Netscape NETSCAPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 4.5, Installation And Setup Manual

Page: 494 / 866

Renewing Certificates for the Subsystems
494 Netscape Certificate Management System Installation and Setup Guide • October 2001
• To configure the server to use this certificate for authenticating to one of the
clients, see “Configuring the Server to Use Separate SSL Server Certificates” on
page 478.
• To configure the Certificate Manager to use this certificate for authenticating to
the publishing directory, see “Step 5. Identify the Publishing Directory” on
page 656.
• If you’re using the Certificate Manager as a master CA, add the new SSL server
certificate to the certificate databases of cloned Certificate Managers.
Renewing Certificates for the Subsystems
All certificates used by Certificate Management System have a validity period
beyond which they are not usable, unless the validity period is extended. For
Certificate Management System to function properly, you must renew the
certificates used by the Certificate Manager, Registration Manager, Data Recovery
Manager, or Online Certificate Status Manager before they expire. For example, if
you generated these certificates during CMS installation with a validity period of
two years, at the end of which they will all expire; you must consider renewing
them well in advance, maybe two months in advance.
When you renew a certificate, you get a new certificate with the same subject name
and public and private key material as that of the existing certificate, but with an
extended validity period.
The sections that follow explain how to renew certificates for the Certificate
Manager, Registration Manager, Data Recovery Manager, and Online Certificate
Status Manager using the Certificate Setup Wizard. Alternatively, you use the
command-line utility called the Certificate Database Tool, which is explained in CMS
Command-Line Tools Guide.
Renewing an existing certificate involves the following:
• Step 1. Plan for Certificate Renewal
• Step 2. Renew the Existing Certificate
• Step 3. Install the Renewed Certificate
• Step 4. Deploy the Renewed Certificate
• Step 5. Restart the Server