Powershell – Installing an SSL Certificate in Windows Server 2008 using powershell

command-line-interfacepowershellwindows-server-2008windows-server-2008-r2

Is it possible to Install an SSL Certificate in Windows Server 2008 R2 using powershell?

If it's not, is it possible with cmd command line?

I am doing it with mmc now but would it be nice to do that with PowerShell.

Best Answer

You can use certutil.exe. The exact syntax varies based on the the certificate file format (.cer, .pfx...), but one of these options should be able to do the trick:

certutil -addstore my <filename>
certutil -installcert <filename>
certutil -importcert <filename>
certutil -importpfx <filename>

More info here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772898(WS.10).aspx.

This also can be done in native PowerShell, but it's a lot more complex, as there is no built-in command for certificate management, so you have to use the .NET X.509 library (System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates).

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Windows – What’s the command-line utility in Windows to do a reverse DNS look-up

ping -a w.x.y.z

Should resolve the name from the IP address if the reverse lookup zone has been set up properly. If the reverse lookup zone does not have an entry for the record, the -a will just ping without a name.

How to Assign Permissions to ApplicationPoolIdentity Account

Update: The original question was for Windows Server 2008, but the solution is easier for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 (and Windows 7 and 8). You can add the user through the NTFS UI by typing it in directly. The name is in the format of IIS APPPOOL\{app pool name}. For example: IIS APPPOOL\DefaultAppPool.

IIS APPPOOL\{app pool name}

Note: Per comments below, there are two things to be aware of:

Enter the string directly into the "Select User or Group" and not in the search field.
In a domain environment you need to set the Location to your local computer first.

Reference to Microsoft Docs article: Application Pool Identities > Securing Resources

Original response: (for Windows Server 2008) This is a great feature, but as you mentioned it's not fully implemented yet. You can add the app pool identity from the command prompt with something like icacls, then you can manage it from the GUI. For example, run something like this from the command prompt:

icacls c:\inetpub\wwwroot /grant "IIS APPPOOL\DefaultAppPool":(OI)(CI)(RX)

Then, in Windows Explorer, go to the wwwroot folder and edit the security permissions. You will see what looks like a group (the group icon) called DefaultAppPool. You can now edit the permissions.

However, you don't need to use this at all. It's a bonus that you can use if you want. You can use the old way of creating a custom user per app pool and assigning the custom user to disk. That has full UI support.

This SID injection method is nice because it allows you to use a single user but fully isolate each site from each other without having to create unique users for each app pool. Pretty impressive, and it will be even better with UI support.

Note: If you are unable to find the application pool user, check to see if the Windows service called Application Host Helper Service is running. It's the service that maps application pool users to Windows accounts.

Best Answer

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Windows – What’s the command-line utility in Windows to do a reverse DNS look-up

How to Assign Permissions to ApplicationPoolIdentity Account

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