Getting Available Certificate uploaded on azure storage - c#-4.0

Question

I want to get all uploaded certificate on storage in azure to use these certificate associate with VM when I creating VM's using rest-api to.
Is it necessary, the certificate should available on local machine?
If yes, is there any way to install certificate locally, when the web site/ portal in open on any machine.

Answer 1

You need to install the certificate on each machine that uses REST api to be able to function.
The point of the private and public keys are to maintain security. I dont think this would be something you would want to put on a website for anyone to be able to install.
That being said, if you are making the REST call via a website, then only the server hosting the application needs to have the certificate installed.
I build a webrequest that has the REST URL in it, like this one, then build the response.
private HttpWebResponse CallAzure(HttpWebRequest request, string postData)
{
var certificateStore = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
certificateStore.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
var certs = certificateStore.Certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindByThumbprint, CertificateThumbprint, false);
if (request.Method.ToUpper() == "POST")
{
var xDoc = new XmlDocument();
xDoc.LoadXml(postData);
var requestStream = request.GetRequestStream();
var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(requestStream, Encoding.UTF8);
xDoc.Save(streamWriter);
streamWriter.Close();
requestStream.Close();
}
request.ClientCertificates.Add(certs[0]);
request.ContentType = "application/xml";
request.Headers.Add("x-ms-version", "2012-03-01");
ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false;
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Ssl3;
request.ServicePoint.Expect100Continue = false;
var response = request.GetResponse();
return (HttpWebResponse)response;
}
I have found it easiest to install the certificate via PowerShell.
If you want to generate your own publishsettingfile here is a very easy app to do it.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.IO;
namespace CreatePublishSettingsFile
{
class Program
{
private static string subscriptionId = "[your subscription id]";
private static string subscriptionName = "My Awesome Subscription";
private static string certificateThumbprint = "[certificate thumbprint. the certificate must have private key]";
private static StoreLocation certificateStoreLocation = StoreLocation.CurrentUser;
private static StoreName certificateStoreName = StoreName.My;
private static string publishFileFormat = #"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>
<PublishData>
<PublishProfile
PublishMethod=""AzureServiceManagementAPI""
Url=""https://management.core.windows.net/""
ManagementCertificate=""{0}"">
<Subscription
Id=""{1}""
Name=""{2}"" />
</PublishProfile>
</PublishData>";
static void Main(string[] args)
{
X509Store certificateStore = new X509Store(certificateStoreName, certificateStoreLocation);
certificateStore.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
X509Certificate2Collection certificates = certificateStore.Certificates;
var matchingCertificates = certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindByThumbprint, certificateThumbprint, false);
if (matchingCertificates.Count == 0)
{
Console.WriteLine("No matching certificate found. Please ensure that proper values are specified for Certificate Store Name, Location and Thumbprint");
}
else
{
var certificate = matchingCertificates[0];
certificateData = Convert.ToBase64String(certificate.Export(X509ContentType.Pkcs12, string.Empty));
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(subscriptionName))
{
subscriptionName = subscriptionId;
}
string publishSettingsFileData = string.Format(publishFileFormat, certificateData, subscriptionId, subscriptionName);
string fileName = Path.GetTempPath() + subscriptionId + ".publishsettings";
File.WriteAllBytes(fileName, Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(publishSettingsFileData));
Console.WriteLine("Publish settings file written successfully at: " + fileName);
}
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to terminate the program.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}