Generating your own Keystore

Generating your own Keystore

If you choose to use, for example, UK e-science certificates, please see the instructions in Acquiring a certificate.
Alternatively if you are not using UK e-science certificates, the broad steps are outlined below. You can use a program called 'Keystore Explorer' (http://www.lazgosoftware.com/kse/). This is essentially a GUI version of the command-line keytool provided with Java 2 SDK. It can be used to generate the necessary keystore and their associated X.509 certificates as well as importing/storing trusted certificates. However it is not freeware so you can also use the command line version of keyTool which comes with Java.
You need to:
  1. Create a keystore
  2. Generate a key pair within this keystore
  3. Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) from the key pair
  4. Get the CSR signed by the trusted CA (the Registration Authority is required for this as they must contact the CA)
  5. Import the CA's certificate into your keystore as a trusted certificate
  6. The CA's response to your signing request will be a certificate bearing your details - import this into the key pair

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