Create X.509 certificate for a Windows Azure Web Role

To know how to create a X.509 certificate for a Windows Azure web Role we need to first understand why we need a certificate for a role. It authenticates whether an operation on an Azure subscription is authenticated or not. Certificates help with Authentication.

There are two types of certificates

1. Management certificates
2. Service certificates

Management Certificates

This is a subscription level certificate. It is independent of any particular hosted service. This stores the certificate for a Windows Azure subscription.
X.509 certificates are an example of this certificate.

Service certificates

This is a hosted service lever certificate. This stores the service for a hosted service.

A personal information exchange certificate is an example of this type of certificate.

To create a X.509 certificate, the first step you need to do is to open a Visual Studio command prompt. Go to Start and open Visual Studio 2010 Tools and select Visual Studio Command Prompt.



If you want to explore the various basic options available with the makercert command then Run the command:

MakeCert -?



To create a certificate we can run the command with any combination of options available with MakeCert.exe.

I am creating a certificate here with the name debugmode.



In the command prompt, it would look like:



An explanation of the various options I am using in the above command is as below:


After running the above command you will find a X.509 certificate with the name debugmode that has been created in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC.

Right-click on the certificate and you will get an option to install the certificate.



If you select to install, the certificate install wizard will be opened for you.



Either you can choose the store for the certificate or let the wizard search a store for you.



There is one more way to create X.509 certificate using IIS. Open Inetmgr:



In the center you will get an option of Server Certificates. Double-click on that.



In the left pane you will get an option to create a server certificate. Select Create Self-Signed Certificate.



Just follow the wizard to create the self-signed certificate.



These are two ways to create X.509 certificates. Tune in for the next article.