
    "Id": "admin0000000063bc4f87659ddce4",
    "Name": "User Session",
    "Oem": {
        "Hpe": {
            "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#HpeiLOSession.HpeiLOSession",     
            "@odata.type": "#HpeiLOSession.v2_1_0.HpeiLOSession",
            "AccessTime": "2023-01-09T17:31:51Z",
            "LoginTime": "2023-01-09T17:31:51Z",
            "MySession": true,
            "Privileges": {
                "HostBIOSConfigPriv": true,
                "HostNICConfigPriv": true,
                "HostStorageConfigPriv": true,
                "LoginPriv": true,
                "RemoteConsolePriv": true,
                "SystemRecoveryConfigPriv": true,
                "UserConfigPriv": true,
                "VirtualMediaPriv": true,
                "VirtualPowerAndResetPriv": true,
                "iLOConfigPriv": true
            },
            "UserExpires": "2023-01-09T18:01:51Z",
            "UserIP": "192.168.249.2",
            "UserTag": "REST",
            "UserType": "Local"
        }
    },
    "UserName": "admin"
}

Disconnect a session

Redfish services supports a limited number of simultaneous user sessions. If you do not properly log out from a session and open other sessions, you may reach this limit and will locked out until an unused session expires. To limit that risk, it is good practice to delete the current session when finished working with it.

To disconnect a session, send a DELETE request to the session location (/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/{item}). In the following example user Administrator retrieves the session collection of an iLO 6 Redfish service and disconnect the session of user student.

generic GET SessionCollectionResponse bodygeneric DELETE session request
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GET /redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/
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{
    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#SessionCollection.SessionCollection",
    "@odata.etag": "W/\"554598BA\"",
    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/",
    "@odata.type": "#SessionCollection.SessionCollection",
    "Description": "Manager User Sessions",
    "Name": "Sessions",
    "Oem": {
        "Hpe": {
            "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#HpeiLOSessionsSummary.HpeiLOSessionsSummary",
            "@odata.type": "#HpeiLOSessionsSummary.v2_0_0.HpeiLOSessionsSummary",
            "Links": {
                "MySession": {
                    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/administrator0000000063bd28ae70dd33bf/"
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "Members": [
        {
            "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/student0000000063bd2164790ee259/"
        },
        {
            "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/administrator0000000063bd28ae70dd33bf/"
        }
    ],
    "Members@odata.count": 2
}
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DELETE /redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/student0000000063bd2164790ee259/
TIP

If you failed to save your session location and need to delete your own session, the HPE iLO Redfish service implements the MySession link in the Oem/Hpe extension of the Session Collection URI (/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions). It provides as well the MySession Boolean property in the Oem extension of the session members.

You can use this information to identify your own session location and disconnect it safely using a DELETE operation.

Certificate authentication

Some Redfish services like the HPE iLO Redfish service offer the possibility to authenticate users with an X509 certificate instead of username/password credentials. The following steps are required to benefit from this HPE added value feature on iLO based servers. Hints and pointers are provided for performing them via the iLO GUI or Redfish.

  • An "iLO Advanced" license is required for this feature (iLO GUI: Administration --> Licensing )

    The following example shows the generic GET request to retrieve the detail of an HPE iLO license. It shows as well an iLOrest sequence to retrieve the iLO license type using two methods and the corresponding responses.

    TIP

    Refer to the Odata query options section to learn more about the ?only option mentioned in the following generic GET request.

    Generic GET iLO LicenseiLOrestResponse body
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    GET /redfish/v1/Managers/1/LicenseService/?only
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    ilorest login <ilo-ip> -u <ilo-user> -p password
ilorest ilolicense | grep 'License:' | sort -u
ilorest get License --select HpeiLOLicense.
ilorest logout
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    License:iLO Advanced
License=iLO Advanced

    The following example shows how to upload an HPE iLO license with a generic POST request (and associated body), an iLOrest sequence and then a cURL request.

    Generic POST license requestiLOrest license uploadcURL license upload
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    POST /redfish/v1/Managers/1/LicenseService/
BODY:
{
"LicenseKey": "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
}
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    ilorest login <ilo-ip> -u <ilo-user> -p password
ilorest ilolicense XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
ilorest logout
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    curl --insecure -u username:password  \
     --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -X POST --data '{"LicenseKey": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"}' \
     https://{iLO-IP}/redfish/v1/Managers/1/LicenseService/
  • Configure NTP Server(s) (iLO GUI: iLO [Dedicated|Shared] Network Port --> SNTP )
  • Verify the date and time is accurate (iLO GUI: Information --> iLO Overview - Main pane: iLO - iLO Date/Time )
  • If not already done, generate an SSL iLO Certificate Signing Request (CSR), have a trusted root Certificate Authority (CA) sign it and import the signed SSL certificate in iLO (iLO GUI: Security --> SSL Certificate --> Customize Certificate --> Import Certificate )
  • Enable "CAC/Smartcard Authentication" (iLO GUI: Security --> CAC/SmartCard )

    The following example shows a generic PATCH request and the corresponding iLOrest sequence to enable the "CAC/Smartcard Authentication" of an HPE iLO 6.

    generic PATCH requestiLOrest
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    PATCH /redfish/v1/Managers/1/SecurityService/CertificateAuthentication/
BODY: {"CertificateLoginEnabled": true}
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    ilorest login <ilo-ip> -u <ilo-user> -p password
ilorest select HpeCertAuth.
ilorest set CertificateLoginEnabled --commit
ilorest get CertificateLoginEnabled
ilorest logout
  • Create an iLO user (iLO GUI: Administration --> User Administration ; Click on the New button)
  • Generate a signed certificate for the user created in the previous step (generate private key and CSR. Get CSR signed by trusted root CA).

