Configuring a PKI Domain
Before requesting a PKI certificate, an entity needs to be configured with some enrollment information,
which is referred to as a PKI domain. A PKI domain is intended only for convenience of reference by
other applications like SSL, and has only local significance.
A PKI domain is defined by these parameters:
z
Trusted CA
An entity requests a certificate from a trusted CA.
z
Entity
A certificate applicant uses an entity to provide its identity information to a CA.
z
RA
Generally, an independent RA is in charge of certificate request management. It receives the
registration request from an entity, checks its qualification, and determines whether to ask the CA to
sign a digital certificate. The RA only checks the application qualification of an entity; it does not issue
any certificate. Sometimes, the registration management function is provided by the CA, in which case
no independent RA is required. You are recommended to deploy an independent RA.
z
URL of the registration server
An entity sends a certificate request to the registration server through Simple Certification Enrollment
Protocol (SCEP), a dedicated protocol for an entity to communicate with a CA.
z
Polling interval and count
After an applicant makes a certificate request, the CA may need a long period of time if it verifies the
certificate request manually. During this period, the applicant needs to query the status of the request
periodically to get the certificate as soon as possible after the certificate is signed. You can configure the
polling interval and count to query the request status.
z
IP address of the LDAP server
An LDAP server is usually deployed to store certificates and CRLs. If this is the case, you need to
configure the IP address of the LDAP server.
z
Fingerprint for root certificate verification
Upon receiving the root certificate of the CA, an entity needs to verify the fingerprint of the root
certificate, namely, the hash value of the root certificate content. This hash value is unique to every
certificate. If the fingerprint of the root certificate does not match the one configured for the PKI domain,
the entity will reject the root certificate.
Follow these steps to configure a PKI domain:
To do…
Use the command…
Remarks
Enter system view
system-view
—
Create a PKI domain and enter
its view
pki domain domain-name
Required
No PKI domain exists by
default.
Specify the trusted CA
ca
identifier name
Required
No trusted CA is specified by
default.
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