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The Java EE 6 Tutorial

Creating a Server Certificate

A server certificate has already been created for the GlassFish Server and can be found in the domain-dir/config/ directory. The server certificate is in keystore.jks. The cacerts.jks file contains all the trusted certificates, including client certificates.

If necessary, you can use keytool to generate certificates. The keytool utility stores the keys and certificates in a file termed a keystore, a repository of certificates used for identifying a client or a server. Typically, a keystore is a file that contains one client’s or one server’s identity. The keystore protects private keys by using a password.

If you don’t specify a directory when specifying the keystore file name, the keystores are created in the directory from which the keytool command is run. This can be the directory where the application resides, or it can be a directory common to many applications.

    The general steps for creating a server certificate are as follows.

  1. Create the keystore.

  2. Export the certificate from the keystore.

  3. Sign the certificate.

  4. Import the certificate into a truststore: a repository of certificates used for verifying the certificates. A truststore typically contains more than one certificate.

To Use keytool to Create a Server Certificate provides specific information on using the keytool utility to perform these steps.

ProcedureTo Use keytool to Create a Server Certificate

Run keytool to generate a new key pair in the default development keystore file, keystore.jks. This example uses the alias server-alias to generate a new public/private key pair and wrap the public key into a self-signed certificate inside keystore.jks. The key pair is generated by using an algorithm of type RSA, with a default password of changeit. For more information and other examples of creating and managing keystore files, read the keytool online help at http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/solaris/keytool.html.

Note –

RSA is public-key encryption technology developed by RSA Data Security, Inc.

From the directory in which you want to create the key pair, run keytool as shown in the following steps.

  1. Generate the server certificate.

    Type the keytool command all on one line:


    java-home/bin/keytool -genkey -alias server-alias -keyalg RSA -keypass changeit
-storepass changeit -keystore keystore.jks

    When you press Enter, keytool prompts you to enter the server name, organizational unit, organization, locality, state, and country code.

    You must type the server name in response to keytool’s first prompt, in which it asks for first and last names. For testing purposes, this can be localhost.

    When you run the example applications, the host (server name) specified in the keystore must match the host identified in the javaee.server.name property specified in the file tut-install/examples/bp-project/build.properties.

  2. Export the generated server certificate in keystore.jks into the file server.cer.

    Type the keytool command all on one line:


    java-home/bin/keytool -export -alias server-alias -storepass changeit
-file server.cer -keystore keystore.jks

  3. If you want to have the certificate signed by a CA, read the example at http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/solaris/keytool.html.

  4. To add the server certificate to the truststore file, cacerts.jks, run keytool from the directory where you created the keystore and server certificate.

    Use the following parameters:


    java-home/bin/keytool -import -v -trustcacerts -alias server-alias
-file server.cer -keystore cacerts.jks -keypass changeit -storepass changeit

    Information on the certificate, such as that shown next, will appear:


    Owner: CN=localhost, OU=Sun Micro, O=Docs, L=Santa Clara, ST=CA, 
C=USIssuer: CN=localhost, OU=Sun Micro, O=Docs, L=Santa Clara, ST=CA, 
C=USSerial number: 3e932169Valid from: Tue Apr 08Certificate 
fingerprints:MD5: 52:9F:49:68:ED:78:6F:39:87:F3:98:B3:6A:6B:0F:90 SHA1: 
EE:2E:2A:A6:9E:03:9A:3A:1C:17:4A:28:5E:97:20:78:3F:
Trust this certificate? [no]:

  5. Type yes, then press the Enter or Return key.

    The following information appears:


    Certificate was added to keystore[Saving cacerts.jks]