    The following example provides hints to generate a user CSR (and associated private key) and sign it with a local self-signed Certificate Authority.

    Warning

    For obvious security reasons it is not recommended to sign CSRs and produce certificates with a self-signed Certificate Authority.

    User key and CSR generation exampleSign user CSR with local CA
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    # This is a light example to generate a private key and 
# Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for user student.
u=student
openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout ${u}.key -out ${u}.csr
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    # Send the just created CSR to your favorite Certificate Authority (CA)
# and wait for the signed cerfificate to come back. Or, if you have 
# your own OpenSSL CA infrastructure,
# edit the corresponding configuration file and sign it.
u=student
vi ${u}.cnf
...

openssl ca -config ${u}.cnf \
           -policy policy_anything \
           -out ${u}.crt -in ${u}.csr
  • Map the just signed user certificate with user in iLO (GUI: Security --> Certificate Mappings --> Authorized Certificates ; select new user --> Authorize New Certificate --> Import Certificate )
    TIP

    X509 certificate files contain lines of ASCII characters separated by the LineFeed (LF) or CarriageReturn-LineFeed (CR-LF) invisible characters. Those characters are not valid in Redfish POST actions and must be translated into respectively: \n and \r\n. You can use the following commands to convert X509 files with multiple lines into a suitable JSON body.

    Stream Editor (sed)awk
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    sed -E ':a;N;$!ba;s/\r{0,1}\n/\\n/g' certfile.crt > certfile.txt

# Explanation:
# :a Creates a label
# N Joins current line and next one
# $!ba If we are not at last line, perform the following search/replace pattern
# \r{0,1} if \r is present or not
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    dos2unix certfile.crt 
awk '{printf "%s\\n", $0}' certfile.crt > certfile.txt

    The following example presents the generic POST request to map an iLO user with a signed certificate.

    generic POST requestiLOrest
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    POST: /redfish/v1/AccountService/UserCertificateMapping
BODY: 
{
    "UserName": "student",
    "Fingerprint": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIDoTCCAokCAQcwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQAwgZYxCzAJBgNVBAYTAkZSMSMwIQYD\nVQQIDBpQcm92ZW5jZS1BbHBlcy1Db3RlIGQnQXp1cjEZMBcGA1UEBwwQU29waGlh\nLUFudGlwb2xpczEMMAoGA1UECgwDSFBFMRAwDgYDVQQLDAdDb21wdXRlMScwJQYD\nVQQDDB50b3lib3guZXRjLmZyLmNvbW0uaHBlY29ycC5uZXQwHhcNMjEwOTE1MTI0\nMDAwWhcNMzEwOTEzMTI0MDAwWjCBlTELMAkGA1UEBhMCRlIxEjAQBgNVBAgMCVJl\nZ2lvblN1ZDEZMBcGA1UEB.....55Ja8g\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n\n"
}
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    ilorest rawpost MapUserCertBody.json

# with body (truncated):
cat MapUserCertBody.json
{
    "/redfish/v1/AccountService/UserCertificateMapping": {
        "UserName": "student",
        "Fingerprint": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIEUDCCAzigAwIBAgIBCjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADCBvTELMAkGA1UEBhMCRlIx\nIzAhBgNVBAgMGlByb3ZlbmNlLUFscGVzLUNvdGUgZCdBenVyMRkwFwYDVQQHDBBT\nb3BoaWEtQW50aXBvbGlzMQwwCgYDVQQKDANIUEUxEDAOBgNVBAsMB0.......jPue+aRVGAfLMwc6/6w6qEPqY4dnep0SGv\nxRp+tQ==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----"
    }
}
  • Import the trusted CA certificate used to sign the just created iLO user certificate (iLO GUI: Security --> CAC-SmartCard --> Import Trusted CA Certificates )

    The following example provides the generic POST request and the corresponding iLOrest sequence to upload a trused CA certificate used to sign the certificed iLO user created earlier.

    generic POST requestiLOrest
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    POST /redfish/v1/Managers/1/SecurityService/CertificateAuthentication/Actions/HpeCertAuth.ImportCACertificate/
BODY (truncated): {"Action": "HpeCertAuth.ImportCACertificate", "Certificate": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIDazCCAlOgAwIBAgIQMYguQIQAZI5POAgAEjlMDzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADA8\nMRMwEQYKCZImiZPyLGQBGRYDbGFiMRI wEAYKCZImiZPyLGQBGRYCbGoxET  .....l4u5\n4WuYIn7HHDxiCCQExkLV\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n"}
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    # iLOrest requires a regular X509 certificate file with LF or CR-LF line breaks
ilorest login <ilo-ip> -u <ilo-user> -p password
ilorest certificate ca certfile.crt
ilorest logout

Once the above steps have been performed, it is possible to log into the remote iLO as certified user student using iLOrest or a Python script as shown in the following example.

