Configure Certificate Revocation List

Published April 5, 2023 | Last modified September 15, 2026

Objective

This guide provides instructions on how to configure a load balancer so that it receives a Certificate Revocation List (CRL) periodically using F5® Distributed Cloud Console (Console) guided configuration. A CRL is a file that stores digital certificates that have been revoked by an issuing authority before or on the assigned expiration date or known to be tampered with. When a client browser makes a request to a server, the server will request the digital certificate from the client browser and check it against this CRL.

Typically, the CRL file is stored on an external Certificate Authority (CA) issuing server. However, you can configure your load balancer to fetch this CRL file from an external server so that it can validate and authorize client requests. The CRL file can be updated hourly, daily or weekly, depending on the provider. You can modify the update interval during the configuration process (as demonstrated below).

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites apply:

An F5® Distributed Cloud Services Account. If you do not have an account, see how to Create an Account.
A valid DNS domain delegated to Distributed Cloud Services. For instructions on how to delegate your domain, see Domain Delegation.
A Distributed Cloud Services Customer Edge (CE) site for deploying your applications on the CE site. If you do not have a site, create a site using the instructions included in the Site Management guides. See the vK8s Deployment guide to deploy your applications on the Distributed Cloud Services network cloud or edge cloud.

Configuration

Create CRL Object

You must create the CRL object first and perform initial configuration before you attach it to a load balancer.

Step 1: Navigate to CRL object creation.

Log into Console.
Click Multi-Cloud App Connect.
Change to your application namespace.
Click Manage > Load Balancers > Certificate Revocation List.
Click Add Certificate Revocation List.

Figure: Add Certificate Revocation List

Step 2: Configure CRL object metadata.

In the Metadata section, enter a name for the object in the Name field.
Optionally, add a description and labels.

Step 3: Configure CRL server information.

In the CRL Server Address section, enter the CRL server IP address in the CRL Server address field.
From the CRL Server Port menu, use the up and down arrows to select a server port range.

Figure: Configure CRL Server

Step 4: Configure CRL server refresh interval.

In the Refresh Interval section, set the interval rate in hours to fresh the CRL server. For example, 24 is 24 hours.

Figure: CRL Server Refresh Rate

Step 5: Configure download wait time.

In the CRL Download Timeout section, select the CRL download wait time interval in seconds from the CRL download timeout drop-down menu.

Figure: Timeout Interval

Step 6: Configure CRL file access.

In the CRL Access information section, select how to download the CRL file to the server. The default option is Use HTTP to download the CRL.

Figure: Access Information

Step 7: Complete CRL object creation.

Click Save and Exit to complete creating the CRL object.

Attach CRL Object to Load Balancer

After you create the CRL object, you must attach it in your load balancer configuration to enable it.

The steps below assume you are enabling the CRL object in an existing load balancer. However, you can also enable the CRL object while creating a new load balancer.

Step 1: Navigate to your load balancer.

In Console, click Multi-Cloud App Connect > Manage > Load Balancers > HTTP Load Balancers.
For your load balancer, click ... > Manage Configuration.
Click Edit Configuration.

Step 2: Edit load balancer configuration.

In the Domains and LB Type section, enable the Show Advanced Fields option.
From the Mutual TLS menu, select Enable.
In the Trusted CA field, enter the certificate authority information, and select an encoding option with PEM or base64(binary) and paste in the trusted CA.
From the Verify client certificate with CRL menu, select CRL.
From the CRL menu, select the CRL object previously created.

Step 3: Configure custom advertisement policy.

In the Other Settings section, select Custom from the VIP Advertisement menu.
Click Configure.
Complete the configuration for the VIP advertise policy using the HTTP Load Balancer guide.

Step 4: Complete CRL configuration.

Click Save and Exit.