To Manage Internal and External Modules

A server certificate establishes the ownership and validity of a key pair, the numbers used to encrypt and decrypt data. Your server’s certificate and key pair represent your server’s identity. They are stored in a certificate database that can be either internal to the server or on an external, removable hardware card (smartcard).

Sun Java System servers access a key and certificate database using a module conforming to the Public-Key Cryptography System (PKCS) #11 API. The PKCS #11 module for a given hardware device is usually obtained from its supplier and must be installed into the Messaging Server before the Messaging Server can use that device. The pre-installed “Netscape Internal PKCS # 11 Module” supports a single internal software token that uses the certificate database that is internal to the server.

Setting up the server for a certificate involves creating a database for the certificate and its keys and installing a PKCS #11 module. If you do not use an external hardware token, you create an internal database on your server, and you use the internal, default module that is part of Messaging Server. If you do use an external token, you connect a hardware smartcard reader and install its PKCS #11 module.

You can manage PKCS #11 modules, whether internal or external, through Console. To install a PKCS #11 module:

1. Connect a hardware card reader to the Messaging Server host machine and install drivers.

2. Use the PKCS #11 Management interface in Console to install the PKCS #11 module for the installed driver.

(For more complete instructions, see the chapter on SSL in Managing Servers with iPlanet Console.)

Installing Hardware Encryption Accelerators. If you use SSL for encryption, you may be able to improve server performance in encrypting and decrypting messages by installing a hardware encryption accelerator. An encryption accelerator typically consists of a hardware board, installed permanently in your server machine, plus a software driver. Messaging Server supports accelerator modules that follow the PKCS #11 API. (They are essentially hardware tokens that do not store their own keys; they use the internal database for that.) You install an accelerator by first installing the hardware and drivers as specified by the manufacturer, and then completing the installation—as with hardware certificate tokens—by installing the PKCS #11 module.