System Requirements

The CA ConnectorClosed The Keyfactor CA Connector is installed in the customer environment to provide a connection between a CA and Keyfactor Command when a direct connection is not possible. It is supported on both Windows and Linux and has versions for Microsoft (Windows only) or EJBCA CAs. Client is supported on the following operating systems:

  • Windows Server 2019 or higher

  • Oracle Linux 7 or higher

  • Red Hat Enterprise 7 or higher

  • Ubuntu 16 or higher

Important:  Connections to Microsoft CAs are only supported from instances of the CAClosed A certificate authority (CA) is an entity that issues digital certificates. Within Keyfactor Command, a CA may be a Microsoft CA or a Keyfactor gateway to a cloud-based or remote CA. Connector Client running on Windows. Connections to EJBCA CAs can be made from instances of the CA Connector Client running on either Windows or Linux.
Note:  The CA Connector Client may be installed on the CA as long as the system requirements are met.

The CA Connector Client requires these additional components for full functionality:

  • An instance of Keyfactor Command with the CA Connector Management components installed, which may be an instance managed by Keyfactor.

  • An instance of RabbitMQ to manage communications between the CA Connector Client and Keyfactor Command. If you’re using a managed instance of Keyfactor Command, you will be provided a managed instance of RabbitMQ.

  • An OAuth 2.0 compliant authentication mechanism. If you’re using a managed instance of Keyfactor Command, you will be provided a managed OAuth 2.0 compliant authentication mechanism.

Note:  A given instance of the CA Connector Client can support only one type of CA. If you have more than one type of CA (e.g. both Microsoft and EJBCA), you will need more than one instance of the CA Connector Client.

The CA Connector Client has the following application requirements:

The following applications are required in order to install the CA Connector Client on Windows servers.

The CA Connector Client requires the .NET Runtime version 8.0 (x64). Version 8.0 is available for download from Microsoft:

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8.0/runtime

You need the .NET Runtime (x64), not the ASP.NET Core Runtime or the ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle. At the above link, this would be the Download x64 option under the Run console apps heading.

Tip:  You can use the following PowerShell command to check the .NET core version(s) installed on a server (if any):
dotnet --list-runtimes

Output from this command will look something like this if you have the correct version of the .NET Runtime installed (notice the path is in C:\Program Files, not C:\Program Files (x86), indicating this is the x64 version):

Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]

If you plan to connect to a Microsoft CA, the CA Connector Client requires the Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 (or later) redistributable for x64. This is available for download from Microsoft:

https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

The Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable appears as an application in the Windows Apps & features.

Note:  If this redistributable is missing, you may encounter an error similar to the following:
Could not load file or assembly 'Keyfactor.CAClient.Microsoft.DCOM, Version=2.1.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0ed89d330114ab09'. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

The following applications are required in order to install the CA Connector Client on Linux servers.

The CA Connector Client requires the .NET Runtime version 8.0. In many cases, this can be installed via the OS package manager. The method to complete this varies depending on the Linux operating system.

For more information, see:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux

You need the .NET Runtime, though you may find it easier to install the ASP.NET Core Runtime. Either is fine.

You can use the following command to check the .NET core runtime version(s) installed on a server (if any):

dotnet --list-runtimes

Output from this command will look something like this if you have the correct 8.0 version of .NET Runtime installed:

Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.3 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

The CA Connector Client can only be installed on a Linux server that has jq installed. You can use the following command to check the jq version of a server:

jq --version

The CA Connector Client requires a Linux server that uses the systemd service manager. You can use the following command to test whether a system is running systemd:

ps -p 1

The CA Connector Client can only be installed on a Linux server that is running bash version 4.3 or higher. You can use the following command to check the bash version of a server:

bash --version