In a production environment, use a personal certificate signed by a certificate authority (CA). The principal or the owner of the CA-signed personal certificate is authenticated by a CA when the CA signs the principal certificate. Since the certificate authorities (CAs) keep their private keys secure, the signed certificate is more trustworthy than a self-signed certificate. Certificate authorities are entities that issue valid certificates for other entities. Well-known CAs include VeriSign, Entrust, and GTE CyberTrust. You can request a test certificate or a production certificate from some of the CAs like VeriSign.
Before you begin
The authentication process by a CA can take time. Commercial CAs often require up to a week to complete their authentication process. Even on-site CAs can take several minutes, if not hours, or even days, to complete their authentication process. Therefore, you must plan for the certificates that you need.Considering the following points when you plan for the CA-signed certificate:
Steps for this task
Results
Once the request is accepted, the certificate authority verifies your identity and finally issues a signed certificate to you. The certificate is usually sent through e-mail.Example
What to do next
Once you receive the e-mail from the CA, follow the instructions to store your signed certificate as a file. Receive or store the certificate into the keystore file as a personal certificate.