Manage Secure Channel certificates with the Microsoft Management Console

This is an overview of using and configuring the Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC) for managing Secure Channel communication certificates.

After Opening and Configuring the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), described below, you can use it instead of the SecureChannelCertificateInstaller.ps1 PowerShell script to perform these tasks.

These are the MMC tasks used to manage the Secure Channel certificate authorities (CAs) and certificates, and the CA and certificate files:

• Setting Up the Microsoft Management Console for Secure Channel

• Import Secure Channel certificates with the MMC to the Windows certificate stores.

• Exporting Secure Channel certificates from the Microsoft Management Console to a folder for archiving or use on another computer. You may also export a certificate file without a private key (a CER file) from an installed certificate with a private key, and then use the new CER to install a certificate without a private key.

These are the Secure Channel certificate procedures:

• Import Secure Channel certificates on a gateway host using the MMC

• Import Secure Channel certificates on a client computer using the MMC

• Create a certificate file without the private key (CER file) by importing a certificate with the private key from a PFX file, then exporting a certificate file without the private key (CER file). This is done to be able to import a certificate without a private key if you don't already have a CER file.

• Export (as described in the task above) certificates to be transferred to a gateway or client computer. There is no additional procedure, since the exporting task (above) is used for each file.

The script will create these files with the proper naming conventions, but you may also use files supplied by your company. The minimum requirement is a CA CER file, at least one gateway PFX file (one file per gateway host), and at least one client PFX file (one file per Windows client computer). You will also use one or more gateway and client CER files, but those can be created using the MMC and the appropriate PFX files. If you will be using a provided script to manage certificates, see Secure Channel Script File Names for instructions on changing the file name to those the script recognizes.