{"revision":"c10276e953456835cdbb1f3a60d58ae1980be353","document":{"id":29468,"path":"it-operations-management/discovery/cert-inventory-mgmt-explore.md","title":"Exploring Certificate Inventory and Management","bundle":null,"doc_type":null,"release":"australia","body":"\n# Exploring Certificate Inventory and Management\n\nCertificate Inventory and Management serves as a centralized and automated solution for handling the complexities of certificate management. It enhances security, ensures compliance, and provides a streamlined approach to managing the life cycle of digital certificates within an organization.\n\n## Certificate Inventory and Management overview\n\nCertificate Inventory and Management is a centralized and automated solution designed to streamline the tracking and management of digital certificates in an IT infrastructure. By automating the discovery, inventory, and monitoring processes, Certificate Inventory and Management enables organizations to maintain a comprehensive record of certificates, including essential details like expiration dates and issuers.\n\nThe system facilitates real-time tracking, automates routine tasks such as renewals, and supports customization to align with specific organizational needs. With integration capabilities into existing CI-based Discovery schedules and support for IPv6, Certificate Inventory and Management offers flexibility and efficiency in managing the entire life cycle of certificates. Role-based access control ensures secure and tailored usage, while alerts and notifications keep administrators informed about critical events, contributing to enhanced security, compliance, and operational efficiency in certificate management.\n\nDomain separation is supported in Certificate Inventory and Management, certificate records and certificate tasks can be separated by domain. With domain separation, you can control the visibility of certificate data across domains.\n\n## Certificate Inventory and Management workflow\n\nCertificate Inventory and Management streamlines the process of scanning for certificates by automatically detecting them on specific ports through your established Configuration Item \\(CI\\)-based Discovery schedules. Additionally, Certificate Inventory and Management empowers users with the flexibility to generate new Discovery schedules tailored for scanning individual URLs. This dynamic approach ensures a robust and adaptable method for discovering and managing certificates, contributing to a secure and well-organized IT infrastructure.\n\n\\[Omitted image \"cert\\_mgmt\\_flow\\_v2.png\"\\] Alt text: Certificate Inventory and Management workflow.\n\nFor more information on how Certificate Inventory and Management works, see [Certificate Inventory and Management process flow](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/cert-inventory-mgmt-process.md).\n\n## Certificate Inventory and Management benefits\n\n<table id=\"table_cyj_b4p_31c\"><thead><tr><th>\n\nBenefit\n\n</th><th>\n\nFeature\n\n</th><th>\n\nUsers\n\n</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>\n\nManagement of TLS certificates by maintaining a centralized inventory, prioritizing certificates, and leveraging renewal workflows to prevent costly outages and ensure a secure environment.\n\n</td><td>\n\n[Configuring Certificate Inventory and Management](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/cert-inventory-mgmt-config.md)\n\n</td><td>\n\nCertificate Administrator \\[sn\\_disco\\_certmgmt.pki\\_admin\\]\n\n</td></tr><tr><td>\n\nAutomated features to streamline tracking, preventing manual oversight of a large volume of certificates. Embrace a proactive approach by staying informed about impending expirations, contributing to a well-managed and secure certificate environment.\n\n</td><td>\n\n[Automated certificate management with ACME](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/exploring-acme.md)\n\n</td><td>\n\nCertificate User\\[sn\\_disco\\_certmgmt.pki\\_user\\]\n\n</td></tr><tr><td>\n\nA secure and compliant certificate environment is maintained by overseeing, approving, validating, and authorizing necessary actions related to certificate tasks and flows. This comprehensive approach ensures that certificate renewal tasks and incidents for expired certificates are appropriately addressed, contributing to a robust security framework.\n\n</td><td>\n\n[Approve certificate tasks](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-operations-management/discovery/approve-cert-task.md)\n\n</td><td>\n\nCertificate Approver \\[pki\\_approver\\]\n\n</td></tr></tbody>\n</table>"}}