Activating a Private CA

To use private CAs, you need to activate it first. Only activated private CAs can issue private certificates.

This topic describes how to activate a CA. You can activate a private CA instance and use it as root CA or a subordinate CA. If you activate a CA instance for the first time, you need to activate it as the root CA.

Prerequisites

You have purchased a private CA instance. For details, see Buying a Private CA.
The private CA is in the Pending activation state.

Activating a Root CA.

Log in to the management console.
Click in the upper left corner of the page and choose Security & Compliance > Cloud Certificate Management Service. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Private Certificate Management > Private Certificates.

Locate the row of the target CA and click Activate in the Operation column. On the Activate CA page, configure the required parameters.

Figure 1 CA settings

CA Type: Select Root CA.
Root CA: Select this option if you want to create a CA hierarchy.

Configure the following parameters.

**Table 1** Parameters for activating a root CA
Parameter		Description
Basic Information	Key Algorithm	Select a key algorithm from the drop-down list. RSA2048 RSA3072 RSA4096 EC256 EC384
	Signature Algorithm	You can select any of the following hash algorithms: SHA256 SHA384 SHA512 SHA256_PSS SHA384_PSS SHA512_PSS
	Validity Period	The validity period of the private CA. Maximum validity period: 30 years.
Distinguished Name (DN)	Common Name	CA name you specify. -
	Country/Region	The country or region where your organization belongs. Enter the two-letter code of the country or region. For example, enter CN for China. CN
	State/Province	The name of the province or state where your organization is located. ShenZhen
	Locality	The name of the city where your organization is located. GuangZhou
	Organization	The legal name of your company. -
	Organizational Unit	The department of your company that the applicant belongs to. Cloud Dept.
(Optional) Certificate Revocation	OBS Authorization	Whether to authorize PCA to access your OBS bucket and upload the CRL file. If you want to authorize, click Authorize Now and complete the authorization as prompted. If you want to cancel the authorization, go to the IAM console to delete the PCAAccessPrivateOBS agency from the agency list. Once you complete the authorization, it will not be required again in the subsequent operations.
	Enable CRL publishing	Whether to enable CRL publishing.
	OBS Bucket	Select an OBS bucket you already have or click Create OBS Bucket to create one.
	CRL Update Period	How often the CRL is updated. PCA will generate a new CRL at the specified time. You can set the period to an integer between 7 and 30. If you do not specify a value, it is set to 7 days by default.

Check the information and click Next.
On the confirmation page, check the parameter settings again. Make sure all parameters are set correctly and click Confirm & Activate.

Activating a Subordinate CA through an Existing CA

Log in to the management console.
Click in the upper left corner of the page and choose Security & Compliance > Cloud Certificate Management Service. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Private Certificate Management > Private Certificates.

Locate the row of the subordinate CA and click Activate in the Operation column. On the Install CA Certificate and Activate CA page, configure the required parameters.

To activate a subordinate CA, set the CA Type to Subordinate CA.
Subordinate CA: Select this option if you want to add a layer to the existing CA hierarchy.

To activate a subordinate CA, you need to specify its parent CA.

Figure 2 Parent CA

Select Existing CA, select a CA you have created from the drop-down list box, and set the following parameters.

Parameter		Description
Basic Information	Key Algorithm	Select a key algorithm from the drop-down list. RSA2048 RSA3072 RSA4096 EC256 EC384
	(Optional) Key Usage	Select a key usage. digitalSignature nonRepudiation keyEncipherment dataEncipherment keyAgreement keyCertSign cRLSign encipherOnly decipherOnly
	Signature Algorithm	You can select any of the following hash algorithms: SHA256 SHA384 SHA512 SHA256_PSS SHA384_PSS SHA512_PSS
	Validity Period	The validity period of the private CA. Maximum validity period: 20 years.
	Path Length	The path length of the subordinate CA. The path length controls how many layers of subordinate CAs the current subordinate CA can issue. (The last layer of the certificate chain is a private certificate). NOTE: A certificate chain is made up of root CAs, subordinate CAs, and private certificates in a fixed sequence to validate the trust of a certificate at a lower layer.
Distinguished Name (DN)	Common Name	CA name you specify. -
	Country/Region	The country or region where your organization belongs. Enter the two-letter code of the country or region. For example, enter CN for China. CN
	State/Province	The name of the province or state where your organization is located. ShenZhen
	Locality	The name of the city where your organization is located. GuangZhou
	Organization	The legal name of your company. -
	Organizational Unit	The department of your company that the applicant belongs to. Cloud Dept.
(Optional) Certificate Revocation	OBS Authorization	Whether to authorize PCA to access your OBS bucket and upload the CRL file. If you want to authorize, click Authorize Now and complete the authorization as prompted. If you want to cancel the authorization, go to the IAM console to delete the PCAAccessPrivateOBS agency from the agency list. Once you complete the authorization, it will not be required again in the subsequent operations.
	Enable CRL publishing	Whether to enable CRL publishing.
	OBS Bucket	Select an OBS bucket you already have or click Create OBS Bucket to create an OBS bucket.
	CRL Update Period	How often the CRL is updated. PCA will generate a new CRL at the specified time. You can set the period to an integer between 7 and 30. If you do not specify a value, it is set to 7 days by default.

