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Recommended configuration procedure for manual request
Step Remarks
1. Creating a PKI entity
Required.
Create a PKI entity and configure the identity information.
A certificate is the binding of a public key and the identity information of an
entity, where the distinguished name (DN) shows the identity information
of the entity. A CA identifies a certificate applicant uniquely by an entity
DN.
The DN settings of an entity must be compliant to the CA certificate issue
policy. Otherwise, the certificate request might be rejected. You must
know the policy to determine which entity parameters are mandatory or
optional.
2. Creating a PKI domain
Required.
Create a PKI domain, setting the certificate request mode to
Manual
.
Before requesting a PKI certificate, an entity needs to be configured with
some enrollment information, which is called a PKI domain.
A PKI domain is intended only for convenience of reference by other
applications like IKE and SSL, and has only local significance.
3. Generating an RSA key
pair
Required.
Generate a local RSA key pair.
By default, no local RSA key pair exists.
Generating an RSA key pair is an important step in certificate request.
The key pair includes a public key and a private key. The private key is
kept by the user, and the public key is transferred to the CA along with
some other information.
IMPORTANT:
If a local certificate already exists, you must remove the certificate before
generating a new key pair, so as to keep the consistency between the key
pair and the local certificate.
4. Retrieving the CA
certificate
Required.
Certificate retrieval serves the following purposes:
• Locally store the certificates associated with the local security
domain for improved query efficiency and reduced query count,
• Prepare for certificate verification.
IMPORTANT:
If a local CA certificate already exists, you cannot perform the CA
certificate retrieval operation. This restriction avoids possible mismatch
between certificates and registration information resulting from relevant
changes. To retrieve the CA certificate, you must remove the CA
certificate and local certificate first.