How to Serialize a Certificate from a PFX File

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 serialize a certificate from a PFX file by calling the PxeAuthClass Client COM Automation Class IPxeAuthClass::ReadIdentity Method method.

ReadIdentity has the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
FileName	The path and filename of the PFX file.
FilePassword	The PFX file password.
SMSID	The PXE certificate identifier.

ReadIdentity returns an array containing the following:

Element	Description
0	The hexadecimal-encoded private key for the PFX file containing 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 PxeAuthClass Client COM Automation Class class.
Call the ReadIdentity method.

Example

The following example reads a certificate from a file identified by fileName.

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

Sub SerializeCertFromPFX (fileName, password, smsID)


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

   
    ' Serialize certificate from PFX file.
    

    Dim ident

    ident= pxeauth.ReadIdentity( fileName, password, smsID)
    WScript.Echo "certificatePFX = " & ident(0)
    WScript.Echo "certificate    = " & ident(1)

End Sub

The example method has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
fileName	VBScript: String	The name and path for the PFX file. For example, \\SERVERNAME\c$\SelfSigned.pfx.
password	VBScript: String	The PFX file password.
smsID	VBScript: String	The PXE certificate identifier.

Compiling the Code

Platforms

Windows Server 2003

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.