In a data center, TCP/IP communication between the VCS cluster (application cluster) and CP server must be made secure. The security of the communication channel involves encryption, authentication, and authorization.

The CP server node or cluster needs to confirm the authenticity of the VCS cluster nodes that communicate with it as a coordination point and only accept requests from known VCS cluster nodes. Requests from unknown clients are rejected as non-authenticated. Similarly, the fencing framework in VCS cluster must confirm that authentic users are conducting fencing operations with the CP server.

The secure mode of communication between CP server and VCS cluster is HTTPS communication.

HTTPS communication: The SSL infrastructure uses the client cluster certificates and CP server certificates to ensure that communication is secure. The HTTPS mode does not use the broker mechanism to create the authentication server credentials.