Administrative Functionality
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      IPAWS COG Configuration & Certificate

      This article explains what an IPAWS COG is and how to add COGS to the system or update them (update your certificates).

      Overview

      What is a COG?

      A Collaborating Operating Group or “COG” is a term used by IPAWS to designate an organization that is responsible for emergency alerting. A COG is established with IPAWS when a Federal, State, local, or tribal alerting authority executes an MOA with FEMA in order to use IPAWS. Further information regarding this process may be found at FEMA's website.

      Types of COGs

      Demo COG - Demo COGs are used to carry out the FEMA required training and tests, as well as carrying out internal training and testing beyond the FEMA requirements.

      Live COG - A live COGs is required to send out live WEA and EAS alerts.

      Adding a COG to the System / Adding your Certificate

      Once you have received IPAWS COG information for your Live COG, Demo COG, or both, you can add these to our system following these instructions.

      1. Navigate to the Configuration page by mousing over Admin in the top menu and clicking on Configurations.
      2. From here, you can create a new configuration by clicking on the Create New button.
      3. On this page, you need to fill out relevant fields with details of your Cert Configuration supplied by the FEMA IPAWS department.
        • Name: a human-readable name that will be displayed on the message creation form.
        • IPAWS-OPEN Endpoint:
          • Choose Live if your COG ID begins with a 2.
          • Choose Demo if the COG ID begins with a 3.
        • COG ID: The six-digit number associated with your COG
        • COG Username: The name of the agency associated with your COG
        • Cert Alias: the filename of the certificate (.jks file) sent to you, minus the .jks file extension
          • An example is IPAWS120028.
        • Keystore Password and Key Password: These values are stored in a text file in the same zip file that contains the certificate above.
        • Cog Certificate: Choose the .jks file that matches the details entered above. These values must match or the certificate configuration will be invalid.
      4. Click Create when ready to save the configuration.

      Updating Configurations / Updating your Certificate

      1. Navigate to the Configuration page by mousing over Admin in the top menu and clicking on Configuration.
      2. Click on the name of the configuration which you want to update.
      3. From here you can change various details of the configuration
      4. To replace an expiring configuration with a new certificate, you can click the Upload New Certificate button and enter in details in the same manner as above on the Create New Configuration form.
      5. Additional operations can be performed:
        • View Permissions: This button will retrieve and display the current configuration of this certificate from the IPAWS servers.
        • Update Permissions: This button will retrieve, update, and display the current configuration of this certificate from the IPAWS servers.
        • Delete Configuration: This will remove this configuration entirely from the system.
      6. When ready to save any changes, click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.