Secure Global Desktop Administration Guide > Security > What are X.509 certificates and why do I need one?
An X.509 certificate is an encoded file that a secure service, such as a web server, uses to identify itself to a client. A Secure Global Desktop server with the Sun Secure Global Desktop Security Pack installed also requires a certificate in the same way.
Certificates are generated by Certificate Authorities (CAs) --
trusted third parties that sign a certificate for a particular
server. To obtain a certificate for a server you must send a
Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to one of these CAs. When a CA
receives a CSR they check the validity of the request and return an
X.509 certificate. You then install the certificate using the
tarantella security certuse
command.
By default, the Sun Secure Global Desktop Security Pack supports a number of Certificate Authorities.
In some cases, you can share a certificate between a web server and the Secure Global Desktop server on the same host.
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