How to configure SharePoint to access the Certificate?

Question

I'm using SharePoint 2010 and I'm configuring a web part using ChannelFactory and Certificate to access a WCF service.

But I'm getting this error message:

Error occured: Could not establish secure channel for SSL/TLS with authority 'my FQDN'.

How could I configure my SharePoint web application to have access to read this installed certificate?

(I'm sure the certificate is installed correctly on the server where sharepoint is installed and all the WCF configurations are correct)

Many thanks in advance,

Answer 1

Have you tried uploading it to the Manage trusts area?

http://centraladmin/_admin/ManageTrust.aspx

Rebooted the server?

Installed on all servers in the farm? Into the machine store (not service or personal)?

Answer 2

Are you talking about a client certificate that SharePoint would use to authenticate itself when connecting out to some service? If that is the case, then you would need to install a certificate along with a private key. Otherwise, if you are just talking about a root certificate to validate some server certificate on a remote service, you do not need the private key .

Assuming that you mean a client certificate with private key (I don't know how SharePoint uses certificates), then you would have to install the certificate along with a private key, and then, make sure SharePoint has access to the private key.

It's not enough just to install with the private key -- you have to either install logged in as the Windows account that the code using the private key will be running under, or, if you install the certificate into the Local Machine "Personal" store, for example, you have to set an ACL on the certificate to give another Windows account access to the private key. To do that, you can use the WinHttpCertCfg tool. Cf. here for the general idea, and here to download the tool. Or from the MMC Certificate snap-in, select the certificate in the Local Machine, Personal store, right-click, select All Tasks, Manage Private Keys, and grant access from there.