When you submit a certificate request to a Windows-based enterprise certification authority (CA), it is immediately processed and will either be issued or denied, unless the certificate template has been configured to require approval by a certificate manager.

When you submit a certificate request to a Windows-based stand-alone CA, it will either be immediately processed or, by default, it will be considered pending until the administrator of the CA approves or rejects the request. In the case of a pending request, the certificate requester will have to use the CA Web enrollment pages to check the status of pending certificates.

Users or local Administrators is the minimum group membership required to complete this procedure. Review the details in "Additional considerations" in this topic.

To check on a pending certificate request

  1. Open a Web browser.

  2. Open https://servername/certsrv, where servername is the name of the Web server hosting the CA Web enrollment pages.

  3. Click View the status of a pending certificate request.

  4. If there are no pending certificate requests, you will see a message to that effect. Otherwise, select the certificate request you want to check, and then click Next.

  5. Check the pending certificate requests:

    • Still pending. You must wait for the administrator of the CA to issue the certificate. To remove the certificate request, click Remove.

    • Issued. To install the certificate, click Install this certificate.

    • Denied. Contact the administrator of the CA for further information.

  6. If you are finished using the CA Web enrollment pages, close the Web browser.

Additional considerations

  • User certificates can be managed by the user or by an administrator. Certificates issued to a computer or service can only be managed by an administrator or user who has been given the appropriate permissions.

Additional references

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