Certificates are used to authenticate products distributed under your license and identify computers on your network. This ensures secure communication between your ERA Server and clients, and helps secure communication with ERA Web Console. Your Certificate Authority (CA) is used to legitimize certificates distributed from your network. In an enterprise setting, a public key can be used to automatically associate client software with the ERA Server during the remote installation of ESET products.

In some cases, you might want to create a new certificate to set specific parameters for a certain group of client computers, for example create a limited-duration certificate for a group of computers that will only be in use for a limited time. 

A user must have the following permissions for the group that contains the modified object:

Once these permissions are in place, follow the steps below.

Create a new Peer Certificate in ERA Web Console

1. Open ESET Remote Administrator Web Console (ERA Web Console) in your web browser and log in.

2. Click Admin  → Certificates → New → Certificate.

Figure 1-1
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3. Expand the Basic section to display the following basic settings for the certificate:

• Product: Select the type of certificate you want to create from the drop-down menu.
• Host: Leave the default value (an asterisk) in the Host field to allow for distribution of this certificate with no association to a specific DNS name or IP address.
• Passphrase: We recommend that you leave this field blank, but if desired you can set a passphrase for the certificate that will be required when clients attempt to activate.
• Attributes: These fields are not mandatory, but you can use them to include more detailed information about this certificate.

Figure 1-2
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4. Expand the Sign section and click <Select Certification Authority>. Select the CA that you want to use and then click OK.
   

   "Failed to create certificate: Creating and signing peer certificate failed. Check input parameters for invalid or reserved characters, check certification authority pfx/pkcs12 signing certificate and corresponding password"

   When you are creating a new certificate in ERA Virtual Appliance, you must type the Certificate Authority Passphrase in the field. It is the same password you have specified during ERA VA configuration.

5. Expand the Summary section to view details about the certificate and then click Finish to create a new one. Your new peer certificate will be displayed in the list of peer certificates.

Create a new Certification Authority in ERA Web Console

1. Click Admin  → Certificates → Certification Authorities → New.

2. Expand the Basic section to display the following basic settings for the Certification Authority:

• Description: Enter description for the Certification Authority.
• Passphrase & Confirm Passphrase: You can set a passphrase for your CA according to your preference, but it is not required.
• Attributes: The Common Name field is mandatory, and will be used to refer to this CA in the future.
• CA Validity: Set the CA validity dates using the Valid From and Valid To fields.

Figure 2-1
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3. Click Save to save your new CA. It will be listed in the Certification Authority list under Admin → Certificates → Certification Authorities, and will be ready for use.