Obtain the SHA-1 hash of the hosted cache server certificate

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Updated: October 7, 2009

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

You can use this procedure to obtain the SHA-1 hash, also called the thumbprint, of the server certificate of a hosted cache server so that you can link the certificate to BranchCache. This procedure must be performed on a hosted cache server to which a server certificate has already been enrolled.

Membership in Domain Admins, or equivalent is the minimum required to perform this procedure.

To obtain the SHA-1 hash of the hosted cache server certificate

  1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then press ENTER. The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) opens.

  2. In the MMC, on the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in. The Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box opens.

  3. In Add or Remove Snap-ins, in Available snap-ins, double-click Certificates. The Certificates snap-in dialog box opens. Click Computer account, and then click Next.

  4. In Select Computer, in This snap-in will always manage, ensure that Local computer: (the computer this console is running on) is selected, click Finish, and then click OK.

  5. In the navigation pane, double-click Certificates (Local Computer) and then double-click the Personal certificate store.

  6. The Certificates folder is a subfolder of the Personal certificate store. Click the Certificates folder.

  7. In the details pane, browse to the server certificate and double-click the certificate. The Certificate dialog box opens.

  8. In the Certificate dialog box, click the Details tab.

Note

On the Details tab, in Field, ensure that the value of the Certificate Template Name extension matches the name of the copy of the Web Server certificate template that you configured in a previous step. For example, if you used the default name Copy of Web Server, ensure that this value appears in Certificate Template Name to verify that you have selected the correct certificate.

  1. In the list of fields, select Thumbprint.

  2. In the lower pane, the hexadecimal string that is the SHA-1 hash of your certificate is displayed. Select the SHA-1 hash and press the Windows keyboard shortcut for the Copy command (Ctl+C) to copy the hash to the Windows clipboard.

  3. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Notepad. The Notepad application opens.

  4. In Notepad, press the Windows keyboard shortcut for the Paste command (Ctl+V) to paste the SHA-1 hash into a new text file. Remove all of the spaces between the characters in the SHA-1 hash so that the hash contains no spaces, and then save the text file to hard disk.

Note

In the next procedure where you link the hosted cache server certificate to BranchCache, you will use the SHA-1 hash of the certificate while running a network shell (netsh) command.