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I'm following this tutorial: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn781428(v=ws.11).aspx

I am on this step:

Click to select the Certificate Templates container (under the CA name, not the Certificate Templates snap-in).

I believe I should be seeing something like this:

enter image description here

I see the other containers, but not that one.

enter image description here

What am I missing?

I am using Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard, as offered in AWS's ami-c8a9baa2.

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This is because your CA is Standalone CA type, not Enterprise.

In Microsoft terminology, Standalone CA is literally standalone. It doesn't require Active Directory or network connections at all. As the result, Standalone CA requires certificate information to be placed in the request and doesn't offer enhanced enterprise-level features. This CA type is best suitable for root and policy CAs (which issue certificates only to other CAs, not to end entities).

To support automated features in a large scale, there is another CA type: Enterprise CA, which is tightly integrated with Active Directory and offers various automation features (certificate templates, certificate autoenrollment, key archival and much more).

Predicting another question: can you simply convert Standalone CA to Enterprise CA? No, you can't. You have to reinstall the role. Note that you must have Etnerprise Admins permissions in order to install Enterprise CA.

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  • Is there somewhere where I can read about standalone vs. enterprise? I don't need a large scale. I just wanted to sign a certificate for local use.
    – Paul Draper
    May 6, 2016 at 7:08
  • And indeed, removing and reinstalling the feature, but this time as an Enterprise CA fixed it.
    – Paul Draper
    May 6, 2016 at 7:21

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