How to Create and Serialize a New Self-Signed Certificate

Article
05/03/2011

Applies To: System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2

In Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, you create a new self-signed certificate calling the PxeAuthClass Client COM Automation Class class IPxeAuthClass::CreateIdentity Method method.

CreateIdentity has the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
FriendlyName	The friendly name of the PXE certificate.
SubjectName	The name of the certificate subject.
SMSID	The PXE certificate identifier.
StartTime	The time when the certificate becomes valid.
EndTime	The time when the validity of the certificate ends.

CreateIdentity returns an array containing the following:

Element	Description
0	The hexadecimal-encoded private key for the PFX file that contains the certificate.
1	The hexadecimal-encoded certificate.

After you obtain the array, you can use it to submit a registration record by using the SMS_Site class SubmitRegistrationRecord method.

To serialize a certificate from a PFX file

Create an instance of the PXEAuth class.
Call the ReadIdentity method.

Example

The following example creates a new certificate. The certificate is valid for one year from today's date.

For information about calling the sample code, see How to Call Configuration Manager COM Automation Objects.

Sub CreateCertificate (subjectName, friendlyName, smsId)


    Dim pxeauth
    Set pxeauth = CreateObject("Microsoft.ConfigMgr.PXEAuth")

   ' Create new self-signed certificate and serialize it.

    Dim ident
    ident = pxeauth.CreateIdentity( subjectName, friendlyName, smsId, now, now+365)
    WScript.Echo "certificatePFX = " & ident(0)
    WScript.Echo "certificate    = " & ident(1)

End Sub

The example method has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
subjectName	Managed: String VBScript: String	The subject name of the PXE certificate.
friendlyName	Managed: String VBScript: String	The friendly name of the PXE certificate.
smsId	Managed: String VBScript: String	The PXE certificate identifier.

Compiling the Code

To use PXEAuthClass with C# you will need the following:

Namespaces

System

System.Collections.Generic

System.Text

System.Threading

TsMediaLib

Assembly

You will need to use COM interop to access the TSMediaClass object. The COM object you add a reference to is TSMedia 1.0 Type Library.

To declare in your code, using PxeAuthClassClass.

Robust Programming

For more information about error handling, see About Configuration Manager Errors.

Security

For more information about securing Configuration Manager applications, see About Securing Configuration Manager Applications.