Certificates

Two types of certificates exist, a server certificate and a client certificate. The purpose of the certificate is simply to identify that either the client or server making the service request is authorized to do so.
The certificate is issued once off, and that certificate is valid in terms of the issuing authority. Certificates may expire but this would be determined by the issuing authority.

When are certificates required?

The certificate passing is required when K2 blackpearl Server initiate a service request to one or more web service applications. These include IIS, MOSS, Reporting Services and K2 Workspace. The presence of the certificate is part of the service request transaction and identifies both server and client machines as authorized to make the service request by the signing authority and a source that can be trusted. Certificates are used when initiating a process or submitting an item to workflow for example using InfoPath Forms Services. When setting up SharePoint for example to work in conjunction with InfoPath Forms services, only server certificates are required.

InfoPath Forms services do not support the use of client certificates

Generating Certificates

The certificate is generated by an issuing authority, which can be internal to an organization. Specialized software is used to generate the certificate, however this type of certificate is a self signed certificate and although usable the internet browser will report errors.
K2 blackpearl and K2 blackpoint will support the Microsoft Certificate Services managers natively.

Installed Certificates

Once the certificate has been installed, it displays on the bottom of the Internet Browser when secure transactions are taking place. If it does not display, then the certificate has not been installed correctly.

Storing Certificates

Certificates are installed locally on both server and client machines. Once the certificate has been issued it is loaded onto the machine, and retained in the local store. In some instances the client and server certificates are stored on their respective local machines, in other both server and client certificates are stored on the client machine.

Using Certificates

Certificate usage is dependent on how the environment has been configured. The server will always store the server certificate locally. The client machine may only have a client certificate, but may also store a server certificate as well. These certificates are attached to the communication and passed for identification purposes.