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SYS-C0244 · Windows Server Roles

Building an ADCS PKI

Plan a CA hierarchy for names you control, and do not issue a certificate during the reading.

Updated 25 October 2026 · How-To

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

What this hour is for

The hierarchy planner and the template planner draft a shape: a root, an issuing CA, and one template. They do not connect and they do not issue a certificate.

The names on a later certificate are names you administer. Do not publish the CA to the internet. Do not install the role during the reading. A root key stays offline in the plan.

192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.

The change you can finish

Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.

Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.

  1. Name the hierarchy.
  2. Write where the root key will live.
  3. Limit names to ones you control.
  4. Do not install the role.
  5. Do not issue a certificate.
  6. Stop.

Mistakes that outlive the command

Building an ADCS PKI goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.

Decisions to write down

One decision for Building an ADCS PKI: The root key location is written. Names are ones you control. Nothing was issued. Nothing was installed. And the CA is not on the open internet.

Checks before you call it done

Confirm this before you call the change done: The hierarchy is written. The root key location is written. Nothing was issued. Nothing was installed. And names are ones you control. If one of those fails, stop.

# Do not issue a certificate during the reading.
# Names you control.
# The root key stays offline in the plan.
# Do not publish the CA.

Before you leave the host

Building an ADCS PKI ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.

The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.

192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.

One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.

If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.

A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.

This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.

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