9.12. Updating Certificates and CRLs in a Directory The Certificate Manager and the publishing directory can become out of sync if certificates are issued or revoked while the Directory Server is down. Certificates that were issued or revoked need to be published or unpublished manually when the Directory Server comes back up. To find certificates that are out of sync with the directory ‐ valid certificates that are not in the directory and revoked or expired certificates that are still in the directory ‐ the Certificate Manager keeps a record of whether a certificate in its internal database has been published to the directory. If the Certificate Manager and the publishing directory become out of sync, use the Update Directory option in the Certificate Manager agent services page to synchronize the publishing directory with the internal database. The following choices are available for synchronizing the directory with the internal database: Search the internal database for certificates that are out of sync and publish or unpublish. Publish certificates that were issued while the Directory Server was down. Similarly, unpublish certificates that were revoked or that expired while Directory Server was down. Publish or unpublish a range of certificates based on serial numbers, from serial number xx to serial number yy . A Certificate Manager's publishing directory can be manually updated by a Certificate Manager agent only. 9.12.1. Manually Updating Certificates in the Directory The Update Directory Server form in the Certificate Manager agent services page can be used to update the directory manually with certificate-related information. This form initiates a combination of the following operations: Update the directory with certificates. Remove expired certificates from the directory. Removing expired certificates from the publishing directory can be automated by scheduling an automated job. For details, see Chapter 13, Setting Automated Jobs . Remove revoked certificates from the directory. Manually update the directory with changes by doing the following: Open the Certificate Manager agent services page. Select the Update Directory Server link. Select the appropriate options, and click Update Directory . The Certificate Manager starts updating the directory with the certificate information in its internal database. If the changes are substantial, updating the directory can take considerable time. During this period, any changes made through the Certificate Manager, including any certificates issued or any certificates revoked, may not be included in the update. If any certificates are issued or revoked while the directory is updated, update the directory again to reflect those changes. When the directory update is complete, the Certificate Manager displays a status report. If the process is interrupted, the server logs an error message. If the Certificate Manager is installed as a root CA, the CA signing certificate may get published using the publishing rule set up for user certificates when using the agent interface to update the directory with valid certificates. This may return an object class violation error or other errors in the mapper. Selecting the appropriate serial number range to exclude the CA signing certificate can avoid this problem. The CA signing certificate is the first certificate a root CA issues. Modify the default publishing rule for user certificates by changing the value of the predicate parameter to profileId!=caCACert . Use the LdapCaCertPublisher publisher plug-in module to add another rule, with the predicate parameter set to profileId=caCACert , for publishing subordinate CA certificates. 9.12.2. Manually Updating the CRL in the Directory The Certificate Revocation List form in the Certificate Manager agent services page manually updates the directory with CRL-related information. Manually update the CRL information by doing the following: Open the Certificate Manager agent services page. Select Update Revocation List . Click Update . The Certificate Manager starts updating the directory with the CRL in its internal database. If the CRL is large, updating the directory takes considerable time. During this period, any changes made to the CRL may not be included in the update. When the directory is updated, the Certificate Manager displays a status report. If the process is interrupted, the server logs an error message.

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