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A certificate is a database-level securable that follows the X.509 standard and supports X.509 V1 fields. You can load a certificate from a file or an assembly, or generate a key pair and create a self-signed certificate.

Private keys generated by SQL Server are 1024 bits long. Private keys imported from an external source have a minimum length of 384 bits and a maximum length of 3,456 bits. The length of an imported private key must be an integer multiple of 64 bits.

The private key must correspond to the public key specified by certificate. When you create a certificate from a container, loading the private key is optional. But when SQL Server generates a self-signed certificate, the private key is always created. By default, the private key is encrypted with the help of the database master key. If the database master key does not exist and no password is specified, the action will fail.

Note: The object is available only for Microsoft SQL server 2005.

New certificates are created within Create Certificate Wizard. In order to run the wizard you should either

•	select the Object \| Create Database Object... main menu item;

•	select the Certificate icon in the Create Database Object dialog

•	select the Certificates list or any object from that list in the explorer tree;

•	select the Create New Certificate... item from the popup menu

•	open the database in Database Editor and the Certificates tab there;

•	press the Insert key or select the Create New Certificate... item from the popup menu (alternatively, you may use the corresponding link of the Navigation Bar).

To create a new certificate with the same properties as one of the existing certificates has:

•	select the Object \| Duplicate Database Object... main menu item;

•	follow the instructions of Duplicate Object Wizard.

Certificates can be edited within Certificate Editor. In order to run the editor you should either

•	select the certificate for editing in the explorer tree (type the first letters of the certificate name for quick search);

•	select the Edit Certificate ... item from the popup menu

•	open the database in Database Editor and the Certificates tab there;

•	select the certificate to edit;

•	press the Enter key or select the Edit Certificate item from the popup menu (alternatively, you may use the corresponding link of the Navigation Bar).

To drop a certificate:

•	select the certificate to drop in the explorer tree;

•	select the Drop Certificate item from the popup menu

•	open the database in Database Editor and the Certificates tab there;

•	select the certificate to drop;

•	press the Delete key or select the Drop Certificate item from the popup menu (alternatively, you may use the corresponding link of the Navigation Bar)

and confirm dropping in the dialog window.