Microsoft® Certificate Server is a development platform for building Certificate Authorities for enterprises or secure Internet applications. A configured and operational Certificate Authority will allow a site to issue, track, manage, and revoke certificates with minimal administration overhead and maximal security.
The Certificate Server consists of the Server Engine, the Server Database, and a set of modules and tools that work together to function as a Certificate Authority. External applications, modules, and administration tools use Component Object Model (COM) interfaces to interact with the Server Engine. The following diagram shows the interfaces used by the Server Engine:
For further information about the Certificate Server architecture, see the following topics: