Introduction

This article will describe how you can configure and use an EJBCA to issue a certificate to a credential managed by vSEC:CMS.

In this article we will show you:

• How to setup a connection to EJBCA;
• Configure a template to issue a certificate to a managed credential;
• Issue a credential;
• Renew the certificate using the vSEC self service client.

Configure EJBCA Connection

From Options - Connections - Certificate Authorities click Add. Enter a template name and from the drop-down list select EJBCA. In the EJBCA Server URL enter the connection URL to your CA.

It is required to have a client certificate that is needed to authenticate to the CA. You should have one already installed in the local user certificate store. It is important that you install this to the Windows user certificate store for the service account that vSEC:CMS service is running under. Select this certificate from the HTTPS Client Certificate drop-down field and click Get instances.

Select the appropriate options from Certificate Authorities and End Entity Profile. Click the Templates button and Show all  and Update to see all available certificate templates. Click Ok to close.

Click the Request fields button. Depending on how your certificate templates are configured and need to be used you may have different requirements here. In this example we will use several fields that we want vSEC:CMS to provide the data for. Click the Fields button. From the left window we will add parameters from the Available list to the right Selected columnand click Ok.

It will be necessary to assign values/variables that will be used to populate values to these fields and used when generating the certificate request (CSR). For example, to add/edit what needs to be configured click the whitespace (as circled below) to open a configuration dialog for the field you want to configure.

In this example we will use a variable ${CommonName} that is mapped to AD attribute cn for the user that we are issuing the credential to (see the article Using Variables for details on how to use variables in vSEC:CMS). You can also add static values using the Use free text option. Click Ok to save the configuration.

It is recommended to enable Proxy through server checkbox which will mean that all client certificate requests will be proxied through the server.

Configure Credential Template

The next step is to configure an actual credential template where the certificate that is to be issued to the credential token will be set.

1. From Templates - Card Templates click the Add button.

Click the Edit link beside General. Enter a template name. Presuming that you are using one of the minidriver credentials that is supported by vSEC:CMS select Minidriver (Generic minidriver card) for Card type. Leave all other settings as default and click Ok to close and save.

2. Click the Edit link beside Issue Card. In the User ID Options section enable Assign user ID and select the AD connection configured earlier in the drop-down list. In the Enroll Certificate Options section enable Enroll certificate(s) checkbox and click the Add button.Select the EJBCA template from the Certificate authority drop-down list and select which CA certificate template you want to use and click Ok. Leave all other settings as is and scroll down to the bottom of the dialog and click Ok to save and close.

3. Click Ok to save and close the template configuration dialog.

Issue Credential

From the Lifecycle page attach a blank credential to your host. If it is a credential that is supported by vSEC:CMS you should see the reader and the credential similar to below.

Click the Issued oval and select the template from Select card template drop-down list and click Execute.

You will be prompted to enter your operator token passcode before the issuance will begin. Then you will be prompted to select the user from AD that the credential will be issued to. Select the user and at the end of the process you will get a short summary dialog of what operations were performed.

The credential will now show as Issued. The credential PIN by default will be blocked. You will need to set a PIN before you can use the credential. Click the Active oval followed by the Execute button. You will be prompted to authenticate again and then set a PIN that meets the policy supported on the credential.

Once you complete this then you can use the credential certificate for whatever use case it is intended.