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Requesting Certificates with CertReq

The CertReq application can be used to submit certificate requests to Microsoft Certificate Server from an input file containing a raw request. CertReq takes a PKCS #10 format certificate request and submits it to the server. The request is processed by the Certificate Server and an X.509 certificate is written to the specified output file.

To run CertReq, click on Start, Programs, Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, and Microsoft Certificate Server. Then click on the "Process Certificate Request File" shortcut.

Alternatively, CertReq can be run by starting a Command Prompt window or clicking on Start and Run in the Microsoft Windows NT® Taskbar and entering the command.

CertReq will display dialog boxes for selecting the appropriate certificate input and output file names. CertReq also can be run using parameters for the file names as follows:

CertReq [-config ConfigString] [RequestFile Certfile]

where the command option is:

-config ConfigString Causes the request to be processed using the Certificate Authority (CA) identified in the configuration string specified by ConfigString. Without this option, the default CA will process the request.

and the parameters are:

RequestFile Base64-encoded PKCS10 input file containing the raw request. CertReq will prompt the user for the input file name if it is not provided in the command line.
CertFile Base64-encoded X.509 certificate output file name. CertFile must be used when RequestFile is specified.
CertChainFile Optional parameter specifying a Base64-encoded PKCS7 output file that will contain the CA certificate and the issued certificate.

For a complete set of CertReq command options and parameters see CertReq.


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