Patent ID: 7653810

Claim:
A method for automatically renewing digital certificates in a managed network using a certificate authority abstractor, said method comprising the steps of: receiving notifications regarding a managed digital certificate; identifying a managed server corresponding to a digital certificate referred to in a received notification from a certificate authority; communicating with the managed server, the communicating causing the managed server to generate a certificate signing request and return the request to the managing device; communicating with the managed server, the communicating causing the managed server to generate a certificate signing request and return the request to the managing device; receiving the selection of a certificate authority; transmitting a generated and received certificate signing request to a certificate authority, said transmitting being accomplished through the execution of a script corresponding to the selected certificate authority, the script being one of a set of scripts; receiving a certificate signed by a certificate authority generated from a certificate signing request; identifying a destination managed server corresponding to a received certificate signed by a certificate authority; installing a received certificate signed by a certificate authority to an identified destination managed server; and configuring an identified destination managed server to use a private key corresponding to an installed certificate.