Updated on 2024-06-25 GMT+08:00

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.

  1. Log in to the management console.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
    1. CA Type: Select Root CA.

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

    2. 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.

  4. Check the information and click Next.
  5. 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

  1. Log in to the management console.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

  4. Check the information and click Next.
  5. 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

  1. Log in to the management console.
  2. 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.
  3. Locate the row of the subordinate CA and click Activate in the Operation column. On the Activate CA page, configure the required parameters.

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

  4. Check the information and click Save and Next.
  5. Check the information again and complete required parameters.

    Figure 4 Third-Party CA
    1. 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.

    2. 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.

    3. 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.

  6. Check the settings and click Confirm & Activate. The subordinate CA is activated.

Follow-up Operations

You can use an activated subordinate CA to issue private certificates. For details, see Applying for a Private Certificate.