Requesting a personal certificate for your PKCS #11 hardware

Use this procedure for either a queue manager or an IBM® WebSphere® MQ MQI client to request a personal certificate for your cryptographic hardware.

Using the iKeyman user interface

About this task

Note: WebSphere MQ does not support SHA-3 or SHA-5 algorithms. You can use the digital signature algorithm names SHA384WithRSA and SHA512WithRSA because both algorithms are members of the SHA-2 family.

The digital signature algorithm names SHA3WithRSA and SHA5WithRSA are deprecated because they are an abbreviated form of SHA384WithRSA and SHA512WithRSA respectively.

Procedure

To request a personal certificate from the iKeyman user interface, complete the following steps:

  1. Complete the steps to work with your cryptographic hardware. See Managing certificates on PKCS #11 hardware.
  2. From the Create menu, click New Certificate Request.
    The Create New Key and Certificate Request window opens.
  3. In the Key Label field, enter the following labels:
    • For a queue manager, enter ibmwebspheremq followed by the name of your queue manager changed to lowercase. For example, for a queue manager called QM1, enter ibmwebspheremqqm1.
    • For a IBM WebSphere MQ MQI client, enter ibmwebspheremq followed by your logon user ID, all in lowercase; for example, ibmwebspheremqmyuserid .
  4. Enter values for Common Name and Organization, and select a Country . For the remaining optional fields, either accept the default values, or type or select new values.
    Note that you can supply only one name in the Organizational Unit field. For more information about these fields, see Distinguished Names.
  5. In the Enter the name of a file in which to store the certificate request field, either accept the default certreq.arm, or type a new value with a full path.
  6. Click OK.
    A confirmation window opens.
  7. Click OK.
    The Personal Certificate Requests list shows the label of the new personal certificate request you created. The certificate request is stored in the file you chose in step 5.
  8. Request the new personal certificate either by sending the file to a certificate authority (CA), or by copying the file into the request form on the website for the CA.

Using the command line

Procedure

Use the following commands to request a personal certificate by using either the runmqckm or runmqakm command:
  • Using runmqckm: 
    
runmqckm -certreq -create -db filename -pw 
password -label label 
        -dn distinguished_name -size key_size
 -file filename -sig_alg algorithm

    Instead of -dn distinguished_name , you can use -san_dsname DNS_names , -san_emailaddr email_addresses , or -san_ipaddr IP_addresses .

  • Using runmqakm: 
    
runmqakm -certreq -create -db filename -pw 
password -label label 
        -dn distinguished_name -size key_size
 -file filename -fips
        -sig_alg algorithm
where:
-db filename
Specifies the fully qualified file name of a CMS key database.
-pw password
Specifies the password for the CMS key database.
-label label
Specifies the key label attached to the certificate.
-dn distinguished_name
Specifies the X.500 distinguished name enclosed in double quotation marks. At least one attribute is required. You can supply multiple OU and DC attributes.
-size key_size
Specifies the key size. If you are using runmqckm , the value can be 512 or 1024. If you are using runmqakm, the value can be 512, 1024, or 2048.
-file filename
Specifies the file name for the certificate request.
-fips
Specifies that the command is run in FIPS mode. This mode disables the use of the BSafe cryptographic library. Only the ICC component is used and this component must be successfully initialized in FIPS mode. When in FIPS mode, the ICC component uses algorithms that are FIPS 140-2 validated. If the ICC component does not initialize in FIPS mode, the runmqakm command fails.
-sig_alg
For runmqckm, specifies the asymmetric signature algorithm used for the creation of the entry's key pair. The value can be MD2_WITH_RSA, MD2WithRSA, MD5_WITH_RSA, MD5WithRSA, SHA1WithDSA , SHA1WithRSA, SHA256_WITH_RSA, SHA256WithRSA, SHA2WithRSA, SHA384_WITH_RSA , SHA384WithRSA, SHA512_WITH_RSA , SHA512WithRSA, SHA_WITH_DSA, SHA_WITH_RSA, SHAWithDSA, or SHAWithRSA . The default value is SHA1WithRSA
-sig_alg
For runmqakm, specifies the hashing algorithm used during the creation of a certificate request. This hashing algorithm is used to create the signature associated with the newly created certificate request. The value can be md5, MD5_WITH_RSA, MD5WithRSA, SHA_WITH_DSA , SHA_WITH_RSA, sha1, SHA1WithDSA , SHA1WithECDSA, SHA1WithRSA, sha224, SHA224_WITH_RSA, SHA224WithDSA , SHA224WithECDSA, SHA224WithRSA , sha256, SHA256_WITH_RSA, SHA256WithDSA, SHA256WithECDSA, SHA256WithRSA, SHA2WithRSA, sha384 , SHA384_WITH_RSA, SHA384WithECDSA , SHA384WithRSA, sha512, SHA512_WITH_RSA, SHA512WithECDSA, SHA512WithRSA, SHAWithDSA, SHAWithRSA , EC_ecdsa_with_SHA1, EC_ecdsa_with_SHA224 , EC_ecdsa_with_SHA256, EC_ecdsa_with_SHA384 , or EC_ecdsa_with_SHA512. The default value is SHA1WithRSA.
-san_dnsname DNS_names
Specifies a comma-delimited or space-delimited list of DNS names for the entry being created.
-san_emailaddr email_addresses
Specifies a comma-delimited or space-delimited list of email addresses for the entry being created.
-san_ipaddr IP_addresses
Specifies a comma-delimited or space-delimited list of IP addresses for the entry being created.