I frequently run into situations where I need to configure my laptop to support some technology, without having a lot of server resources to depend on. Most recently, I configured a local instance of ADAM to support SSL. While the information on how to configure this is available, it is scattered across multiple sources. I figured it might be helpful to somebody to bring all of the information together in one place.

First you will want to download the Platform SDK. This will include the tools that you need.

With the Platform SDK installed, go to start -> all programs -> Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 SP-1 -> Open Build Environment Window -> Windows XP 32-bit Build Environment -> Set Windows XP 32-bit Build Environment (Retail). This will open up a command prompt with all of the necessary path variables set.

Now, you want to create a new root certificate using the makecert.exe utility. At the command line, enter the following:

This will create a root authority certificate, which you can use to sign new certificates. In fact, that's exactly what we are going to do. Generate a new certificate, signed by this root certificate, that is configured to support server authentication. At the command line, enter the following:

Now, both of these certificates have been created and installed to the local machine store. We need to make our root certificate a trusted root certificate, so we will open the certificates MMC console. From the command line you have open, you can type mmc. Go to File -> Add/Remove Snap In -> Add -> Certificates. Press the Add button. Select Computer Account and click Next. Leave the default of Local computer and click finish. Click close and then click OK. If you drill down to Certificates (Local Computer) -> Personal -> Certificates, you should see both certificates. Move the root certificate to Trusted Root Certificate Authorities. Move the root authority to Trusted Root Certification Authorities. Now, you have a certificate that can be used for SSL with a trusted root authority.

Finally, you need to make sure the service account has read access to the certificate, which is stored in c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\microsoft\crypto\rsa\machinekeys. You can use Windows Explorer, but if you don't want to leave your trusty command line, you can also use:

Note that this assumes that you accepted the default of Network Service when you installed ADAM. If not, then add read permissions to whichever account you did use.

Finally, you can restart the ADAM service from the services administrative tool.

Now, if you start up LDP, connect over port 636 with SSL selected (making sure you use the fully qualified domain name of your computer, which is required by the SSL standard), you should be connecting over a secured transport!