Check the information and click Next.
On the confirmation page, check the parameter settings again. Make sure all parameters are set correctly and click Confirm & Activate.

Activating a Subordinate CA from a Third-Party CA

Log in to the management console.
Click in the upper left corner of the page and choose Security & Compliance > Cloud Certificate Management Service. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Private Certificate Management > Private Certificates.

Locate the row of the subordinate CA and click Activate in the Operation column. On the Activate CA page, configure the required parameters.

To activate a subordinate CA, set the CA Type to Subordinate CA.
Subordinate CA: Select this option if you want to add a layer to the existing CA hierarchy.

To activate a subordinate CA, you need to specify its parent CA.

Figure 3 Parent CA

Select Third-party CA and set the following parameters.

Parameter		Description
Basic Information	Key Algorithm	Select a key algorithm from the drop-down list. RSA2048 RSA3072 RSA4096 EC256 EC384
	(Optional) Key Usage	Select a key usage. digitalSignature nonRepudiation keyEncipherment dataEncipherment keyAgreement keyCertSign cRLSign encipherOnly decipherOnly
	Signature Algorithm	You can select any of the following hash algorithms: SHA256 SHA384 SHA512 SHA256_PSS SHA384_PSS SHA512_PSS
	Validity Period	The validity period of the private CA. Maximum validity period: 20 years.
	Path Length	The path length of the subordinate CA. The path length controls how many layers of subordinate CAs the current subordinate CA can issue. (The last layer of the certificate chain is a private certificate). NOTE: A certificate chain is made up of root CAs, subordinate CAs, and private certificates in a fixed sequence to validate the trust of a certificate at a lower layer.
Distinguished Name (DN)	Common Name	CA name you specify. -
	Country/Region	The country or region where your organization belongs. Enter the two-letter code of the country or region. For example, enter CN for China. CN
	State/Province	The name of the province or state where your organization is located. ShenZhen
	Locality	The name of the city where your organization is located. GuangZhou
	Organization	The legal name of your company. -
	Organizational Unit	The department of your company that the applicant belongs to. Cloud Dept.
(Optional) Certificate Revocation	OBS Authorization	Whether to authorize PCA to access your OBS bucket and upload the CRL file. If you want to authorize, click Authorize Now and complete the authorization as prompted. If you want to cancel the authorization, go to the IAM console to delete the agency from the agency list. Once you complete the authorization, it will not be required again in the subsequent operations.
	Enable CRL publishing	Whether to enable CRL publishing.
	OBS Bucket	Select an OBS bucket you already have or click Create OBS Bucket to create an OBS bucket.
	CRL Update Period	How often the CRL is updated. PCA will generate a new CRL at the specified time. You can set the period to an integer between 7 and 30. If you do not specify a value, it is set to 7 days by default.

Check the information and click Save and Next.

Check the information again and complete required parameters.

Figure 4 Third-Party CA

Export the CSR.
On the CA CSR pane, click Export File.

The PEM CSR is exported to a file and is signed by a parent CA.
Use an external CA to issue a certificate.
Use your private CA to issue a certificate for the subordinate private CA you want to activate.

Import the certificate.

Import the certificate and certificate chain in the Import the Certificate Issued by an External CA pane.

**Table 2** Parameter descriptions
Parameter	Description
Certificate	Open the PEM file in the certificate to be uploaded as a text file with the extension .pem and copy the certificate content to this text box.
Certificate Chain	Open the PEM file in the certificate to be uploaded as a text file with the extension .pem and copy the certificate chain to this text box.