Policy Server Guides › Policy Design Guide › Certificate Authorities and Web Services Variables › Overview

Overview

To use SSL connections while resolving Web Services variables, you must configure a list of trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs) that can be used when the Policy Server establishes a connection to a Web Service. To accomplish this, you must set up a key database for each Policy Server that is responsible for connecting to a Web Service.

The key database is a flat-file key and certificate database that lets you store, manage, and retrieve keys and certificates required to sign and validate messages with WS-Security tokens. The service is also responsible for decrypting symmetric XML encryption keys that have been encrypted using the site's public key.

The SiteMinder smkeytool utility lets you create a new key database or delete an existing one and create a new one. There can only be one key database per Policy Server.

Important! Before running a SiteMinder utility or executable on Windows Server 2008, open the command line window with Administrator permissions. Open the command line window this way, even if your account has Administrator privileges. For more information, see the release notes for your SiteMinder component.