This guide describes the agent services tools that a Netscape Certificate Management System agent uses to administer a subsystem's certificates and keys.

• What You Should Already Know


• What's in This Guide


• Conventions Used in This Guide


• Where to Go for Related Information

• encryption and decryption
• public keys, private keys, and symmetric keys
• digital signatures
• the role of digital certificates in a public-key infrastructure (PKI)
• certificate hierarchies
• SSL cipher suites
• the purpose of and major steps in the SSL handshake

• Chapter 1, "Agent Services," provides an overview of the product and identifies the different kinds of users, including agents. The chapter also summarizes the tasks of each subsystem agent and lists the HTML forms you use to perform agent tasks. Finally, the chapter explains how to access the Agent Services pages and forms.


• As a Certificate Manager or Registration Manager agent, you are responsible for handling requests for certificates that are made by end entities (end users, server administrators, or other CMS subsystems) using manual enrollment. Chapter 2, "Handling Certificate Requests," describes the general procedure for handling requests and explains how to handle different aspects of certificate request management.


• Chapter 3, "Finding and Revoking Certificates," explains how, as a Certificate Manager agent, you can use the Agent Services page to find and examine a specific certificate issued by Certificate Management System, or retrieve a list of certificates that match specified criteria. This chapter also explains how to revoke certificates, and manage the certificate revocation list.


• Chapter 4, "Publishing to a Directory." describes how a Certificate Manager agent can update the LDAP directory with the current status of certificates.


• Chapter 5, "Recovering Encrypted Data," describes how to process key recovery requests, and how to recover stored encrypted data when the encryption key has been lost. This service is only available when the Data Recovery Manager subsystem is installed.

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Square brackets enclose commands that are optional.

• Angle brackets <>

Angle brackets indicate placeholders for items that vary, such as pathnames and variable names. Replace the angle brackets and their text with text that applies to your situation.

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• <server_root> is the directory where the CMS binaries are kept (specified during installation).
• <instance_id> is the ID for this instance of Certificate Management System (specified during installation).

• Managing Servers with Netscape Console provides background information on basic cryptography concepts and the role of Netscape Console.

• For the HTML version, see <server_root>/manual/en/admin/
  help/contents.htm.
• Netscape Certificate Management System Agent's Guide (this guide) provides detailed reference information on CMS agent interfaces. To access this information from the Agent Services pages, click any help button.

• The HTML version of this guide is located in <server_root>/
  <instance_id>/web/agent/manual/agt_gide/
  contents.htm.
• The PDF version of this guide is located at <server_root>/manual/
  en/cert/pdf/cs40_agt.pdf.
• Netscape Certificate Management System Installation and Deployment Guide provides detailed information on deployment options for Certificate Server, a walk-through of a test or demo installation, and complete installation instructions. To access the installation and configuration information from within the CMS Installation Wizard, click any help button.

• The HTML version of this guide is located at <server_root>/
  manual/en/cert/dep_gide/contents.htm.
• The PDF version of this guide is located at <server_root>/manual/
  en/cert/pdf/cs40_dep.pdf.
• Netscape Certificate Management System Administrator's Guide provides detailed reference information on Certificate Management System administration interfaces. To access this information from the CMS window within Netscape Console, click any help button.

• The HTML version of this guide is located at <server_root>/
  manual/en/cert/adm_gide/contents.htm.
• The PDF version of this guide is located at <server_root>/manual/
  en/cert/pdf/cs40_adm.pdf.
• End-entity help (online only, not printed) provides detailed reference information on Certificate Management System agent interfaces. Users can access this guide by clicking any help button in the end user pages.

• The HTML version of this guide is located at <server_root>/
  <instance_id>/web/ee/manual/ee_gide/contents.htm.

For a complete list of all documentation that ships with Certificate Management System, including documentation for Directory Server, see <server_root>/
manual/index.html.