Renewing certificates

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Renewing certificates

Every certificate has a validity period. After the end of the validity period, the certificate is no longer considered an acceptable or usable credential. The Certificates snap-in enables you to renew a certificate issued from a Windows Server 2003 enterprise certification authority before or after the end of its validity period by using the Certificate Renewal Wizard.

You can either renew the certificate with the same key set you used before, or you can renew a certificate with a new key set. For information comparing reusing a key set and generating a new key set for certificate renewal, see Certificates Resources.

Before you renew a certificate, you will need to know:

  • The issuing certification authority.

  • (Optional) If you want a new public key and private key pair for the certificate, the cryptographic service provider (CSP) that should be used to generate the key pair.

For more information, see Renew a certificate with a new key and Renew a certificate with the same key.

In addition, you can renew certificates issued from both Windows Server 2003 enterprise certification authorities and Windows Server 2003 stand-alone certification authorities with the Certificate Services Web pages by pasting in the contents of a PKCS #7 file. For more information, see Request a certificate using a PKCS #10 or PKCS #7 file.