Certificate Authority (CA) Configuration

The Microsoft Certificate Authority (CA) is responsible for issuing certificates requested through Network Device Enrollment Service (NDES) using the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP).This section describes the required configuration on an existing Enterprise Certificate Authority to support certificate enrollment.

Verify CA Service

Verify that the Certificate Authority service is running.

Run:
Get-Service certsvc
Expected output:
Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  certsvc            Active Directory Certificate Services

Verify Enterprise CA Configuration

The Certificate Authority used for SCEP enrollment must be configured as an Enterprise CA integrated with Active Directory.
Verify CA Type
certutil -cainfo
Look for:
CA Type: Enterprise Root CA
Or
CA Type: Enterprise Subordinate CA
If you see:
Standalone Root CA
Or
Standalone Subordinate CA
Then it is NOT usable for SCEP template-based enrollment.

Verify Certificate Templates are Enabled

Ensure that the CA supports certificate templates required for enrollment.

Run the following command to list available templates:

certutil -catemplates
The command returns the list of certificate templates available in the environment.
Note: The output may show “Access is denied” for individual templates. This is expected behavior if the current user does not have enrollment permissions for those templates and can be safely ignored. The command still confirms that certificate templates are available on the Certificate Authority.