Processing the Key Certificate Request for the Server Fails (255981)

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to process a Key Certificate Request for a server, you may receive the following error message:

Error!!! Certificate Server is unable to process your request. Last status error code = 57.

If you are following the steps described in the "Processing the Key Certificate Request for the Server" section in Q218445, How to Configure Certificate Server for Use with SSL on IIS, this error message occurs when you click Submit Request on the Web Server Enrollment page.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

218445 How to Configure Certificate Server for Use with SSL on IIS

CAUSE

This error message indicates that "Invalid Data" was submitted to Certificate Server. This can occur for one of the following reasons:

You are submitting a request that is not formatted correctly -OR-
The Certificate Authority used a network share or relative path to point to the Shared Directory when configuring Certificate Server. Please contact your Certificate Authority for assistance. -OR-
The IUSR_<servername> does not have permissions to read the Certificate Server shared directory that was specified during the Certificate Server installation.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, do the following:

From the Windows NT Option Pack, click Microsoft Certificate Server, and then choose Process Certificate Request File.
When you are prompted to open a Request File, choose the file, which is NewKeyRq.txt (by default) and stored in the root.
When you are prompted to save this file as an Outfile Name, choose an appropriate file name with the extension .crt.
Grant the IUSR_<servername> account Read permissions on the Certificate Server shared directory that was specified during the Certificate Server installation.

You can now proceed to the steps described in the "Installing the Key Certificate on the Server" section in the following Knowledge Base article:

218445 How to Configure Certificate Server for Use with SSL on IIS