Manage applications in DCM

This topic provides information about creating application definitions and how to manage an application's certificate assignment. You can learn about defining CA trust lists that applications use as the basis of accepting certificates for client authentication.

You can use Digital Certificate Manager (DCM), to perform various management tasks for SSL-enabled applications and object signing applications. For example, you can manage which certificates your applications use for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) communications sessions. The application management tasks that you can perform vary based on the type of application and the certificate store in which you are working. You can manage applications from the *SYSTEM or *OBJECTSIGNING certificate stores only.

While most application management tasks that DCM provides are easy to understand, a few of these tasks may not be familiar to you. For more information about these tasks, review these topics:

• Create an application definition
  Review this topic to learn how about the two different types of applications that you can define and work with.
• Manage the certificate assignment for an application
  You must use Digital Certificate Manager (DCM) to assign a certificate to an application before the application can perform a secure function, such as establishing a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) session or signing an object.
• Define a CA trust list for an application
  Applications that support the use of certificates for client authentication during a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) session must determine whether to accept a certificate as valid proof of identity. One of the criteria that an application uses for authenticating a certificate is whether the application trusts the Certificate Authority (CA) that issued the certificate.