Certificate authentication with iLOrestCertificate authenticationResponse body
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# You can omit the --userpassphrase parameter if the --userkey file is not protected.
ilorest login ilo-hst345g11-9 --usercert student.crt --userkey student.key --userpassphrase "passphrase"
# The following command returns MySession URI to proof that user "student" is logged in.
ilorest get --json   | jq -r '.Oem.Hpe.Links.MySession'
ilorest logout
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# The following example uses the HPE Redfish Python library to connect to a 
# remote iLO as user 'student', with the user's certificate. Morever, this 
# example verifies the validity of the SSL connection.

# NOTE: The HPE Redfish Python library cannot co-exist with the
#       DMTF Redfish Python library in the same Python environment.
#       You should uninstall one before installing the other one.
#
# pip uninstall redfish
# pip install python-ilorest-library

# The sources of the HPE Redfish Python library is on GitHub at
# https://github.com/HewlettPackard/python-ilorest-library

# NOTE: The HPE Redfish Python library uses the 'urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection' constructor
# described at: https://urllib3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference/urllib3.connection.html. Refer
# to this documentation for a description of all possible **client_kwargs that can be used for establishing 
# HTTPS connections.

import sys
import json
from redfish import RedfishClient

# As we'll use the certificate authentication method,
# we just need to supply the remote iLO ip address.
bmc_host = "https://ilo-ip"
login_account = None
login_password = None

# Populate the following variables to use certificate authentication.
ca_cert_data = {}
ca_cert_data["cert_file"] = "c:\\cygwin64\\tmp\\student.crt" # user certificate file (public key) stored in the remote iLO and mapped to user 'student'.
ca_cert_data["key_file"] = "c:\\cygwin64\\tmp\\student.key"  # user certificate secret key associated to the above public key.
ca_cert_data["key_password"] = "PsswdStrong!"                # password to allow the reading of the user secret key.

# Populate the following variables if you want to verify/check the SSL/HTTPS connection between this Redfish client and the remote iLO.
# Set them to None otherwise
#cert_file=None
#key_file=None
#key_password=None
cert_file="c:\\cygwin64\\tmp\\CaCert.crt"          # Certificate Authority certificate of the Authority who signed the iLO's certificate
key_file="c:\\cygwgin64\\tmp\\CaCert.key"          # CA certificate secret key 
key_password="StrongPasswd!"                       # Password to open the above secret key

# Create a Redfish object 
REDFISHOBJ = RedfishClient(base_url=bmc_host, \
    username=login_account, password=login_password, \
    ca_cert_data=ca_cert_data, \
    cert_file=cert_file, key_file=key_file, key_password=key_password)

# Log into remote iLO
REDFISHOBJ.login(auth='certificate')

# Do a GET to proof the successful authentication
response = REDFISHOBJ.get("/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/")
MySessionURI = response.obj["Oem"]["Hpe"]["Links"]["MySession"]["@odata.id"]
MySession = REDFISHOBJ.get(MySessionURI)

# Print out the response
print(json.dumps(MySession.obj, indent=4, sort_keys=True)  + "\n")


# Logout
REDFISHOBJ.logout()
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{
    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#Session.Session",
    "@odata.etag": "W/\"CF6156B1\"",
    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/SessionService/Sessions/student0000000063ff6930bbfb59a/",
    "@odata.type": "#Session.v1_0_0.Session",
    "Description": "Manager User Session",
    "Id": "student0000000063ff6930bbfb59a",
    "Name": "User Session",
    "Oem": {
        "Hpe": {
            "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#HpeiLOSession.HpeiLOSession",
            "@odata.type": "#HpeiLOSession.v2_1_0.HpeiLOSession",
            "AccessTime": "2023-03-01T15:03:13Z",
            "LoginTime": "2023-03-01T15:03:12Z",
            "MySession": true,
            "Privileges": {
                "HostBIOSConfigPriv": false,
                "HostNICConfigPriv": false,
                "HostStorageConfigPriv": false,
                "LoginPriv": true,
                "RemoteConsolePriv": false,
                "SystemRecoveryConfigPriv": false,
                "UserConfigPriv": false,
                "VirtualMediaPriv": false,
                "VirtualPowerAndResetPriv": false,
                "iLOConfigPriv": false
            },
            "UserExpires": "2023-03-01T15:33:13Z",
            "UserIP": "192.168.149.3",
            "UserTag": "Web UI",
            "UserType": "Local"
        }
    },
    "UserName": "student"
}
NOTE

The DMTF Python Redfish library only provides basic and session authentication methods.