Configuring Online Responders

The online responder is an optional role service in AD CS that is new to Windows Server 2008. It is based on OCSP and provides signed responses to clients requesting revocation information for certificates issued by the CA that signed the OCSP signing certificate. Windows Server 2008 provides the OCSP Response Signing certificate template that is used to generate a certificate used by computers configured as online responders. The following are several types of certificates whose certificate validity is often checked using OCSP:

• Smart card logon

• Enterprise Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS)

• Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)/TLS-based virtual private network (VPN)